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Win a New Knitting Book!

Win a New Knitting Book!

We were contacted by Sellers Publishing again to see if we would review a couple of their new books. They generously offered to have a book giveaway without limiting it to a certain area. We have no connection with Sellers Publishing but they have provided a free book for us to review. So if you’d like to win a copy of the book reviewed below, please leave a comment on this post. I would appreciate it if you also shared this post on social media as well.

The first book to review is called Baby & Me Knits by Celeste Young. I will review the second book next week so keep your eyes peeled! Since I am not a knitter, I had a couple of my knitting friends, Sally and Paula, give me some input on the book.

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Here is what the publisher has to say about the book:

Baby & Me Knits (978-1-4162-4541-4) features 20 hand-knit designs for every season and style. Knitters of all levels will find inspiration in author and new mom Celeste Young’s patterns — simple knit and purl textures that give way to subtle lace, cables, and stranded colorwork, each accompanied by clear instructions and how-to photography. Young’s combination of modern, washable yarns and stitch patterns are sized for newborns through 24 months of age. The blankets, sweaters, and coordinating accessories for baby and mom are perfect for that keepsake knitted gift from a friend or family-member. “The patterns in this book are designed to work individually and in sets, perfect for creating heirlooms for your family or special gifts for an amazing parent and child,” said author Celeste Young. “I have left plenty of room for interpretation in my designs so that you can add your personal flair to them. Choose your own color scheme for the Sweet Berries set, for example, or knit simple or wildly striped socks and fingerless gloves from the Bright Stripe set, or increase your yarn gauge and repeat count on any of the baby blankets to create a full-sized throw. It is my hope that Baby & Me Knits will introduce you to fun, new techniques and empower you to be creative as you make these sweet knitted pieces.”

Baby and Me-1

From my knitting friends:

This book has beautiful photos and appealing patterns and designs. It is primarily for babies 3 to 24 months old with a few coordinating accessories for mom! The difficulty key and needle size information right at the beginning of the book is very helpful and information about interpreting it your own way is great to take the ideas further.

Baby and Me-2

Directions were clearly written and easy to understand. The photos and breakdown of specific techniques and tips was very helpful. Each of the projects had specific technique photos for a certain portion of the project. The book assumes you know the basics of knitting but these additional explanations will certainly help a beginner to progress to more difficult projects. Each of the projects is marked as to how difficult it is. These are fairly simple patterns using cables, stockinette stitch and pattern work. Enlarged charts are a plus! It’s good book for a beginning knitter and new Moms.

Baby and Me-3

There are projects for Mom and Baby and the authors has suggestions for ways to increase the designs to make a standard size throw instead of a baby blanket. All patterns call for Cascade worsted weight yarn but any worsted weight yarn could be used. It would have been helpful to list types of yarn you could use for each project instead of listing a specific yarn. But all in all, we all thought this was a great book. It would be perfect for a knitting mom to be, new moms or grandmothers or even if you knit and want to create a keepsake gift for  a new baby. I took a look at the Amazon listing for this book and it already has four 5 star reviews.

Leave a comment and you could win a free copy of this charming book. The giveaway is open until October 17th. I will be announcing the winners of both of the books on October 18th. Please make sure to have an e-mail attached to your comment. I won’t be able to contact anyone who comments anonymously. Then Sellers Publishing will send the book to you directly anywhere in the world.

Giveaway Winner and a Quick Question

Giveaway Winner and a Quick Question

The Right Fibre smallGIVEAWAY WINNER: The Winner for The Right Fibre giveaway is… nanacathy! Well done, Cathy, I’ll email you a link to download the e-book 🙂

Did I say winner? I meant winnerS, I can’t have so many entries and just pick one, can I?! So, Meriel Kosakar, I’ll also be emailing a link to you too to download the book 🙂

Well done, and thank you so much to everyone who entered and for all the really nice comments. We do appreciate all our blog readers and it’s nice to get such positive feedback. I was hoping to have a bigger post and news about doing some fibre variety packs for sale on etsy or Facebook, but the battery died in my scales and I had to order new ones. So, I thought I might get chance to do some felting, but had the toothache from hell all week and couldn’t even look down without the whole right side of my face throbbing and feeling like my jaw was falling off. But if you do have time, I’d love to know if there’s much interest for a multi-pack of fibres? I don’t just mean a few of the usual ones, it’d have to be something a lot better to make it economical, somewhere in the 150-200g/4.5-7 0z range, maybe even samples of the whole 20 from The Right Fibre. Or even a few more! What do you think?

Giveaway – The Right Fibre PDF e-book

Giveaway – The Right Fibre PDF e-book

I first had the idea for some kind of reference source for information about embellishment fibres about 7 or 8 years ago. This was before it was quite so easy to have your own website like this one, or publish e-books by yourself. When we started this website, we did try to add as much info as possible about embellishment fibres-you can find lots of pics under the Other Fibres drop down on the menu bar-and I’ve probably shown more than my fair share of felt pieces combining different wool breeds and fibres! But having access to info is never quite as convenient as having the info all in one place is it? Well, after many years and 3 different cameras (taking photos of fibrey things certainly wears the motors out!) I have finally finished my e-book, The Right Fibre.

The Right Fibre smallIt isn’t a project based book- I don’t tell you how I think you should use fibres, it’s an objective look at them.  I profile 20 different embellishment fibres, and show lots of photos of how they look after felting in various ways, so it’s easy to compare them with each other and see similarities and differences.

compilation 1There is also a section detailing various things which affect the way a fibre will felt and look after felting, so by the end you have the information you need to choose the right fibre and give you more control over the outcome.

compilation 2For more information, have a look at the full blurb on my blog. To win a free copy of The Right Fibre, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. If you’d like to spread the word through your blog or facebook etc, it would be very much appreciated but it isn’t a requirement. I will randomly draw the winner 8 days from now on Sunday 31st May 2015, so please check back to see if you’ve won.

compilation 3The Giveaway is now closed. Thanks for the entries 🙂

Exciting News and a Giveaway

Exciting News and a Giveaway

We’ve been working on a new venture for The Felting and Fiber Studio … online Workshops and Classes!  The first class we’re offering is “Wet Felting Workshop for Beginners“. The first one starts on Sunday 1st March 2015. It’s a 3 week course developed to give absolute beginners a good foundation on which to develop their wet felting skills. Not only are there the expected ‘How to Felt’ instructions, but there are also simple exercises designed to show what happens when wool felts under different conditions so you can control the outcome. There is also lots of info on using different types of wool and animal fibres, tips for inexpensive tools, alternate techniques etc. For more info on the course, have a look here: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/wet-felting-for-beginners/

We have lots of ideas in the pipeline and some classes are in development, keep an eye out on our Classes page for further info. We are also hoping other fibre artists will ‘hire’ the Studio site and the Class support forum as an online venue to teach their own classes from. We haven’t figured out the details for this yet, it’s still early days, but it won’t be expensive, we just want to cover hosting costs and media storage expenses; our aim has always been to support the community,  not make our fortunes 🙂  Feel free to contact us if you’re interested.

wet felting FOR BEGINNERS flyer GIVEAWAY smallSo, to celebrate the launch of the Workshop, we’re giving away 4 free class places. The giveaway is for the 3 week course, you just need the supplies and felting equipment listed on the class information page. All you have to do to win is leave a comment in reply to this post. We would really appreciate it if you would blog about it or share the info on Facebook or other social media. We’ll announce the winners on February 6th and contact you with the details. If you’d like to sign up for the course, please use the Contact Form at the bottom of the Class Info page. Good Luck!

***Just to clarify: if you want to enter the giveaway leave a comment on THIS post. To sign up for the class, please use the contact form on the class info page: http://feltingandfiberstudio.com/classes/wet-felting-for-beginners/

The Giveaway is now closed. Please have a look at the winners announcement post if you’d like to know who won and for more details about the course. Thanks to everyone who entered and helped spread the word 🙂

Giveaway Winner 3 and New Things

Giveaway Winner 3 and New Things

The winner for giveaway number 3 is Donna (comment at 1.33am, November 22, 2014) Congratulations Donna, I’ll email you to find out which set of books you’d like 🙂

Last week I tried a plaid design on a piece of felt. I thought I’d laid the wool out thinly enough to work how I wanted, but it’s not as see through as I’d imagined. It still turned out alright though.

??????????????????????I’ve been wanting a large fold-away felting table for years. Every now and again I start looking again, but I never see one I want which is affordable. Last time I mentioned it, Marilyn said something about a board on a table. I started wondering where I’d get a good one, then realised I was staring at an old door I’d removed years ago. It’s an inside one so it’s flat, and cheap so it’s light. I tried it out on top of a table and it worked! This is it set up for felting in the hall, I’m looking down on it from the stairs:

??????????????????????And this is what I made: A yak scarf just for me, it is so soft and warm, I wore it when I went to the Post Office the other day.

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Draw Winner and a To Small Tea Cozy.

Draw Winner and a To Small Tea Cozy.

The winner of the Nuno Felt Bracelet Kit is Kate Whyte, Congratulations.

 

I am holding a tea cozy class in February. I know how to make a basic tea cozy but thought I would try some different shapes for different tea pots.  This is one to a little oriental tea pot.

teapot

Here is the template I made. You can see that I traced the teapot and then added to that. The plan was to cut the handle section out and use it to fold over the lid and hold with a button and make a hole for the spout.

resist

Here it is ready for its  rub and roll

tea cozy 2

and this was after a little rolling with the resist out.

didn't shrink

You can see it hasn’t  shrunk much but it just barely fits the teapot. I drastically underestimated how fat my little tea post is. I did not allow nearly enough room to go around it and have shrinkage.  I didn’t measure, I was being lazy and paid for it.   Oh well live and learn.  I have some other tea cozies partially made. We will see how I did with them when they are done.

 

Third Birthday Giveaway #4

Third Birthday Giveaway #4

Today is my turn for a birthday giveaway.  What better way to celebrate than with fiber!

Since I received my new drum carder, I’ve been making good use of it for my projects, but it also gave me the opportunity to offer batts for the giveaway.

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The  “Santa” batt is 1.4 ounces and contains red hand dyed Cheviot, black Corriedale, black bamboo, angelina, mulberry silk and three shades of red merino along with some gold floss.

The “Ocean” batt is one ounce and contains hand dyed teal/turquoise Domestic 56, Romney and alpaca/silk; three shades of merino, angelina and mulberry silk.

The “Purple People Eater” has hand dyed Cheviot in purple, purple haze, and gray along with five shades of purple merino and a purple/red merino silk mix.  It is 1.3 ounces.

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To enter please  leave a comment below on this post before Saturday, November 29.  I will draw a name randomly from the comments. The winner will be announced in my post on November 30. Anyone can win, no matter where you live. Please contact me with your snail mail address if you win to make sure I know where to send  your prize.  Anonymous comments won’t work. Be sure to spread the word and share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other  social media or just tell your friends. Thanks!

Good luck!

Happy Birthday Giveaway 3

Happy Birthday Giveaway 3

It’s my turn today to offer a free giveaway to celebrate the blog’s 3rd Birthday. I thought I would giveaway one of my e-books, but I didn’t know how to choose one and it still be fair to those who’ve already bought one or two, so I’ve put 2 or 3 together, and the winner can choose which set they want.

Set A: Beyond Nuno and Wet Felting – A Step by Step Introduction

coverSet B: Making a Wet Felted Vessel using a 3D Resist and Beyond Nuno

vesselSet C: Handmade Felt Book-Cover Project and Polymer Clay: Simply Made

Final Coverand Set D: Polymer Clay: Simply Made; Making a Wet Felted Vessel using a 3D Resist and Wet Felting – A Step by Step Introduction

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJust click the names of the e-books to find out more about them. All you need to do to win is leave a comment on this post. You don’t have to choose which set you want just yet! I’ll draw the winner on the (UK) morning of the 28th November and announce them on my blog post that day. Good Luck!

The Giveaway is now closed.

Happy Birthday Giveaway #2

Happy Birthday Giveaway #2

Today it’s my turn to offer a free giveaway to celebrate our blogs 3rd Birthday.

I  am giving  away one of my Workshop in a Bag Kits.  A Nuno Felt Bracelet Kit. It’s a great way to learn  how to make nuno felt without having to have a large space or a big time commitment.

 

cover shot 3

Kit contains: detailed instructions with lots of pictures, template, wool, hand dyed silk, rolling mat, and plastic.

There will be some choice as to the colour of the silk and the wool.

All you have to do is leave a comment below to be entered. It doesn’t matter where you live. I will mail it to you.  I need to be able to contact you to get your snail mail address so anonymous comments won’t work. I will be doing a random draw on November 25th and announcing it on the 26th

Good luck everyone!

 

Happy Birthday Give Away #1

Happy Birthday Give Away #1

Happy Birthday to Us! To celebrate today, I am giving away one of my books, The Complete Photo Guide to Felting. And I’ll even sign it for you. Now if you already have it or don’t think you need a book about felting, remember that the holidays are coming soon and it would make a lovely gift for someone who has just started felting.

The Complete Photo Guide to Felting

All you need to do is leave a comment here on this post before Sunday, November 23rd. I will draw a name randomly from the comments and send the winner a signed book. The winner will be announced in my post on November 24th. And don’t worry, anyone can win, no matter where you live. You will need to let me know your snail mail address if you win so make sure I can contact you. Anonymous comments won’t work. Please spread the word and share this post on social media, thanks!