Colorful Stitchery!
I got my book Colorful Stitchery by Kristin Nicholas yesterday. I’m trying to work through my to-do list for this upcoming trip, and here is this incredibly inspiring eye candy in my hands! Her book is about embellishing with embroidery (using yarn, ribbon, embroidery floss, and probably other things I didn’t catch yet).
Here’s her books page… even if you are not going to buy, I suggest visiting the page for pure color inspiration! I did not really have time to read the book right away. I read the introduction and looked at all the photographs.
When I got to the tea cozies she had a recipe for oat scones. It was past midnight but one of the things on my to-do list is to bake things and freeze them for the trip. So I figured I was on task if I stopped everything and baked scones right then.
OK, it called for all-purpose (wheat) flour, eggs, milk and blueberries. I had to substitute for the first three ingredients, then left out the fruit and put cinnamon in there to flavor them a little. What I got was something light and crumbly and lovely… but it’s very fragile and will not freeze and pack well at all. I ate one piece last night hot out of the oven, and Brian and I had them for breakfast this morning. True luxury in the middle of a sort of over-packed week.
I love travel but I still do not do it enough to prepare and pack with grace. Once I’m on the road I do just fine, but getting ready puts me into a sort of whirlwind. Brian says I’m a “white tornado” if anyone remembers those old commercials from the late 60’s. I wish I cleaned as well and as quickly as the advertisement implied, but instead I sort of go in circles of my own. But I digress.
I love Kristin’s projects in the book. She is really about color, and she thinks of ways to stitch and things to stitch on (gift boxes, for example) that most of us would never imagine without a little help.
I love to embellish things, be it with embroidery, beads, fabric paint, fingernail polish, markers, you name it. Kristin’s book is about embellishing with “stitchery” (embroidery). It is about making textiles jump to a new level of fun, color and artfulness. Very ColorJoy indeed. You can find Kristin’s blog at http://getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/ and if you can not find her book in your local yarn shop (very possible since it’s not much about knitting specifically) you can order it on her new shopping cart.
Today, Kristin’s blog entry is some wonderful mohair crocheted flowers that she then embroidered to make them more colorful and interesting. They are WONDERFUL! There are also photos of the zinnias she has picked in her yard. I love her sense of color and it often shows in the photos on her blog.
You can also take a peek at some of her knitwear designs if you go to this page: http://www.kristinnicholas.com/knitwear.htm which shows that even though she does much colorwork, she does a bit with other textured/cabled knitting as well.
For two free patterns by Kristin Nicholas, visit the Knitting Daily free pattern page. Knitting Daily is an online presence from Interweave Knits (a wonderful magazine). Knitting Daily will send you emails several times a week and talk more in detail about patterns than can be put into print.
It’s worth giving the Knitting Daily folks your email address to get these great messages… my favorite of which is the ones where they take a sweater that was featured in the print magazine, and then they get real folks in the Interweave office to try it on. They tell you the measurements of a sweater and the measurements of the people trying it on, put it on folks bigger and smaller than the sweater, and let you decide if you like it snug or loose or with shorter/longer sleeves, or not at all. Very very cool.
Kristin and I have been corresponding a bit this week because I ordered my book directly from her. It turns out that she will be at Stitches East on Friday and I’ll be there Saturday and maybe Sunday. However, we will both be at Rhinebeck/New York Sheep and Wool on Sunday so I’ll get to meet her then. Good things come to those who wait.
Photos? These are some of my own embellished items. Stanley Aladdin thermos, palm device, needlefelted hat (teal/green/purple), embroidered and beaded hat (pink/turquoise), my first cellphone with fabric paint dots.