Behold My Humble Library
by Christine Weiss

I kid you not that 10 of the 14 rooms in my house, hold some part of my personal library.
The dedicated shelves contain books on politics, religion, art, travel and history. There are cookbooks, how-to books, fiction books, children's picture books and alas knitting and crocheting pattern books! I love my pattern books. There have been a lot of beautiful books published in this genre in recent years. We seem to be in a bit of a renaissance time for knitting and crochet books and I couldn’t be happier. We are so used to the visually outstanding cookbook, and now we have the visually outstanding crafting book. These bound volumes are tastefully done, many are hardbound and some even have fabric case cloth and liners. Some are done as sleek little handbooks to keep in your bag. Others are multi volume periodicals that you can collect. But all use visuals to inspire, explain, entice!  The photos are relevant and inviting and the text offers so much more than simple recipes for stuff. Our pattern writers are now sharing their stories or the stories of their inspiration. 

A few of my favorite books have stories about various animals with accompanying patterns, stories about the animals from which wools were shorn, and even hand drawings of said animals. Others have hand drawings of places and seasons that led to the imagined finished products of included patterns. I have come to enjoy the journey of my fellow fiber artist and I am really pleased they have found such artful ways to share. 

So even though my books are filled with things I want and plan to make, they are so much more. I can curl up on the couch and read, anticipating what yarns I may choose and how I will approach my project. I can see and understand new perspectives on designs by artists I never knew and now love. I can even see, sometimes, a few cracks in the design thinking and maybe pass on a project or two.  These books  have brought me yet another way to engage with fiber, knitting, crocheting and accompanying crafts community. They help me find my place in this corner of the crafting community. This community is real, and bound, and not popping up on my social media to make me buy, buy, buy indiscriminately. These books add intentionality to my work and have tangible ways to allow me to share and discuss with my friends and colleagues the designs and designers pushing our craft forward. It is often, nowadays, when I enter a yarn store I go straight to the books. I am building my library with intention and am proud to support the hard work of my community when they produce a wonderful, eye-catching volume of good patterns, inspiration and just plain joy. 

Favorite yarn in the shop: Fable by West Yorkshire Spinners
Favorite non-yarn item in the shop: Patty Lyon's Knitting Bag of Tricks
What I am looking forward to: Heading to Ecuador for a bit to visit some birds in the jungle.

Over the first twenty years of my life, I am pretty sure my mom and grandma showed me how to crochet probably half a dozen times. It was something I really wanted to do, but just never stuck until I had my first job after college. Part of my Retreat Coordinator duties at a YMCA camp in the Poconos was waiting in the front office for hours every Friday night while groups checked it. It gave me dedicated time every week to focus on learning and developing the muscle memory to seal it in as a skill. My first project was an afghan that ended up a trapezoid. 

From there, I made hats and cowls, baby sweaters and more blankets (that were actual squares or rectangles). I even made up a pattern for a bacon scarf. I never felt the need to learn to knit until I came across Rebecca Danger's monster patterns--specifically her Daphne and Delilah momma and baby monster pattern (the momma has a pocket for the baby!). I just had to make my own. 

While the pattern is pretty much all stockinette, it also has more intermediate skills than a typical beginner pattern, like knitting in the round, magic loop, picking up stitches (for that cute pocket), and the kitchner stitch. It took some time, and several re-starts, but eventually I got it all figured out. From there, my knitting took off. Initially I made a lot more monsters, but have added in a robot, a yeti, dogs, three narwhals of varying sizes, and most recently two of Rebecca Danger's three dinosaur patterns (Sherman, the Square Dancing Stegosaurus and Terrence, the Tap-Dancing T-Rex). 

This weekend I cast on Basil, the Boogie-Woogie Brontosaurus, and I cannot tell you how excited I am for this dino! I'm using Berroco Comfort in five solid colors held with a multicolor skein for the body. Since I'm holding the yarn double, I'm using US Size 10 needles, which means this guy is going to be BIG. I'm keeping the stripes in the pattern as written, but alternating between the five solid colors for more of a rainbow effect rather than using two colors as the pattern samples show. I'm planning to make the head and the feet all solid colors so we'll see how it goes! Overall, it's going to be a really fun and different knit after the sweaters I was more focused on last year. 

Basil is an upcoming class (March 15th at 10:30am) if you're looking to change up your knitting routine, learn new skills, or make a fun gift for a special kid in your life. We'll be learning the basics of knit toys, knitting in the round, jogless stripes, working a gusset, and using a whipstitch to attach the legs. The Artful Yarn has several great yarns available use for this project (including one that will stripe for you if you'd rather not alternate colors!) You'll want to check out West Yorkshire Spinners' Bo Peep DK yarn. And I'll be sure to bring Basil into the shop once he's finished!  Looking forward to seeing you in our class in March! You can register by clicking this link!

See you there,
Erin