Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

I Want, I Want, I Want…

by

It’s not my birthday. It’s nowhere close to my anniversary. The best I can hope for is Christmas.

This is what I want, I might even trade my next few breaths for it:

rowan30 years of great patterns. 30 years of their most popular designs, and 80 photographs!

Rowan — a name synonymous with quality. Originating in England in 1980, Rowan has achieved world-class status for its fine knitting yarns as well as its knitting publications and classic fashion patterns.

A 30-year retrospective. Rowan’s Greatest Knits brings you 30 of its most popular knitwear patterns from the 80s through today — all in one big, beautiful book. Here, you’ll also be treated to 80 stunning color photographs from the original pages of Rowan magazine.

Classic knit patterns. With clearly written instructions, knitters of all skill levels can reproduce these enduringly beautiful patterns for knitted sweaters, vests, scarves, mittens and socks. Patterns include helpful yarn replacement suggestions.

Inspiration from top designers. Some of today’s leading designers have partnered with Rowan to produce outstanding knitwear. Kaffe Fassett, known for his brilliant designs and use of vibrant color, wrote the introduction to this book. And the works of Jean Moss, Sasha Kagan, and Annabel Fox, among others, are also featured.

This book is truly a “keeper”. It’s perfect for anyone who loves to knit and enjoys creating classic fashions with style.

<swoon…> I knew you’d want it too. Here’s the link to get your own directly from Taunton Press: http://store.taunton.com/onlinestore/item/rowans-greatest-knits-kate-buller-071298.html

Must. Go. Knit!

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Cross Stitch Cards for All Occasions

I have never stitched a greeting card, but I kind of like the idea of it. It’s a card and a gift all in one, and hopefully one the recipient will hang onto for years to come. 

This collection of easy and colorful greeting card cross stitch patterns from Susan Bates (via Gathered) are a great place to start if you want to stitch your own greeting cards. 

These text-based designs cover a lot of card-sending events, such as:

  • get well soon
  • happy birthday
  • thank you
  • thinking of you
  • congratulations
  • anniversary
  • new home
  • good luck

The lettering is done in gradients and there are other details like hearts and stars, a house key and a gift, depending on the text. There are full cross stitches and back stitch on all of the cards, and they use 15 colors for the cross stitching and six for the back stitching (and just two colors are used for both, so it’s 19 colors total). 

The designs vary a bit in size but the biggest one is 52 by 67 stitches, which comes out to 3.75 by 4.75 inches or 9.5 by 12 cm when worked on 14 count fabric or 28 count evenweave. The text suggests beads are also used in the patterns but there’s no note of them in the key, so go wild and add some beads if you like. 

Designs are worked on a price of 6 by 8 inch/15 by 20 cm fabric and then mounted to a card with a colorful baking piece of card stock behind it. This is easy to assemble with whatever cardstock greeting cards you have on hand.

You can get the free charts as a PDF from Gathered. 

Have you ever stitched your own greeting cards? I’d love to hear about it, or let me know if these inspire you to try. 

[Photo: Susan Bates via Gathered]