Book Review and Giveaway Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting by Lorna Miser! USA

Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting by Lorna Miser, is a charming book that it’s almost an autobiographical knitting project book. Lorna invites us to join her on her self-discovery trip. When she was a little girl her desire to knit was born while looking over her grandmother’s shoulder and watching her while she knit. She believes that her knitting skills are a gift from God and how she meets invaluable connections she’s made with people on her knitting journey. With these new friends she shares her stories and listens to theirs. Each project in the book in some way represents a person that she has become friends with and has encouraged her along the way. Of course, her grandmother was her first knitting instructor. Her grandmother prided herself in knitting amazing lace doilies on very thin needles. Although her grandmother was a very shy person she would take her finished doilies two different appointments and events to show others. Most people would be in awe of her talent and she would sell or take orders for her gorgeous doilies. The first project in this book is of grandmother’s lace shawl.

Lorna’s mother was a very frugal knitter and a seamstress. She never had a stash of materials or yarns laying around their house. She only bought yarn and material when she knew what she was going to create and when she was finished with the project she would create something from scrapped of fibers and never cast them aside as worthless. For some reason, I was very touched by this due to the fact, like Lorna I have so many skeins of yarn that I am sure I will never use. During this recessionary time we should all take a lesson from Lorna’s mother.

This hard covered book holds 25 beautiful projects for us to knit and each one has a story of lasting friends that Lorna met along her knitting journey that influenced her life deeply. When I do book reviews sometimes it is very difficult to find out anything about the author, but in this case Lorna tells us a great deal about herself and when you have finish the book you will feel that she is one of your friends.

Through people she met Lorna eventually was the founder of Lorna’s Laces where you will find incredibly beautiful hand dyed eco-friendly yarns and learn more about this dedicated knitter.

This book is available on Amazon.com.

This Giveaway will run from May, 20^th through June 3th. Just type “Enter Me”

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

Have you read?