My Library

Hiya from a.,

I don't have anything finished to show you this week (well I do, but it is taking forever to dry, so you'll get to see it later), so I thought I would show you something else instead.  I took photos of my personal crafting library.  This is my collection of sewing, crochet, and cross-stitch books.  It wasn't until I had laid them out on the bed that I realized that I actually have a decent collection.

As you see it is a solid collection - nothing compared to our comic book collection (but hey what can compare to that?) - but it gives me a lot of ideas and techniques to play with.  Note that this doesn't include my magazines, just the books.  I've acquired these in a bunch of different ways: gifts, people streamlining their own library, online, used stores, with the help of coupons, etc.
Here are some closer photos that show the books better and some notes about the books:

Okay so this photo is here because a certain feline has to poke his nose into stuff and insists that the blog must regularly include his adorable form.  He is though standing on a great book.  It doesn't have a huge amount of technical/instructional information but Sweater Surgery is a great idea book for what to do with sweaters that have become to worn out to donate and you don't want to throw them out because you love the colour or texture.  The book gives you idea on how to turn them into bags, scarves, mittens, and is just really fun to flip through.  The other two I want to highlight in this section are Sew What Skirts and Zombie Cross Stitch.  The skirt book is just one that I constantly go back to as it is all about using your own measurements to make the pattern.  They are simple construction with detailed instructions and ideas and I love this book.  And who wouldn't enjoy being able to cross stitch zombies?

In this photo there are some repeats from the one above but here I want you to focus on the bottom and the right.  I picked up the book Applique Your Way  really cheap at a used store in Minneapolis, mainly because it was really cheap, but I find it very useful.  Anytime I've done an embellishment on a bag to date have been done based on the techniques outline in this book.  It is also just a cheery and pretty book to flip through.  Like the skirt book Sew What Bags is a book I couldn't live without (thanks n for the great gift of it).  Again it is all about simple detailed construction that turns out amazing.  The other great one here is Modern Basics as it is a quilting book that is all about straight lines and mostly rectangles and squares.  This is great for me who is just learning the basics of quilting.

Here you can see more of my crochet books (and looking at these photos I realize that although I crochet more, my sewing books far out number the crochet ones).   Highlights are Creepy Cute Crochet it was one of my earliest books and still always makes me happy to flip through (I also have a book called Crobots from l. but it isn't pictured and is also completely adorable).  Crochet Fabric is a great reference tool for playing with gauge and learning what different yarns can do.  I'm not a fan of the patterns it has, but as an overall resource it is great.  One of my favourites is more to the top and is Blueprint Crochet.  It has great patterns and I love that everything is fully charted out and has complete written instructions.  One Yard Wonders is a handy book to have as sometimes you buy a crazy expensive fabric in small quantity and this book will help you figure out what to do with it. 

At the top there Manga Cross Stitch is actually where I have found the best charted alphabets for stitching and then there is World of Geekcraft.  I want to be clear it is not all great stuff - a few of the projects are incredibly lame (felt Wii remote holsters) but overall the book is seriously awesome.  Any book that shows you have to make jewelry from 12-20 sided dice and how to build Star Wars terrariums has to be a winner.
I would say overall I don't have any real lemons in my library.  There are ones that collect more dust than others, but I can't say I regret having any of these.
I know that this was a long post, but I think that it gives you a better idea of where my work is coming from and what it is being informed by.

see you space cowboy....