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All the choices are spectacular, but my favorite is the We Care Quilt by Jennifer Stern-Hasemann and Katrina Walker.
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Lately I’ve been hoping to get a new sweater project started. I can picture its shaping and construction in my head. I know what kind of fabric I want. And I’ve picked its primary stitch pattern, Starflower:
Alas, I’ve been stymied at the swatching stage. Finding just the right yarn has been tricky! Some have been too fuzzy. Some have been too fine. One was just right... but then I discovered it was discontinued, even though it had been in my stash for just two years! sigh
Isn’t that color to die for? Now, to find the time to cast on...
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The Starflower swatches are unusual in that I’m using them to answer the question, “Which yarn is right for the project I have in mind?” More typically, I swatch just to see what a stitch pattern looks like... and that often leads to new stitch patterns.
Case in point: swatching this variation of Feather and Fan...
...led to some experimenting. And the experimenting led to this new stitch pattern:
Much of the experimenting, of course, was done in the form of stitch maps. Essentially, the stitch maps let me test out a number of variations before having to pick up needles and swatch, making them huge time-savers. |
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Speaking of playing with stitch patterns... look what just arrived in the mail!
I’m beyond thrilled. It’s another collection of stunning stitch patterns by Hitomi Shida, this time translated into English by Gayle Roehm. Oh, how I would love to visit Hitomi Shida’s studio someday, and just watch how she works, how she comes up with these incredible stitch patterns.
As it is, I’ll settle for the next best thing: sitting down with a nice cup of tea and reading through this book at my leisure. And then maybe reading through it again.
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A few months back, I described my decision to print new copies of Charts Made Simple on demand. Recently I learned that it would be possible to create a non-reflowable Kindle version of the book too.
The “non-reflowable” part is key, for a simple reason: Charts Made Simple is full of illustrations. If a Charts Made Simple ebook were reflowable, those illustrations and their captions wouldn’t necessarily stay next to each other – not good!
Here’s the catch: non-reflowable Kindle books only work on Kindle Fire tablets, and within the Kindle apps for Android and iOS devices. They don’t work on other Kindle devices, like the Paperwhite, Voyage, or Oasis.
With that thought in mind... should I plan to go ahead with a Kindle version of Charts Made Simple? Those of you that like ebooks in general and Kindle books in particular: would you want a Kindle version of Charts Made Simple, even if it only worked on certain devices?
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I don’t know about you, but I’m amazed at how quickly 2017 is drawing to a close! Just two more events remain on my schedule:
Side note: Did you know the handouts for Beginning Brioche include the pattern for this scarf?
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