Back on Blossom Street
by Debbie Macomber
ISBN-10:0778324516
ISBN-13: 0778324515
Hardcover 400 pages
Release Date: April 24,2007
Every chapter that focuses on Lydia, the owner of the shop, begins with a quote. These quotes are from a number of knitters, teachers and designers, Joan Schrouder, Rene Wells, Rene Wyatt, Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting; Myrna Stahman of Seaman Scarves notoriety, Lilly Chin, and more.
They will follow this book with a pattern book from Leisure Arts. I know that Myrna has a shawl pattern in the book, so anxiously waiting my copy.
From Publishers Weekly Women who share a love of knitting support each other through the vicissitudes of life in Macomber's unsurprising third novel set on Seattle's fictional Blossom Street. Lydia Goetz, the proprietor of the knitting store (and series anchor) A Good Yarn, has begun teaching a new knitting class on prayer shawls. Fellow knitters include Colette Blake, a 31-year-old widow who rents the apartment above the shop and whose grief over her dead husband is being supplemented by confusion about her relationship with former boss and possible criminal Christian Dempsey. Also casting on is Alix Townsend, the daughter of a family of miscreants and now engaged to the Rev. Jordan Turner and so stressed over wedding planning that she wonders if she's pastor's wife material. Closer to home, Lydia's niece Julia is the victim of a carjacking and an ineffectual justice system, and Lydia is feeling bereft because, thanks to her history of cancer, she may never give birth to her own child. Readers will get exactly what they expect: a litany of feel-good, unassailable instances of the benefits of friendship, tolerance and knitting; happy endings for all; and simple if saccharine prose. Readers who already cherish life à la Blossom Street will welcome this slight variation on the theme.
(May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description There's a new shop on Seattle's Blossom Street—a flower store called Susannah's Garden, right next door to A Good Yarn. Susannah Nelson, the owner, has just hired a young widow named Colette Blake. A couple of months earlier, Colette had abruptly quit her previous job—after a brief affair with her boss. To her dismay, he's suddenly begun placing weekly orders for flower arrangements!
Susannah and Colette both join Lydia Goetz's new knitting class. Lydia's previous classes have forged lasting friendships, and this one is no exception. But Lydia and her sister, Margaret, have worries of their own. Margaret's daughter, Julia, has been the victim of a random carjacking, and the entire family is thrown into emotional chaos.
Then there's Alix Townsend. Her wedding to Jordan Turner is only months away—but she's not sure she can go through with it. Her love for Jordan isn't in question; what she can't handle is the whole wedding extravaganza engineered by her mentor, Jacqueline, with the enthusiastic cooperation of her future mother-in-law. A reception at the country club and hundreds of guests she's never even met—it's just not Alix.
Like everyone else in Lydia's knitting class, Alix knows there's a solution to every problem…and that another woman can usually help you find it!
Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting
by Stephanie Pearl- McPhee
ISBN: 1580176585
ISBN-13: 9781580176583
Format: Paperback, 160pp
Publisher: Storey Books Sales
From the Publisher:
From the best-selling author of At Knit's End and Knitting Rules! comes yet
another hilarious book of tongue-in-cheek observations on the world of
knitting. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off invites knitters of all ages, levels, and
persuasions to embark with her on a journey deep into the land populated by
those who are obsessed with yarn, needles, and what’s on their needles now.
Using a travel guide format as her launching pad, Pearl-McPhee acts as tour
guide extraordinaire, displaying her trademark razor-sharp wit as she
describes and critiques every aspect of this land she knows so well - its people,
native language, familiar phrases, strange beliefs, etiquette, and cultural
customs. Readers will love her timeline of notable dates in knitting history and
rarely celebrated knitting heroes, from the samurai warriors of Japan to the
"Ter-rible Knitters of Dent." And, while the land of knitting is a peaceful place,
it does have its political arguments, such as the acrylic versus natural
fibers and circular versus straight needles debates.
As she's toured (and knit) her way across North America during the past two
years, Pearl-McPhee's smart, perfectly timed banter has captured the hearts,
minds, and funny bones of thousands of knitters far and wide. No fan is going
to want to be left behind as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off on her latest
yarn-bound expedition.
About the Author:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has become the irreverent spokesperson for today's
knitting revival through her popular blog, www.yarnharlot.com, and her
best-selling books, At Knit's End and Knitting Rules! Touring the continent with her
trademark "sock in progress," Pearl-McPhee mobilizes and entertains the
tight-knit, yarn-loving community with her running commentary on the antics of those
who live to knit. She shares a home with her admirable yarn stash (and her family in)
in Toronto.
Cause I felt like it?...
We added ISBN for those of you who order books through the library system or via the internet book sellers. This month we felt like it was time to explore felting and how it has evolved.
No longer content to merely knit and shrink, felting fanatics are expanding their technical repertoires to take advantage of wool’s properties in many different ways. Current felting books and popular patterns reflect this all-inclusive trend, taking into account the four major methods of felting:
With knit and shrink, an intentionally oversized object is knit and then felted in the washing machine (using a hot wash and cold rinse) to half or less of its original size. This technique works because the individual wool fibers open up in the hot, soapy water and then clamp back down around each other permanently when cold water hits. Imagine permanent Velcro and you’ll get the idea.
In the next few months we will felt a project or two. Last month we felted flowers to applique onto purchased items ush as hangers, bags, hats....Mug Rugs felted, table runners or placemats coming. Discussion on Yarns to use and sources of wools great for felting and not fleecing you checkbook, coming!
Knitting Never Felt Better
By Nicky Epstein
Sixth&Spring Books
$29.95
ISBN: 1933027118
Never felt better and never looked better. As always, Epstein impresses not only with the breadth of her imagination but with the depth of her offerings: More than 150 swatches accompany the 20 gorgeous projects in this effort, laid out in the same format as her best-selling Edge series. All the Epstein signatures are here—bobbles and flora bedeck cape, scarves, holiday trees. In fact, all sorts of unexpected dimensional knitting explodes from blocks of knitting. Stitch patterns you’d think would get lost in the washing manage to pop all the more despite the agitation, and cables get scrubbed yet still maintain their artistic integrity. Speaking of, that brick-stitch bag—the prettiest flower-strewn brick wall you’ll ever carru—has tons of it; ditto, the floral intarsia knee-length coat toward the back. Along the way, Epstein brings you hard-earned tips and felting basics to get you the same expert results she coaxes out of everything that touches her needles.
Complete Feltmaking
By Gillian Harris
St. Martin’s Press
$24.95
ISBN: 0312366364
With 25 projects that take you soup to nuts and then some, this book is complete, indeed. Especially helpful are the photographs of the process, not just the finished goodies. Feltmaker Harris covers five discreet areas of felting, starting with flat felting, in which you lay out raw fleece, wet, swell, rub and roll it before cutting out shapes for barrettes, a heart-shaped rug or, very cute, a lamby wall hanging. For 3-D shapes, you layer flat felt, agitate it and sculpt away, into beads, booties, a playaful tea cozy. Chapters Three and Four go over the widely practiced areas of knitted and needle felting, with appealing patterns for each (dig the floral photo-album cover), and No. Five delves into advanced techniques such as cobweb felting, which yields a diaphanous effect, and Nuno felting, the best method for creating felted clothing. The Field of Poppies wall hanging is a masterpiece of vivid color and artistry, while the lightweight Blooming Slippers, built around Styrofoam shoe lasts, are abso-bloomin’ loverly.
Felt It!
By Maggie Pace
Publisher:Storey Books Sales
$18.95
ISBN: 1580176356
Pace’s tried-and-true machine-felting process has been put through her paces, so to speak, and she’s got a winner of a collection to prove it. The standouts by far are a whimsical yet practical set of circular swirl placemats, accompanied by thrice-bobbled napkin rings. There’s something about the combo of lavender, cream and brown and the shape itself that sets an unexpected treat at the table. While you’re at the table, though, you won’t be able to see into Pace’s “Magic Window,” that optimal moment when the knitted piece has been in the washer long enough to start losing its stitch definition, near its correct size and firm up enough to stand on its own. A Troubleshooting page looks at the myriad ways to correct any problems, though row-by-row instructions that carry you from cast-on through edging and blocking remove much of the margin for error. A petite beaded bracelet, a belt trio and lots of embellished hats and bags round out the 20 projects, capped off by an interesting deconstructed star wrap and flower-petal scarf, both stripy, strappy and skin-baring.