Happy Tenth Birthday

It is a very special day today. One of my beautiful nephews (I have four, all equally as gorgeous!) has a momentous birthday. Today he turns ten. It is extra momentous to me as it made me realise that it is ten years since I was commissioned to write my first book, Easy Baby Knits. How do I know this? Because little Finley, who is not so little today, was a beautiful baby model for it. Only six months old at the time of the photoshoot and with the brightest smile you have ever seen. All the people at the shoot commented on what a happy baby he was and said that the old adage 'Never Work with Children...' definitely didn't apply to him! Hence, there is quite a lot of him in the book!
Anyway, in a lovely coincidence, nine years after it was finally released in 2007, Easy Baby Knits has just excitingly been reprinted with a fresh new cover. And guess who the new cover model is? My gorgeous Finley. Happy Birthday beautiful boy and thank you my lovely for being the smiliest model I ever did see.

Fashion Crochet by...me!

Finally I am getting round to posting these images from my latest book, Fashion Crochet. I wanted to write a book that showcases how wearable crochet is - it is often relegated to homewares - and with so much on the catwalks, I wanted to use the modern pieces around to inspire the projects.

This week I am hoping to post all the projects from the book so you can take a peak inside. I am proud of this book, and it will forever remind me of my little babe - I shall have to post the picture my mum has of me crocheting the ruffle scarf over her lying in my lap when she was but a few months old. Most of the projects were completed like that....anyway, here's the projects:

 

LBD. Everyone's gotta have at least one, right? So why not have a crocheted one, too? this is probably my favourite project as I don't see many crocheted dresses I want to wear, but I love wearing this one. It was also difficult working in the black yarn, but so worth the final effect I think. Also got to use some of the assorted bootiful sparkly buttons I have been collecting over the years in one project! (if you can't see them very well, they are the back fastening)

The Granny cowl was inspired by a Paul Smith number, as soon as it went down the catwalk, I knew I wanted one...so made it from scraps in my stash. A perrrrfect stash buster.
Hope you like these...more to come!

fashion crochet shoot

 My latest book, Fashion Crochet is out now, and I have been a bit slow in telling you about it. I am still waiting for my copy so to give you a little taster, here are some shots from one of the photoshoots I managed to get to. Millie was only a few months old when they were shooting for the book, so it was lovely to go along for a couple of hours worth of adult conversation, which mainly revolved around how tired I looked...
One of my favourite projects from the book is the granny skirt, below, and it looked stunning on this model. Will give you a look inside the book once I get my copy!

more crochet for children

Yet more lovely, colourful projects from my latest book, enjoy!(doncha just LOVE this cute little girl's hair?!?)

crochet for children - out now!

So, it is finally out! My new book teaching children to crochet, Crochet for Children is aimed at kids, but hopefully the patterns are cute and interesting enough to appeal to their parents and grandparents too, so all the family will enjoy using this book. I love it, and hope you do too! Here are some pictures from the book, let me know what you think!

Crochet for Children

Eeeek!! New book landed on the doormat this morning, and it is possibly my favourite book of the books I have written so far. I just LOVE the colours and layout of the book and the pieces were simply such fun to make! I hope you love it too - here is a sneak peak. It is out at the beginning of August, will show you more then!

knitting vintage

I have yet another new book out, this time one which is inspired heavily by fashions from the 20th Century, called Knitting Vintage. Here are a few pictures to give you a flavour!

Knitting For Children

I have been popping up all 35 patterns from my new book, Knitting For Children, onto Ravelry, quite a task! It has reminded me of my favourite projects and what fun the book was to write and shoot.

My personal favourite project from the book is probably these cute Mouse Mittens. All the kids I have shown them to adore them and can't stop playing with them, like puppets, while they are keeping their fingers nice and toasty! Usually the mice talk to one another, sometimes they kiss, occasionally they fight, but whatever they are doing, it keeps the child busy for hours - so take heed parents, it could be a great project to knit for them, even if they do not want to learn themselves!!!

crocheted rag doll

Just thought I would share with you another project from Crochet for Children, as I just love how this little rag doll turned out!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a fantabulous 2011! I feel that this year will be a year when hopefully you will see a more focused and organised Monty. Last year was more of a transitional year for me, with many changes and projects and yet not a huge amount of time for decisions and planning. I achieved a lot, including becoming a magazine editor, which I love, and finishing a book that aims to teach children to knit (above), which I have wanted to complete for many years. However, as a freelancer, one always feels that no offers of work should be turned down, as you do not know what the future holds, so I have often wasted energy working on things that I have little interest in. I hope 2011 will be the year when I may complete fewer projects, but base them around themes and goals I have always wanted to achieve, while also working on having a lot more relaxation and personal time! (I am hoping that a long awaited holiday is on the cards this year!!)

Before I move on totally from 2010 however, I have just found a whole camera full of pictures from the end of the year that I never got round to posting about. So, over the next few posts, I shall give you a quick round up of those things, and some other important parts of my 2010.

Way back in the spring, I went to see the Quilts exhibition at the V&A with a very good friend who I did my textiles degree with. I really enjoyed this show, and surprisingly I loved the older quilts more than the modern versions, some of which I feel lacked the beauty and intricacies of the antique blankets.

However, I adored Sara Impey's Punctuation (above) and I have always loved Tracey Emin's quilts. At around the same time as the exhibition was on I read a great interview with Emin in Vogue where she stated that:

'...there [is] a contraditction within the quilts: the message [is] immediate, but that message would have taken a painfully long time to put together.'

This is what I love about Emin's and Impey's work, as well as that of the older quilts. The messages are important and instant to the viewer, but when you begin to look closely at the stitching and fabrics, you see the maker's hand and processes and the piece takes on a whole other importance, life and meaning. In Impey's work the negative space is as important as the stitches, as the lettering is made from the plain, unstitched fabric and the words chosen derive from a personal, family letter. Some of the older quilts were displayed so that you could see the reverse, with the templates the maker had used to create the quilt still visible. I love this reverence for the skill, process and time involved within the craft. As a textiles designer, I have always felt that the making is as important as the final piece with involved and time-consuming crafts, where the thoughts, conversations even relationships you have as you make a certain piece all add to the final product. As Emin stated in Vogue:

'It is not just the words I make that are sewn onto the blanket that are important. It's the thoughts and the words that are spoken as the blankets are sewn.'

This is a great way to end this post, as it refers back, in some way, to what I was speaking of at the beginning of the post; I am going to give myself the time and space to concentrate on my knitting, crochet and sewing this year and hopefully the decisions I make while creating some fabulous pieces will be all the better for the added time and care I have taken over them.

I still have some more pictures to show you from 2010, here's hoping I can learn more about where I want 2011 to lead from looking back at those, too!! More soon.

sneak preview

...of a massive book project. These were the first products finished, but now I have thankfully finally finished all projects, even with yarn going missing in the post, knitters disappearing and a near mental breakdown threatening to conquer me! Now just to finish writing the patterns...wish me luck!

l'aiguille en fete, paris

Loop yarn shop had a stand at the 'needle fair', l'Aiguille en Fete in Paris last week and I went along at the weekend to help out, or rather to hinder sales with my pigeon French. I understand quite a bit of the language but tend to dry up in fear when I have to speak it, so I stuck to such reliable terms as point mousse (garter stitch) point tricot (stocking stitch - except apparently it is not, it is 'jersey' oops! See comments below), tres doux (very soft), the numbers for prices, grams, meterage and needle sizes and the trusty old Parlez-vous anglais? when all else failed!

It was really interesting to compare and contrast the fair with British alternatives such as the Stitch and Knit show. There were very few yarn stalls and the French crafters were intrigued by many of the yarns on Loop's and Habu's stands which we knit with frequently in Britain, such as the hand dyed sock yarns and unusual fibers we are used to. Most of the fair consisted of needle point and cross stitch, although there were a few things that caught my eye. There was an incredibly cute toy kit stand, la Sardine and you know that I cannot resist a plushie textiles creature.

I also spent most of the spare time I had poring over the Japanese book stall Junkudo. I have long admired Japanese craft books, but had yet to make a decision on which of the many beautiful books to buy. However, it almost proved more difficult having the hard copies there to thumb through as I found I wanted them all! I succumbed eventually to this retro styled amigurumi book which reminded me of some pictures I have of myself as a child with my own toys. I also really wanted a sewing book, however I spent most of Sunday agonising over which one to buy - I know from my previous forays into sewing that I would not end up using them all, so I was very restrained and decided on the simple tunics and one piece book, as it seemed the simplest.

The draping book, while fabulous, may be beyond me and the one with the fantastic grey dress with pockets on the front (regular readers note; my dress/pocket obsession is getting ridiculous) had no other patterns I liked.

Aside from the Japanese book stall, my favourite part of the fair was an amazing cross stitch exhibition. This was so fabulous, it needs another post, so stay tuned for a lengthy post on vintage needlepoint and artefacts and in the meantime feast your eyes on the la Tour Eiffel at the top of the post in glorious textured cross stitch to tide yourself over 'til then.

I cannot leave you without sharing a great and very apt picture, which I promised the lovely Juju I would post. Outside of the fair, it seemed the needle fever had spread throughout the city, as across from our hotel was the amazing 'Knitting Pig' restaurant. It was actually called Au Cochon de Lait, but the sight of the milk laden pig knitting ecstatically in the sign was all we needed to change its name. So there you go dearest internet, even the livestock knit in Paris; now I feel my affinity with the country of my ancestors even more...