Arne and Carlos - Knitting Scandinavian Style - a new book!

This is a great news for all Arne and Carlos fans - their new book Knitting Scandinavian Style (the English edition) is out on the market and can be purchased on Amazon. When Amazon had sent me their email saying that the A & C book is on its way, I was on tenterhooks for the next 3 days checking out my mailbox a few times a day! Finally last Friday my postman brought me this:

... a package from Amazon with my long-awaited copy of the book. Woohoo! It really made my day :)

This is a paperback and as all Arne & Carlos books, it is published by Search Press. It's the fifth book by this Scandinavian duo and as a great fan of A &C I'm lucky to have all of them including their Advent Calendar and a magazine with some Easter eggs, both published in Norwegian.

Looking back, the whole Arne and Carlos mania began for me with their first book: 55 Christmas Balls to Knit. I even learnt how to knit on dpns just for those gorgeous festive balls. This is also the moment when Arne and Carlos became the knitting stars in Europe (esp in The Netherlands, Germany and the UK), obviously excluding their own country where they have been known for years now. Each of their books is full of vibrant, colourful projects to knit or to crochet. Many projects have lots of child-like and dream-like character and perhaps this makes them so attractive and tempting. There is also that Scandi flair looming in the background in each of their books, which I just love and I'm always amazed at the abundance of the Scandinavian patterns and colour combinations. Lots of their projects is based on double pointed needles so if you know how to knit with them, you're half way there! These books are rather for intermediate and advanced knitters, beginners may struggle a bit as sometimes their instructions are not entirely clear and straightforward. I remember how I struggled with knitting the bunny's heel, the bunny being from their "Easter" book. In the end I worked it out but it required a lot of patience, trial and error method, consulting some other knitting books and a bit of frustration and swearing from my part. Anyway, with a bit of will and persistence you will be able to work through their patterns and instructions. 

Now, back to the new book. For those who are interested in this book, here are some photos of what you can expect inside. Prepare yourself for lots of photos :)

The contents:

Lice sweaters - this one made me laugh and cringe at the same time. What an awful name for such nice knits! I googled it to find out what this is all about and Wikipedia says that lusekofte, the Norwegian name for this type of sweater translates as lice jacket and it refers to those small single dark stitches scattered over the knitted fabric and reminding the Norwegian people of insects. Ewwww!  

Here below Arne (on the right) is modelling such a lice sweater :)

More "lice" patterns, they are really nice and so detailed.

With this book you are in for a cultural treat - there's plenty to read about the knitting traditions in Norway esp about patterns from Setesdal region. Arne also goes back to his roots reminiscing about his knitting grandmother from whom he learnt his skills. 

There are female and male jumpers to knit :)

Plenty of pillow covers to knit. Personally, I just love this red and white pattern. Would love to have a go at knitting this cushion cover sometime.

There is also an absolutely sweet teddy to knit. Doesn't he look great in those knitted patterns?

Expect also hats and mittens, all with beautiful geometric patterns, so characteristic of the Scandinavian knitting tradition.

Another pillow to make. Simple patterns and great colours make a lovely project.

Just love this cosy hat and mitten set!

Can you already feel the Scandi atmosphere of a wooden house by looking at these pictures? :)

Knitting mittens and socks is always what I wanted to learn. I hope this book will finally motivates me and gives me confidence to take up the new knitting challenges.

And another lovely pillow to make :)

Aren't they just beautiful? Pointy shape, lovely pattern, cosy yarn? :) Get your yarn stash ready guys!

There's also a quilt-type blanket to make. This one has got unusual colours. How do you like it?

More cosy geometric goodness :)

I just love this hat. So cosy, so warm, so distinctive. How do they do it? The Norwegians, I mean...

Another great pillow to make. I feel temped to try it  sometime in winter :)

Another great pillow to knit in interesting colour combination :)

And how about this draught excluder? Isn't the pattern beautiful?

There is also a smaller project to knit - a tea cozy with cheery pompoms. Could you resist that?

Socks, socks, socks... fabulous colours and patterns.

They would even look good as Christmas stocking hung by the fireplace :)

Some gorgeous redness to knit :)))

Perhaps a project for the festive season?

A Christmas tree skirt - if you want to celebrate in Nordic style from the top to the bottom :D

Snuggly, cosy, warm, bliss... Roll on winter!

there are also cowls and wrist warmers to knit :)

And something for home too - checkered pot holders...

... and pretty festive coasters with 2 patterns to choose from :)

Oh, and a knitted mouse pad. You haven't expected it, have you? :P

Well this is more or less it what you can find in the new A & C book. When compared to the previous books, this one is definitely more about the traditional Norwegian knitting rather than toying with some playful childlish projects. What I like about is that the fact that Arne and Carlos included both bigger and smaller projects in it. Some will require a good knitting experience, some will take you only a while to make. Everyone should be able to find something for themselves. So if you think this is the book for you, head to Amazon and treat yourselves to some Scandi love. 

In the meantime as the book arrived at my doorstep, I have been working on a new A & C project from one of their books. This time it's not going to be a knitted ball or an egg. Shh.... I won't tell you yet. You will find out soon!

And the last piece of news - well, Arne and Carlos are not spending their time wallowing in the success of their previous books. They are already working on the next one! It is going to be a book about knitting cozy house slippers and this is what the Dutch edition cover is going to look like. I guess we will have to wait a while for the English edition of this book. In the meantime let's enjoy our Knitting Scandinavian style! 

 In Dutch:

Arne & Carlos zorgen voor een warme winter met gebreide sloffen voor jong en oud. In Arne & Carlos breien op hun sloffen passeren ruim 30 sloffenparen de revue, gemaakt met 1 basis breipatroon met hierop 3 variaties. Van hoge sloffen met pompoms tot sloffen met een Noors dessin en in bonte kleuren; veel vormen, maten en motieven komen aan bod. Arne & Carlos staan garant voor uren breiplezier. Brei de sloffen met pure breiwol en vervilt ze vervolgens in de wasmachine. Het resultaat: heerlijk warme gebreide sloffen. Inclusief stapsgewijze breipatronen en sfeervolle fotografie.
Arne & Carlos zijn bekend van hun breiboeken en breipatronen. Het Scandinavische breiduo ontketende een ware breihype in Nederland met hun eerste boek Kerstballen breien met Arne & Carlos. 

Google Translate:

Arne & Carlos provide a warm winter with knitted slippers for young and old. Arne & Carlos knitting on their slippers passing more than 30 pairs of slippers in review, made ​​with one basic knitting this pattern with three variations. High slippers with pompoms to slippers with a Norwegian design and bright colors; many shapes, sizes and designs are discussed. Arne & Carlos guarantee hours of knitting fun. Knit slippers with pure yarn and then felted them in the washing machine. The result is wonderfully warm knitted slippers. Includes step knitting patterns and atmospheric photography.
Arne & Carlos are known for their knitting books and knitting patterns. The Scandinavian breiduo unleashed a knitting hype in the Netherlands with their first book Knitting with Balls Arne & Carlos.

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Fancy some blog hopping! Join us here in Hand-made Monday fun!

Felicity Hall "Stitch Alphabets and Numbers"

This post can be a great news for cross stitchers who love stitching  retro-looking stylized projects :) Not so long ago, in June, as far as I remember a new craft book came out on the market: 

Felicity Hall, "Stitch Alphabets and Numbers"

I got my copy on pre-order off Amazon and I love all the letter styles Felicity designed for us. I'd love to work through most of them as they are so vibrant and eye-catching that your project is bound to wow everybody. Felicity is famous for her circus font cross stitch designs and here the book offers you the whole alphabet you can stitch either in cross stitch or in needlepoint. I just love it!!!!

This is what you can find in the book: (some exemplary photos)

This circus font design reminds me of my unfinished project - a HOME SWEET HOME cross stitch bunting-to-be tucked somewhere in the craft boxes! I should finish that one first before I move onto these! Otherwise I will feel guilty of creating another UFO.

I also love the fact that Felicity included some great designs of stylized numbers. Now everyone can stitch their important memorable dates! 

Love this retro take on the alphabets, these letters definitely make a statement! Add to that proper background and a fab frame and you end up with your own hand-made contemporary art.

on the back cover there are some other lovely book recommendations:

I actually own that Knit the Alphabet book already ;) and shall be blogging about it soon! The book with marine cross stitch designs is still on my wish list :) With that in perspective, I should really get my bookshelves sorted! 

Cheerio! x X x

Cross Stitched Birthday Tags

Hi all. Hope you're enjoying summertime. We are lucky this year with quite a lot of sunshine in the UK (so far!) I've got plenty time for myself these days :) So alongside with preparing for the driving exam (the less appealing bit!) I'm trying to do some blogging, photographing and of course crafting. I've got 3 projects on the go so I alternate them - a crochet one, a knitting one and a cross stitching one. Just a thought popped into my head: Is this way to keep a multi-crafter happy? What do you think?

 Sothis is what I have stitched recently: a set of birthday tags. They were a freebie to the Cross Stitcher issue 281. 

It's nothing much but I just fancied a small quick project in between the larger ones like Riverdrift House samplers for example :) It was good fun to stitch every of them.

I'm pleased how they turned out. My favourite is the blue tit, strawberry and cherries. All perfect for summer birthdays.  

Today I'm going to join the Hand-made Monday blog hop, no. 179. Get clicking guys!

Spring Sampler (4) Almost there!

Hi all. I haven't blogged here for a while. Sorry for being silent and not visiting your blogs, I'll be trying to catch up with you over the next days. Too many things have been occupying my mind recently that my focus of attention has shifted away from blogging towards priorities. But now it's summer! It's holiday! It's time to craft and enjoy the sunny days of freedom and this is exactly what I am doing right now. It's my second day of holiday as the Welsh schools broke up for summer on the 18th July. So let's enjoy!

Currently I am still working on my Spring sampler (the design from the Riverdrift House company) and I am trying to finish it off as soon as I can as we are already in summer! 

This is what it looked like a few days back with still a "small" quarter to go. 

Today I worked hard to finish off this sampler as I've got a new summery one waiting in queue to be stitched :) So today my working station looked like this: plenty of charts, needles, threads and cold drinks on the side...

Almost there! The spring sampler is virtually finished. In the meantime this is happening :) 

Excited!!! Love the new hot summery colours! More photos tomorrow :) Will keep on posting! 

Cheerio! x 

Owl Mobile

Hi everyone. Hope you all have had a good weekend with plenty of sunshine. This is my latest craft project: the little knitted owls. My first knitted toy and the first owls I've ever knitted. I'm very pleased how they turned out. They had been on my to-do craft list but my work colleague motivated me to have a go at them as she couldn't read the pattern. The owls turned out to be easy-peasy to make :) I have a feeling I will be knitting more of them in the future!

The owls come from a lovely book Baby and Toddler Knits made easy. I bought it at my workplace from a bookman and it only cost me a fiver! Bargain! Funnily, this book turned out to be a selling hit among my colleagues and quite a few of us got their own copy. The book is published by DK - one of my favourite publishing houses. They are good at releasing handbooks and the instructions and photos in their books are always clear. There's also a knitting guide at the back of this book too. It's a hardback with glossy paper and beautiful photographs. Another lovely add-on to my crafty book bookshelf. I just love the knitted pattern on the cover!

The whole project is an owl mobile for a baby :) My owls are more of a key ring type. Actually I've already given them away to people at work. 3 went to my colleagues who have a special liking for owls and one went to an autistic boy who loves his book about baby owls - he always brings it to school from home :) 

I had to take a few photos before I let them fly away :)

They came out pretty small, about 7-8 cm high. Very light as stuffed with polyestre. They don't take much yarn, literally scraps and some tiny amount of felt. They are also fast to knit. Just finishing off the bits may take a bit longer but I always like to get my details right :) I didn't have the same yarn as recommended in the book so I used grey yarn to combine with different colours. I think it combines very well with all sorts of colours. 

I hung them on my seasonal tree just to see what they would look like:

This gave me an idea: I'm going to knit my own owl gang, just using different colours to match my mantlepiece decoration :)

A few photos outside :) I even made a crude rustic mobile for them using garden stitcks ;)

My cat Cookie aka Mr Nosey was "helping" me take the photos outside. He's got to be everywhere where something is going on. His job was to hang around the bushes and check if any stranger is approaching :)

But after 5 min. he was ready to take a chilling break :P

Cooling down with his leg sticking up in the air ha ha

Ready with my knitted owl gang for Handmade Monday blog hop. Do join in and have fun reading about other crafters' doings. Have a good weekend and thank you for your comments. x x

Hello Japan

I've had quite a few books joining my craft bookcase recently so this is going to be another post about a book :P Hope you're not bored to death:P Last Thursday this landed in my mailbox:

 - a parcel from Japan! Inside a quite unusual book in Japanese:

And a lovely piece of origami was attached with a few words of explanation. How cute!

The book is a collection of simple cross stitch motifs - just as I like them!

Here are few exemplary projects to stitch.
A nature-themed and home-themed stitches, lovely in natural greens and browns:

Something for the kitchen:

American style, sort of West Country look: (I love these!)

Rustic stitches for nursery:

There are plenty of botanical motifs in the book:

... in various styles...

Some projects for celebrations, cards and tags:

I spotted a couple of spelling mistakes. It's been pointed to me that the Japanese people are famous for misspelling English words and not paying much attention to it. Well, this book is a perfect proof of it.

Kitchen and food theme again:

Monochromatic samplers. I love simple stitches like these!

Floral borders:

Hearts and wreaths:

Sweet borders for various projects:

All the instructions are in Japanese, which is of course illegible to me. But I'm already familiar with the cross stitch techniques so I'll give these instructions a miss.

Basically this book is divided into 3 parts. 1st part shows the ready stitches, middle part is all about the explanations and how to stitch and the 3rd part is black and white charts for these projects.

I really like this funny Japanese collection of cross stitch patterns. I'm hoping to use some of these designs in my stitching projects in the future.