Inspired Cable Knits
by Fiona Ellis
Potter Craft
$35.00US hardcover
SR: 30-60 inches

This is the most original book of knitted cable designs that I've come across in a while. There are whisperings of traditional aran in Fiona's sweaters, but she has left the sometimes heavy and thick feeling of traditional cables behind in the dust.

Fiona's patterns are inspired by various organic forces (nature, change, energy and time) and indeed they do seem alive. Her cable patterns are swerving, soaring and sinuous.

Her sweater patterns are feminine and graceful, she knits them in unexpected colors, and sometimes adds bits of lace. They range from intermediate to advanced in skill. Each pattern is prefaced by words of how life and nature inspired each design and concluded by words of knitting mindfulness, a beautiful flowing circle.

-JM

Knitter's Satchel
by Jordana Paige
$89US

This is one sexpot of a bag. I carried and used a purple one as a knitting bag and a purse for a couple of weeks. Everywhere I went, every day, knitters and non-knitters commented on it. "What a cool bag", or simply "Where?" The style is something like Mary Poppins meets Lulu, vintagey, but mod. I love, love, love the clicky grandma's purse closure, and the feet on the bottom that keep it from dragging through what ever is on the floor when you put it down. The straps are that perfect hold it in your hand or over your shoulder length. It has all of the signature Jordana Paige interior elements that help keep your knitting life and that other life organized together, circlets for keeping your yarn from tangling, needle holders, cell phone pocket, and lots of other pockets, including a snap out zipper pouch for your tiny tools.

Mason-Dixon Knitting
by Kay Gardiner & Ann Shayne
Potter Craft
$29.95US hardcover
SR: 32-52 inches

When I heard that two of the internet's most-popular bloggers were writing a book together, I had a tough time imagining what would be in it. I thought perhaps it'd be a pocket-sized paperback full of wit and wisdom, much like you'll find on their blog. And yes, it turns out that it's absolutely full of wit and wisdom.

But it's huge and it's hardcover, it's beautifully designed and it contains so much good stuff that I've been savoring this one as bedtime reading for several weeks.

As in their blog, the book is written in turn by Ann and Kay, back and forth, on the topics of interest. There's the backstory about how they met, more about Afghans for Afghans, their very successful [and heartwarming] charitable project of last year, interviews with people you need to know...and then there's the patterns.

I would buy this book for the linen curtain pattern alone. It makes my heart beat faster and I will be knitting many of them. It's something I'd never have imagined, and yet it's so perfectly rendered and easily knitted by even the most beginnery of us. There's a sexy linen nightie and robe combination that I rather love, even if the sizing stops a little too soon. This book has given me a new appreciation for linen yarn.

I had never considered knitting a rug before. But I've seen super-thick cotton yarn and wanted to do something with it. What? Now I know what! Look at that killer bathmat over there on the left. Doesn't it just make you want to take off your shoes and walk on it? I think it would make getting up in the morning easier, too. I can imagine the welcome my shower-wet toes would enjoy every day. Must knit it.

There are other brilliant rugs, blankets, baby acoutrements and even warshrags [which have never turned my crank before].

Consider my crank turned. As Ann and Kay make very clear, knitting doesn't always have to be for the body. You can knit for your house and it will never complain about the color or the yarn you chose. It will just be happily enveloped in things you knit yourself. And unlike many of the unintentionally delicate quilts I've made over the year, these clever and attractive designs are meant to be used, washed and used again.

I love this book. And I love these women. Rilly.

-AS

One Skein
by Leigh Radford
Interweave Press
$19.95US
SR: 30-36 inches

In One Skein, Leigh Radford offers up a huge variety of knit and crochet projects that use one skein or a variety of small amounts of yarn. True, she does stretch the one skein truth in a couple places, using a skein of Helen's Laces (440 yds) and a cone of Peaches and Cream in another -- but nowhere in the book does it state all skeins are 200 or less yards like my brain does.

There are the things you expect in here (socks, hats, scarves, hand/wrist/arm warmers, and a very sweet baby sweater) but even those are done with that particular Leigh Radford twist.

Shawl & Scarf Pins
by Designs by Romi
$20-65 US

As happens in this wired world, I first learned about Romi's pins from a friend's blog. She received the cloisonne pin shown at left and proudly wore it on her many lace shawls and stoles.

Romi started small with just a few designs, and has quickly grown her line of gorgeous pins from tiny miniatures decorated with pearls to solid sterling pins with a variety of embellishments.

You can get almost anything you want at Romi's Restaurant, on a silver-plated, gold-plated or solid sterling pin. Each pin is solid yet light, so it won't hang heavily off your delicate lacework. Chunks of misty glass, fimo discs, semi-precious stones, shimmery beads of all descriptions, and lots of yummy cloisonne. I am exceptionally fond of the custom Knitty pin she made for me -- the pin's silver-plated with sterling-plated beads. You can have her make one for you that says anything you please. They're beautiful, well made and the perfect finishing touch to the handknit lace thing you slaved over for so long.

-AS

Mindful Knitting
by Tara Jon Manning
Tuttle Publishing
$12.95 US

Compassionate Knitting
by Tara Jon Manning
Tuttle Publishing
$14.95 US

SR: 38 - 49 inches

Are you looking for your knitting to go a little deeper?

Tara Jon Manning has written two beautiful books that teach you how to let your knitting transport you elsewhere. To a deeper understanding of yourself and your world by being present in the here and now. Tara calls this practice Mindful Knitting, it's meditating while knitting, and while it's not hard, it does take some practice.

Tara starts in Mindful Knitting by teaching basic meditation, then mindful knitting. The tough and ultimately fulfilling bit is that you sit and intentionally observe your stitches as you make them, one at a time, no squirming either physically or mentally. The result is a greater calmness within and wisdom about yourself. Mindful Knitting has a variety of patterns that take you on the path from the first steps of mindfulness to deeper contemplation.

In Compassionate Knitting Tara teaches about further intention with your knitting. The joining of knitter and inspiration in the drive to create. To open your heart to others while your are knitting.

20 unique and lovely patterns inspired by Heaven and Earth guide the mindful knitter to quieting the mind and opening your heart through your hands.

-JM

Knitting out of Africa
by Marianne Isager
Interweave Press
$24.95us
SR: 39 - 50 inches [many of the sweaters are only in one size due to construction technique. "Congo" for example only comes in a 47" finished bust]

I'll admit it. When I first put my hands on Knitting out of Africa by Marianne Isager, my first reaction was that perhaps I was ignorant, but when I think Africa, I don't think knitting. In fact I wondered sort of absently if it ever got cold enough in Ghana to wear any of the sweaters and vests from the book. (I checked. It doesn;'t really.)

I started to flip through it and was pleasantly surprised. True, the knitting doesn't come from Africa, but the motifs, colours and shapes are all the best parts of African art and textiles, married to clever, upstanding knitting in interesting garments.