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Review and Giveaway: Faerie Knitting

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faerie knitting review and giveaway
Alice Hoffman and Lisa Hoffman are creative cousins whose chosen outlets are on the surface rather different. Alice is a writer and Lisa a knitwear designer.

But they combined their talents to spin tales and knit stories in their book Faerie Knitting.

The book includes 14 original fairy tales along with 14 knitting patterns that go with the stories. For example a woman in one story knits while she waits for her husband to return from war; the pattern is the shawl she worked.

The stories tell of the power of women and power of knitting, the magic of making and storytelling in ways that many knitters — and writers who knit, and knitters who write — will find familiar.

It’s an interesting concept and the stories and knitting patterns are enjoyable alone and in combination.

My favorite is Blue Heron, a large triangular lace shawl with picot edges for a feathery look like the shawl of the heroine in the accompanying story. Other patterns include mitts and fingerless gloves, a vest, a cowl, leg warmers, shawls and cowls.

Two patterns are rated for beginners (an amulet necklace and charm bags), three are for advanced beginners, six are intermediate and two rated for advanced knitters. Check out all the patterns on Ravelry.

If you’d like to get your hands on a copy of Faerie Knitting, you don’t need a special enchantment. Just use the Rafflecopter link below to enter. We have four copies to give away (and another giveaway will be happening on our knitting Facebook page, so go visit).

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Comments

  3. love that these 2 cousins put their talents together to come up with a knitting story book for us. great idea.

Have you read?

Knit a Linen Stitch Hot Pad

Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough. 

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern. 

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed. 

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do. 

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces. 

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls. 

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry. 

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