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Giveaway: Magpies, Homebodies and Nomads

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magpies, homebodies and nomads giveaway

The winner is kajubo!

Cirilia Rose’s new book has a funny name, but it makes a lot of sense when you understand it. Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads are all parts of the knitter’s personality. We’re magpies in that we love hoarding little bits of special yarn. Homebodies because most of the time we’d rather be at home knitting and hanging out with friends than anywhere else. But also nomads because many knitters like to travel to festivals and other events to meet like-minded fiber fanatics and show off what they’ve been knitting to people who will truly appreciate it.

This book celebrates all three of those personalities with 25 different patterns, plus tips and ideas that can help you develop your own sense of style, whether you’re working with garments you knit or things off the rack.

The book explores color, thinking like a stylist, finding inspiration, substituting yarns, even shopping smartly at the thrift store. And the patterns are pretty, too, including great hats, sweaters, cowls, tops, projects for the home and more than include sweet little details that allow you to make your projects as unique as you want.

I’m giving away one copy of this book this week. If you want a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, December 7. Why don’t you tell me how you would describe your style? I try to do a little better than classic mom slouch, but jeans and a sweater are my uniform. This book really does make me want to do better, though, and it might just inspire you, too.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  2. Comfort, definitely. Nothing better than being cozy and warm with a cup of tea and my family nearby. Even if they interrupt me while I’m trying to count. 🙂

  3. I would like to be more stylish, but I think I always just fall back on my comfy clothes (I have a closet full of high heels but usually just wear flats these days). I also have a couple of cardigans that I knitted that I wear pretty much all the time.

    thanks for the giveaway!!

  5. Upscale thrift store: I find a lot of very nice styles that are classy yet comfortable without breaking the bank!

Have you read?

Super Cozy Blanket Knitting Patterns

Once you get past the rush of the holidays, it’s time to focus on yourself and your home and what’s going to make you feel good for the rest of winter. For me, that’s having a homemade blanket in every room. I’m currently working on a granny stitch crochet blanket, but I wanted to share some cozy knit blanket patterns with you in case you’re on the lookout for something great to knit yourself or someone you love.

I have really been enjoying log cabin projects lately because they’re a great way to use stash and I love the connections between knitting and quilting. This log cabin scrap blanket pattern is free from Very Pink, and it includes a video tutorial if you haven’t done log cabin knitting before. It’s worked in garter stitch and has blocks that are connected by borders in a single color.

Speaking of scrap busting (since that’s on my mind all the time, but particularly when New Year’s resolution time rolls around), the Hue Shift Afghan by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence is worked in a huge array of colors in garter stitch mitered squares. The pattern has options for working with sport weight or worsted weight yarn, and the blanket is worked in quarters and then sewn together, but the individual squares in each section are worked off each other for minimal finishing. Get the pattern from Knit Picks.

If you’re looking for an easy pattern that has a lot of texture, this quilted knit throw from Mama in a Stitch is a great choice. It uses chunky yarn in a single color to make a simple knit and purl pattern that looks like diamonds. The designer notes that a lighter colored yarn is helpful for making the stitch pattern stand out, but you can try whatever color you like.

Or go even simpler with the Bella Vita blanket from Christaco Design. This one uses super bulky yarn (or make it a stash buster by holding two strands of worsted weight yarn together). The pattern has a seed stitch border and allover knit and purl pattern, and includes sizes from baby blanket to California king. 

If instead you want a project that will challenge you and occupy your mind as well as your needles, try the Aran texture cable afghan knitting pattern from Pattern Professionals. This gorgeous design features panels of cables and other textured stitches, and the pattern is originally form the 1970s. It uses worsted weight yarn and each pattern strip is worked individually and sewn together (though you could combine them into one big panel if you’d rather).

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