Warning: Craft Books Ahead

It's as dangerous to send me into a bookstore as it is to send me into a craft store. I especially cannot help myself when I enter the craft section; books that both teach and inspire exert a strange lure over me and I'll suddenly find myself walking toward the register with a stack of them in my hands. I always try to enter a bookstore prepared, with a list and a plan. But as I found out this weekend, even that does not always get me through unscathed.


I went into the store specifically looking for Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits, which is a book of top-down sweater designs that was published last year. I'm really selective when it comes to sweater books and strongly favor top-down designs for their ease of construction and lovely style (if I only could have one sweater book for the rest of my life, it would be Knitting from the Top, Barbara Walker be praised). Between Wendy's simple and elegant sweater patterns--such as Ingenue [below], Backward Cabled Pullover, and Cameo--and all of her information on customizing your sweaters, this one is definitely worth having on my bookshelf.


But since I was already in the knitting section of the store, I had to look around a bit. I had absolutely no intention of buying anything until I flipped to this page [below] of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. The comparison between photos and the multi-color fair isle patterns they inspired just blew me away! There is so much other information in this book about the history of these sweaters, sample motifs, and actual sweater patterns that I am really excited to read it.


Once my will was broken, I could not resist throwing Stick, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids onto the pile. Its sister book, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, is worth buying if only for the upside-down pear walnut gingerbread recipe. The new book promises to be as mouth watering as the previous so I had no scruples about buying it, even though I do not have kids.

And now I'm off to make a cup of tea, grab a knitted blanket, and cozy up to one of my new books!