Brave New Knits: 26 Projects and Personalities from the Knitting Blogosphere Book

To my surprise, my local public library acquired this book! (Their craft book budget has plummeted to nearly nothing over the past couple of years.) I made sure to check it out right away, and then renew it, to communicate interest. (And because I wasn't done with it yet...)

This book features 26 short essays about prominent knit bloggers, as well as a pattern from each. I quite enjoyed reading the pieces. Some were about knitters I know a lot about (Anne Hanson, Clara Parkes) and others were new to me. I'll be adding some blogs to my feed reader.

The patterns are a potluck mix of garments and accessories. There are several photographs of each item, so generally you can get a good look at it (though I noticed one hemline is not falling properly and is mostly cropped out of the picture). My only criticism is that the garment photo usually falls on the second page of the pattern, so you have to flip back and forth when looking at the basic info like specified yarn, needle size, technique, etc.

Sprinkled among the pages are definitions of knitblog jargon. I didn't find any surprises here, but these would be helpful and informative for a new knitter to get up to speed on the lingo (and may be fascinating to knitters reading this 50 years hence).

Will I be making anything from this book? Hmmm. I like Jared Flood's Woodsmoke Scarf, which is a simple garter stitch rectangle with a pleasing lace border in a slightly contrasting yarn. I'm oddly drawn to Kirsten Kapur's Sockstravaganza, which features a busy mix of techniques that work well together (stranded knitting and cables) - these are the socks on the cover, by the way. Clara Parkes' Foxgloves are simple and sweet fingerless mitts - though I was surprised that she used a 100% merino wool knowing that one of her chief goals is to educate knitters about other breeds of sheep (maybe that was an editor's call?). Clara's mitts would make a thoughtful, quick gift. And if I wanted to make a lace scarf, Kathy Veeza's Lubov Scarf is a nice one that uses more geometric patterns than floral ones (which are so common in lace).