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Giveaway: My First Knitting Book!

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Win a copy of my first book!I’m still getting over the crazy of the end of August (book deadline, my birthday) and the beginning of September (holiday weekend, my daughter’s birthday), but things are starting to get a little more back to normal. To that end, I’m really catching up on giveaways this time, and there are a couple of long outstanding ones whose winners I never heard from so I’ll be picking new winners today.

Anyway, to celebrate my third book making its way to the publisher, I thought it would be fun to give away a copy of my first book.

Picture Yourself Felting Your Knitting was published back in 2008 (you can read Linda’s review of it from right here at Craft Gossip), who said, “I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of felting.” Awww…

It’s a book that takes you through the basics of knitting, felting by hand and machine, wet felting and needle felting, complete with projects, tips and ideas for making projects your own. It also includes a gallery of before and after felted swatches to show how different a yarn can look in its felted state.

If you’d like to check out the book yourself, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day next Sunday, Sept. 14. I’d love to know if you’ve done any felting before and what you like about it if you have.

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

Comments

  1. I am a NOVICE at felting…have only done wet felting. Have never attempted needle felting, but looks beautiful.

  2. My comment disappeared so I’ll try again…knitted a handbag once…felted it…turned into a great bottle bag…not what I expected…really would love a book that shows me what to really do…

  12. I’ve never done any felting because it kind of intimidates me,but I’ve always been curious about it because I like the look of the product once done.

  13. I love felting… but have only done small projects with my students.. like soap or flowers… I have felted a large knitted tote.. and made it into a purse… looking forward to doing more when retired.

  14. I’ve done wet felting, but never needle felting. I would love to win your book for the valuable instruction you give.

  15. First and foremost, congratulations on getting your third book on its way! That’s a very real accomplishment …

    As far as felting, it took the arrival of a granddaughter to embolden me to try it. I wanted to knit her the set of three soft (stuffed) blocks in primary colors that I had seen some time earlier in the back of an Interweave Knits issue, and they required washing-machine wet-felting. It worked, but it was nerve-wracking to see those carefully constructed pieces deliberately transformed by elements not completely under my control!

    Thank you for the great giveaway … and, again, congratulations on your achievement!

    gkgreen on Ravelry

  16. I’d love to learn the art of felting. Thank you for offering your book . Happy belated birthday to you and your daughter.

  17. I have wanted my daughter to learn to knit for years…maybe this in her stocking would be a motivation…:>)

  19. I have never felted a project, but would really like to make a felted bag. This book would be very helpful to me.

  22. I knitted a lovely handbag which was to be felted but it still awaits the felting stage because I have difficulty finishing projects when it is a new procedure to me. I need a kick in the seat of the pants to get it done.

  23. i have never felted before and im not a knitter but i’ve wanted to learn both so thanks for this opportunity!!!

  24. I have felt knitted fabric with various degrees of success. One is a crochet bottle bag. I am planning to felt slippers and knit rings. The hardest part is finding out how the yarn is going behave in the felting process. So maybe I need to read your book instead of my trial and error method! Thank for the Giveaway..

  25. I have never felted or knitted before. Felting is on my learn how to do list, I am so fascinated with this craft

  26. While I have done knitting and crochet, I have never heard of felt knitting and now would love to try. PS: since finding your site I have learned a lot and have gotten some really great solutions and new ideas, it’s become my ” go to ” !

  27. I’ve tried felting a couple of times and have enjoyed it but haven’t done any at home and this book sounds perfect for me to start doing this!

  30. I recently discovered needle felting and absolutely love it! I am always looking for tips and tricks to crafting that perfect wee critter or fairy and would love to have your book! I also feel the bug coming on to learn how to knit. There are several things I wish I had, or could make! Thanks for your experience, advice and wonderful giveaway!

  34. I’ve done lots of felting (on purpose and not on purpose). I’ve knitted items to be felted and felted thrift store sweaters to create up many things. I also save the little felted balls that come off the sweaters. I’m going to spin them into novely yarn some day.

  35. I felted a tote bag for myself and 13 Booga bags for a charity event, but I have never needle felted and would love to try.

  36. Congratulations for your book! I have tried needle felting and with soap but I haven’t tried any other kinds of felting… a part from quite a few washing mistakes! It is something I have always been fascinated by and would love to learn more about.

  38. I have felted a few simple projects, but would love to bump it up with some new and creative ideas! This book looks like fun!

  39. I bought all of the supplies to start felting, but haven’t done anything yet. Winning your book would motivate me to get going.

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]