Everything Wonderful In Quilting & Knitting
After almost a year of not being available in the US,Classic Babies by Rowan has returned. This book has been by far the most popular baby knitting pattern book at Piper’s. The sales may be influenced a little by the fact that Jeanette made three of the sweaters out of the book. Now that we can get the book again, we are tempted to make even more!
This book is a must have! It allows you to take your knit or crochet items to a whole new level, with absolutely beautiful embellishments! Think of all of the baby hat possibilities alone! There are great photos and easy to fllow instructions. Besides the endless array of flowers, there are also butterflies, ladybugs, cherries, leaves and much more! We at Piper’s highly reccomend that you add this book to your library.
I am not sure why, but for some reason it is a bit tricky to find good knitting patterns for kids. There are a million for babies and toddlers and adults, not so many for 3-10 year olds.Easy Kids Knits just arrived at the shop and has fabulous patterns for young ones. Most of the patterns are unisex styles and all of them are very simple designs.
This is my favorite pattern in the book (I wish it came in my size), but really every one is worth making. There are 10 different sweaters and a bunch of darling accessories. This book is definitelty a keeper !
We received this wonderful new book today from C& T Publishing. I have always loved Dresden Plate quilts. This book has a variety of quilts that are all a wonderful new take on a classic design. Every quilt in it is one that you want to make, but I especially like the polka dot version below. A must have!
If you have not knit from a Rowan magazine yet, then you are really missing out! Some of the best sweater patterns are consistently in these books that come out twice a year. They are chock full of stylish, yet classic designs. The last two of them #44 & 45 were especially wonderful. Here are some of my faves from the last two magazines.
Suddenly aprons are the hottest accessory that every girl wants to have! They are super cute and actually really useful in the kitchen(our grandmothers had the right idea). Lately aprons have been everywhere and there are a bunch of adorable patterns popping up all over. If you are apron crazy these books are a must have. Each one has over 20 different apron patterns that are retro inspired. They are a better bang for your buck and have some of the cutest patterns I have found!
People are always in awe at Jeanette’s knitted displays in the shop. They are always so beautiful and seem to have an extra layer of wonderful to them. Well, there are two tricks that she has taught me that will help to make your garments just as fabulous. One is the finishing work, she takes extra time to finish the garments accurately and precisely. We will be doing some knitting finishing tips in the weeks to come on the blog and many will have a video! So stay tuned! But the second tip is to always add some sort of embellishment that may not be included in the pattern. A wonderful trim is great, but the best is flower embellishments. That brings me to the book review. Both of these Nicky Epsteinbooks are the top pattern sources for flower desing in knitting. Whether you knit or crochet more either one is full of the most amazing flowers that you can find. Not only do the books have a multitude of different types , but they also contain a few floral themed projects from beginning to end. The photography is just breathtaking in both of the books, so they are a joy to work with. They are always a top seller at the shop! I want to crochet these adorable daisy’s below and add them to a onesie for a spring baby gift.
You may already know about the A-Z book series, but if not you are seriously missing out. They are bar none the best instructional books out there! These are two of my favorites and along with the A-Z of Crochet are consistently the top sellers at Piper’s. So I thought they deserved a blog mention. They cover everything you would ever need to know about the subject, but it is the way they show you which makes them so wonderful. Each lesson has step by step color photographs with great detail, so you can actually inderstand what is going on! Oh and they are spiral bound so that you can actually use them while doing a project without having a third hand to hold them open to the spot you need. Enough said, they are the best! So we are a little behind on buliding our new website, but it is going to be worth the wait. So in the mean time, I have made an Etsy shop for the store, which you can shop at now and buy these wonderful books.
Baby Love is a wonderful new book from Plaids & Prints! It is full of baby quilts as well as some asccessories that make great shower gifts. I am working on severel projects from this book, and I love how quick many of them are (more than half of the quilts could be finished in an afternoon!). Buy this book from us and we will ship it to you for free!
This adorable “Rosebuds” quilt is so soft & chic!
I am such a sucker for sailboats, and I love the fish. These two quilts are my favorites and probably the most complicated projects in the book, and they are easy!
I received two great new magazines today. If you are having fun in all of the blog worlds out there, Artful Blogging is a must have. They focus on beautiful blogs with art as their main inspiration, It comes out seasonally and this is the latest winter edition. I also spent a few hours with the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts edition. Besides the wonderful Berry Bobble hat on the cover, I want to make all of my loved ones the cable knit moccassins for the holidays. So wonderful!! What are some of your favorite magazines?
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