Free Range Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I’ve been wanting to take a look at one of Stephanie’s books for a while now… and I’ve finally managed to sit down and have a bit of a read.

It took me a while to get into it, but I think that might be more of a reflection on my reading skills than her writing skills. Over the years I’ve become quite a lazy reader. I favour books with lots of illustrations, and simple point format. So sitting down to a novel was a bit of a challenge.

There’s so much to relate to in this book. For example, one of the early chapters is a letter of apology, addressed to a designer. Any designer, really. Just a generic apology for the author’s compulsion to modify patterns. No matter how well written the pattern is, she feels a need to personalise it, and not necessarily for the better!!! Stephanie explains this compulsion as being like a disease for which she cannot be held accountable, and begs forgiveness from the designer… I can totally relate to that! As you would know, I very rarely manage to follow a pattern precisely. I am compelled to give everything the Goldfish Touch!

Anyway, loving the book… but I still have a fair way to go with it.

You might be interested in checking out the popular blog which Stephanie Pearl-McPhee writes… she is the Yarn Harlot

Look what arrived in the mail for me this week…

Two new booklets from my friend, designer Lisa Gentry!

Both are titled Celebrity Slouchy Beanies, and feature a variety of popular beanie patterns for the whole family.

One booklet contains knit beanies, and the other one is crochet.

I’ve been flipping through both of them, and trying to decide where to start…

I think I might crochet the Granny Square one, or maybe knit the Cabled Classic instead. Decisions, decisions…

Either way, I know that Lisa is a fabulous designer, and I’m sure to wind up making more than one of each anyway!

There’s more information about the boklets here, they’re incredibly cheap and if you live in the US there is free shipping until 30/6/2010

Now to choose my yarns…

Of course I’m still here.

You didn’t think that a pesky permanent job was going to keep me from blogging, did you? Or crafting for that matter?

There’s no way I could stay sane without my craft… so NO plans on giving that away… EVER!

This week I’ve been reading through a fascinating book on altered shoes. Now, I’m not sure that it is really my ‘thing’ but the recycling aspect of taking an old pair of shoes and turning them into a new and inspired piece of art really appealed to me.

But I don’t know if I would ever wear them.

Mind you, it looks like a fun experiment anyway.

Basically, it just seems to be ‘cut and paste’ for shoes. Using fabric, paper, paint, ribbon… whatever.

Altered Shoes by Marty Stevens-Heebner
click here for the website

Some shoes in the book have been decorated with photos. The idea was to commemorate a trip to Africa, so photos and other memoribilia were used in the process.

Unusual, but quirky – and very personal…

There’s loads of clear step-by-step photographs to guide you along the way… and I love the ‘tips, tricks and crazy things to try’ sections which the author has scattered throughout the book.

An interesting book to flick through – but I don’t know if I’ll be altering shoes any time soon. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if the quote on the front of the book was what really drew me to it. See on the toe of the main shoe pictured?

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life – Picaso

What do you think? Does it?

and from what I have seen so far, I LOVE IT!!!

Mostly, I am happy to just flip through a book and look at the pictures. I mean, I know it’s really lazy… but that’s all I can be bothered doing. I just look at the pictures for inspiration, and that’s it.

But this book makes me WANT to read it!

Every page I turn has another fascinating photo on it. They’re not just “oooh… nice!” kind of photos, which you look at for a second and then flip on to the next one.

They’re more along the lines of “oh my goodness!!! I love it… why didn’t I ever think to do that… this is fabulous… I can’t believe I’ve never seen anything like this before” kind of photos.

And they make me want to devour every written word in the book… to really be able to get into the author’s mind, and see the world through her eyes for a while. To discover exactly what she did, what motivated her and how she approached it. I am intrigued…

Off to do some quiet reading, and I’ll share some more about it soon…

here’s the details for anyone who might be interested:

• title – Have You Any Wool?
• author – Jan Messent
• publisher – Search Press