Starred Review in Library Journal for The Art of Seamless Knitting

It's been a long while since I blogged, and I am back. I have a great news to share with you. Faina's and my new book, The Art of Seamless Knitting, has been getting excellent reviews since its release last month.  It's been among the top 10 best selling book in knitting on Amazon. The latest awesome review we got was a STARRED review in the Library Journal this past weekend.

Interweave (2013)

Merchant-Dest, Simona & Faina Goberstein. 

The Art of Seamless Knitting. Interweave: F+W. 2013. 183p. illus. index. ISBN 9781596687882. pap. $26.95. FIBER CRAFTS

"Ask a group of knitters to name their least favorite part of knitting a garment, and many will say seaming. This aversion has led to an abundance of patterns—especially for sweaters—that don’t involve seaming. In this guide, experienced knitwear designers Merchant-Dest and Goberstein explore the whys behind seamless knitting, describe the various shapes of seamless garments and accessories, and educate knitters on best practices for seamless knitting. For the truly seam-averse, there’s even a section about adapting flat-knitting patterns for seamless knitting in the round. Eleven patterns—most for sweaters—are included. VERDICT Rarely do knitting books contain both gorgeous patterns and authoritative information on technique; this title is a notable exception. The background information about seamless knitting is useful, and the patterns are beautiful."—Nanette Donohue, Champaigne, P.L., IL

Library Journal Reviews (June 15, 2013) 

All you who know us personally know that we had spent countless hours on it and we are so excited that our hard work has been getting such a positive response. 

Greetings from the Czech Republic

Brno - my home town

I have arrived to the Czech Republic! For a change, it's been quite a warm, or rather hot, summer so far. It's been a bit challenging without AC here, I am not going to deny it, which only reminds me of how "spoiled" we are in the USA.

Vienna Airport

The travel went without a hitch. Well except for the fact when we arrived to Vienna airport, I realized that the airport had changed on us completely. They had rebuilt the airport to the point where it was unrecognizable from what we had known for years. And for being unaware, it was quite a shock. We always take a bus from the airport to my home town Brno. We had only about a half an hour before the bus was leaving, so it was a bit stressful to run around the airport to find out where the new bus stop was. Especially when the tickets stated different number of the stop than they were actually leaving from.

Well we made it and all was good.

Right now I have a full house of kids and relatives. I can appreciate every quiet moment I can get, especially for having to be able to concentrate on some edits that are coming back for me to check.

I am trying my best to have the kids and family entertained and still being able to get things done. I know that's a challenge for most work-from-home moms over the summer.

My everyday view of Brno

Unexpected Afghans Winner

The winner is Dana Bincer.

Dana, please email me with the best email address for Interweave to contact you. They will get you your eBook copy.

Congratulations!

Unexpected Afghans: Veledílo Cable Afghan

Unexpected Afghans: Innovative Crochet Designs with Traditional Techniques is a collection of 29 innovative and lively interpretations of crochet afghans. The book is divided into 5 chapters: Cables, Granny Motifs, Color, Lace, and Tunisian. I am in awe how many different afghans with a fresh and modern twist are presented in this collection.

I feel privileged to have one of my crochet afghan designs, the Veledílo Cable Afghan, included in this book. The inspiration for the this afghan was a knitted cabled pillow. I had used a double cable forming diamonds inclosed by a braid on each side laid against textured background of a basket-weave stitch. Robyn Chachula, the author of the book, has named this afghan "Veledílo" [vah-lah-dee-loh] that is a Czech word for "masterpiece". I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw that name. Thank you Robyn.







There are so many beautiful designs that it is hard to pick my favorites. So here only are few of my favorites:

What are your favorites? Leave me a comment here on site about which is your favorite afghan(s) in this book. From all the entries posted by July 6, 2012, midnight EST, I will randomly choose one person to win a free e-copy of Unexpected Afghans.

P.S. And you don't have to pick my afghan as one of your favorites in order to win. :)

Hatsukoi Pillow by Robyn Chachula

Dots and Poppies Baby Blanket by Linda Permann

Damask Afghan by Mrlaina "Marly" Bird

Starburst Entrelac Afghan by Megan Granholm

This weekend, there is a Weekend of Celebration for theUnexpected Afghans book. To increase your chances of winning this e-book, go and visit sites of other designers participating in this celebration:

Designers (in alphabetical order):

Annette Petavy - Annette Petavy Design

Annie Modesitt - Modeknit

Carol Ventura – Tapestry Crochet

Diane Halpern -Three Rivers Crochet

Dora Ohrenstein - Crochet Insider Newsletter

Doris Chan - Everyday Crochet

Drew Emborsky - The Crochet Dude

Edie Eckman – Edie Eckman   

Ellen Gormley - Go Crochet        

Jill Wright – Wool Crafting   

Kim Guzman - Wips N Chains

Kristin Omdahl - Styled By Kristin

Linda Permann - Lindamade         

Marty Miller - Not Your Granny’s Crochet

Mary Beth Temple - Addicted to Alpaca 

Megan Granholm - Loop de doo

Robyn Chachula - Crochet by Faye
Tracie Barrett – Tracie Barrett


Good luck and happy crocheting!

My Gardening Adventures

Last weekend, I had gotten an opportunity to finally finish my front yard "garden" and I am really happy about it. In fall we had removed some bushes in front of our house, which I did not like for a while and some had just plain were not doing well. So we removed them but did not plant anything there yet.

As it turned out, the long weekend was the perfect time to plant new flowers and bushes. The weather was perfect, it was sunny and in the evening we got heavy showers, and following couple days it had been hot during the day and rained at night. Perfect, perfect timing for the plants. What was not the smartest thing for me to do was to work without gloves. By using tools without gloves I worked up a blister in palm of my hand and ripped my skin open; and that has been hurting me for a few days now (not good for knitting :)). The planting also took much longer than I thought, so I burnt in the midday sun. But hey, it was worth it. Look at it.

What are your gardening adventures?

And here is my gardening pride in pots on my deck. I have planted and replanted some flowers about a month ago, and now I get to enjoy all the colorful blooms. Now I love spending time here in the mornings and evenings.

 

Winner of Complements Collection

The winner of the Complements Collection Free eBook is ...

Rosanne R.

Rosanne, please provided me your e-mail address, either here in the comments or you can contact me on Raverly in a private message. I will forward it to Bijou Basin and they will provide you with a link to your free copy.

Congratulations!

If you did not win here, you can follow the book blog tour until May 31, 2012, and enter on the next stops. :)

May 1, 2012: The Yarn Thing Podcast with Marly Bird
May 2, 2012: Yarn on the House
May 3, 2012: Ellen Gormley, GoCrochet.com
May 4, 2012: Shannon Okey, www.knitgrrl.com
May 7, 2012: Carol Sulcoski
May 8, 2012: Carol Feller
May 9, 2012: Amy Shelton, Crochetville.org
May 10, 2012: Drew Emborsky
May 11, 2012: Wendy Bernard
May 14, 2012: Annie Modesitt
May 15, 2012: Robyn Chachula
May 16, 2012: Simona Merchant-Dest
May 17, 2012: Stacey Trock
May 18, 2012: The Sexy Knitter
May 21, 2012: Stephannie Tallent
May 22, 2012: Faina Goberstein
May 23, 2012: Romi
May 24, 2012: Laurie Wheeler
May 28, 2012: Rebecca Valasquez
May 31, 2012: Vickie Howell

Complements Collection by Kristin Omdahl

Compliments Collection is yet another beautiful collection of knit and crochet designs by Kristin Omdahl.  This book offers large and small accessories all worked in an exquisite yarns of Bijou Basin Ranch, ranging from one to three skeins of yarn. The techniques in this book are from beginners to intermediate.

I picked a few of these projects you see here to show you my favorite ones in the book. You can see the rest of the projects in a Ravelry gallery. 

What are your favorite? Leave me a note in the comments. 

Since like Kristin, I also do both knit and crochet design,  I wonder what you readers think about a book that combines both of these crafts. As for me, I love it. For those of you who master one craft over the other, what are your thoughts on the books/magazines that combine these two crafts. Let me know in the comments. 

FREE eBOOK GIVEAWAY

Bijou Basin is offering a free eBook to one of you readers. To enter the drawing, please leave a comment by Tuesday, May 22, midnight EST. I will draw a winner on Wednesday. Good luck!

Tulip Lace Tunic & Hat

 I had added a new pattern to my store.

It's a girl's cardigan tunic paired with a matching hat worked in a Stockinette stitch and fairly simple Tulip Lace pattern. Both pieces are worked seamlessly. The sweater is worked top down seamlessly in rows and the hat is worked in the round.

The pattern offers both written instructions as well as charts for those who prefer.

The tunic is written for girl's size 2 (4, 6, 8, 10) yrs; and the hat is in two sizes S (M). The sample sweater is shown in size 4 for and the hat is shown in size M.

I offer this patter either as a separate hat pattern and the tunic pattern. For those who would like to make both I combined both of the patterns and offer it at a special price. You can find more about the patterns in my Craftsy store. 

I loved pairing the sweater with a spring dress as you see in the pictures here, a look I really like. Though you can have your girl wear it in much more casual way. She can wear it over a long sleeve shirt paired with jeans.

Do you have more ideas on which other way your girl could wear this? Leave me your ideas in comments. :)

Happy Knitting!

Free Knitting Pattern: Hers Jeweled Vest Top

I had designed Hers Jeweled Vest Top for Cascade yarns collection.

The vest it worked in a simple Stockinette stitch with nearly seamless construction. It has a slight waist and bust shaping so it will produce nice hourglass contour for a flattering fit.

This vest is worked in Cascade Jewel (100% Peruvian Wool, hand dyed), bulky yarn that knits up really quick. Each skein is a generous 100g (3.5 oz), 142 yds (130 m) skein.  The sample shown here is worked in #9947 color.

The pattern is written in a wide range of sizes: XS - 4XL.  It requires between 5 - 8 skeins of yarn.

The sample shown here is a size Small.








Best of all, you can download this pattern for FREE.

Happy Mother's Day!

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2012

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is one of the yarn festival events I like to go to every year if I can. It offers a great spectrum of yarn related festivities: from showcasing plentiful indie yarn companies, different breeds of sheep and other "yarn producing" animals to a variety of crafts and entertainment.

This year is the first year I was able to take all my girls with me. They were quite excited about that. Last year I took only the youngest one and the older ones did not want to miss out this year. They are quite the knitters themselves with a great sense for design if I say so myself. :)

YARNS

First and foremost I go to the festival to see all the new and out of the ordinary yarns. And yet again I was not disappointed.

Bijou Basin Ranch

My first stop I had made at Bijou Basin Ranch booth. The owners Carl and Eileen are great, fun people who happen to produce gorgeous quality yarn. As I had mentioned many times before, my favorite yarn is Lhasa Wilderness and all my designs for them so far were made in this yarn.  Some of those designs were there on display.

Spirit Trail Fiberworks

Miss Babs

Tess' Designer Yarns

Tess' Designer Yarn

Tess' Designer Yarn

Tess' Designer Yarn

 I cannot leave the show without seeing Tess' Designer yarns. Their yarns are so luxurious, heavenly soft and unbelievable colors... You've got to touch it and see it in person to believe it. 

Imperial Yarns

It was nice to see another client of mine having their yarns and designs on display here at the festival. They also had the new Spring 2012 Imperial Knit Collection there.

ROVING

CRAFTS

The sheep and wool festival is not all about fiber arts. There are many other crafts that are on display at this festival. Crafts ranging from pottery, basket weaving, broom weaving, bee's wax creations, wood working, jewelry making, you name it, it was there.












































My younger ones fell in love with a wool felted project of 2 mice. I have never done this technique; but the mice were so cute they want to learn how to make them. So we got the beginners kit and as we walked over to another booth to buy the felting needles needed to do this technique we bumped into the designer of that kit! What a coincidence! Of course we had to take a picture with her. Here is a link to the company's Etsy store. They definitely have some cute projects there. 




ANIMALS

And of course animals are a huge part of this festival. Besides sheep, an obvious source for yarn material, there were goats, bunnies, alpacas, dafis.

Dafi

Dafi

This bunny even had its own fan to keep him cool!

ENTERTAINMENT


And of course, we could not leave without the girls having some cotton candy and ice cream. It was a highlight of the event for them. :)

They all each got some goodies though. The younger ones got themselves the felting kit. The middle one got herself a felted sheep shaped pencil holder. They of course each got some yarn. Now I just have to wait to see their creativity blooming. I can't wait.











As we were leaving I had noticed this interesting sign for sock lovers... very clever.