New Pattern Uploaded: Tiffany's Topper

Tiffany's Topper is a perfect knit for the summer-time ... knit with Lion Brand's Cotton-ease (cotton/acrylic blend), this is knit from the top down.  The pattern describes how to make this from a small to XXL for all the women in your life!

Check out my pattern store at Ravelry or on Etsy for this and other great designs that embrace knitting traditions with a modern twist!

Enjoy the adventure!

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Review: The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design (How to Keep Your Knits About You)

Very few things please me more than a well-written book about knitting ... when the book is also about knit design, and being a "professional" at that, well I just devour a book like that!  And Shannon Okey's latest didn't let me down at'all!

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design is one of those absolutely unassuming books ... some might even pass it by due to its dull and text-booky look.  But don't!  Okey's siganture-style wit and wisdom emanates from every page in this book!

First off, this is not a book about designing -- there are lots of great books about designing your own knitwear (some I often recommend include Deborah Newton's Designing Knitwear, ANY of Elizabeth Zimmermann's books especially Knitting Without Tears or Knitting Around, Shirley Paden's Knitwear Design Workshop: The Comprehensive Guide to Handknits, Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook, and the eternal classic Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book  (quite a justifiable claim in my mind!) cover every aspect of designing great hand-knits. 

No, Okey's book is purely about putting the "professional" into knitting design.  She starts out with defining what "professional design" is all about ... mentioning a few names of real pros (and the last chapter is pure interviews with some of the best knitting designers and support folks in the business!).  She then goes on to describe social media and their many benefits to running a design business -- going way beyond the social, time-wasting and delving into this new-age way of marketing. [On a side note ... I'm now twittering as MaryGKnits ...!] 

The next few chapters discuss the knitty-gritty, business side of things including accounting, writing proposals, finding professionals for help (yes, we all need to pay a pro occasionally!) and copyright and contract issues.   Other chapters develop how to write patterns (including suggestions about design software), making sales (and who should do this for you!), advertising, where to get truly educated, professional organizations (including the Association of Knitwear Designers, a grand group of folks I've been pleased to be a member of since before the millenial-change when it was still called the Professional Knitwear Designers' Guild!).  The last third of the book is devoted to interviews with some 32 (!) of the best and the brightest in the professional-side of knitting design work: designers, publishers, editors, tech-editors, etc.  Some of these folks you may never "meet" ... and yet they all have valuable advice and wisdom to share with the reader.

As you can see, I really like this book -- I've already implemented a few of her suggestions, have pages marked for further research and plan on pulling out this book at least on an annual basis to re-vamp my work.  That said, I wish she had done a few things:

1. the book is very techy -- there are NO graphics except the cover.  It is loaded with text and wisdom and advice ... but it's definitely got more of a feel of a text book than a coffee-table, eye-candy look
2. there is no index!  I can't stand books without indices -- I'm willing to put up with it for this particular book ... but it means my copy of this particular book will be dogeared, pencil-marked, sticky-noted so I can find the right quote, reference or advice I need.
3. because Shannon is young and caters to the young X-gen (maybe Y-gen ... who knows) batch of knitters, she tended to talk with the newer designers.  I wish she had interviewed some of the "old school" ... the contemps of Elizabeth Zimmermann who paved the way for those of us who grew up in the 70s, drooling over their wool sweaters, and tried to imitate them ...

Definitely give this book a "two-thumbs up" for being informative and well-worth the cover price, the time to read and the shelf-space to keep it nearby.  Enjoy!

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Review: In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art

I found a GREAT book the other day that proves that knitting truly is an art-form; proof of such is that this simple, domestic act is celebrated in true art -- paintings by some of the best!  Don't believe me?  Check out In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiders, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art by Gail Carolyn Sirna proves this much better than I can ... with over 80 paintings depicting women stitching, knitting, lace-making, weaving or doing just about any other needle-plying activity!  These are gorgeous paintings and I'm already planning to use this book as a spine for our homeschool next fall: picture study using the artists portrayed in this book .. a different artist each 3-4 weeks ... and analyzing their styles and picture sources and messages.  Cool, huh????

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Knit Picks: another design is up!

This Season Spanning Cardi is one of my favorite sweaters! 

Above is the knitted sample I made using Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Wavy Heather.  This yarn knits up like a dream and the colors are gorgeously soft ... just the kind of palette I really enjoy.

Here's the original knitted with Lion Brand's Cotton-ease ... which many have seen me wearing and which always gets rave reviews when I wear it ...

Lovely, eh?????

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Review: library finds worth buying!

One of the great things about having a blog is that I can give my opinions an airing. Case in point: knitting books!  Knitting is "hot" right now ... as evidenced by the plethora of knitting books on the market. Separating the wheat from the proverbial (and ubiquitous) chaff can be tough.  I've found some really poorly executed, many over-priced, and others just BLECH!  But some of the crop are really well-done and worth adding to a personal knitting library.

When browsing at the public library the other day, I discovered two books that fall into this latter category:

1. Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs by Lynne Barr. 
2. Knitted Toy Tales: Irresistible characters for all ages by Laura Long

Let's start with the scarf book.  I'm normally not one much for scarf books.  What's the point? How tough is it to make a strip of knitted fabric that will fit around one's neck????  But this book is a "sleeper".  This book is much more than a book of typical, ordinary, blah scarves.  Barr does an amazing job of bringing her reading public to a new level -- the stitch techniques rival Unexpected Knitting's uniqueness and artistry.  These scarves are true pieces of art.  To be honest ... I would probably never make these scarves as scarves.  They're a bit too funky and outre for me.  BUT, I would use Barr's various unique techniques in hand-knit designs -- purse embellishments, sweater designs or even for large afghans.  The ideas abound when browsing through this little gem.  Barr opens knitting to new horizons with her twists and turns and needle/yarn interplay.  Sensational!

I'm a sucker for knitted toys -- I think it's a great way to share the art of knitting with kids of all ages and to make something unique and memorable for the recipient.  Laura Long's book, Knitted Toy Tales, is a sight to behold and one of the best I've seen.  And I know what of I speak:  I've designed knitted toys which often get compliments:  Elegant Eliza the Ballerina Bunny, Pinocchio, Tully Greyshanks.  I've done bunnies and bears and penguins and even a cow or two (with matching binkies, of course!).  But Long's book has wonderfully creative toys ... each different than the last (some knitted toys books are just the same design dressed differently 8-<  !).  Long has bunnies, bird, frogs, Matroyshka dolls, bears, pigs, snakes, mice, elephants, fish, penguins, and even Eward Lear's owl and the pussycat in their very own knitted boat!  Very cool stuff that again gets my designer mind working overtime!  Long uses unique construction to make the toys look right (adding fabric and other embellishments to really make these heirloom gifts).  Highly recommend this one!

Check back periodically for other knitting book reviews ... I'll try to post at least a couple each month ... the good, the bad and the ugly!

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

It's coming ....

... where will you be June 12th thru June 20th?  Wherever you are, join knitters the world over and go ahead, knit in public!  I always knit in public (for instance, last night at fencing practice and today while waiting for my son to finish serving a funeral) .... and occasionally get the proverbial "fish eye" but usually it becomes a chance to "evangelize" about the joys of knitting!

I love the slogan for WWKiPD ....

Better living through stitching together.

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com

Designs: some of my patterns for sale ...

... over at my Ravlery store. 

I'm SLOWLY (I mean, slowly) getting some of my designs up on my Ravelry page.  As of today, I have 11 patterns listed -- some for sale and some freebies.  I've planned the month of June to get at least three new designs up a week ... maybe more!  So check back often.

Oh, and let me know what you think!

Happy knittin'

Mary C. Gildersleeve

By Hand, With Heart -- hand-knit designs
bhwh.mary@gmail.com