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Lesley Stanfield
Search Press
March 2011/ ISBN 1844486168
How-To Books/Yarncrafts
Amazon
US
// UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Knit and crochet a whole ecosystem of flora and fauna to decorate
almost anything with this fun and original book. Choose an item,
a whole project or make up your own uses for these delightfully
unusual objects.
Although at the beginning you can find a goodly amount of knitting
and crochet know-how this is a book aimed pretty squarely at the
intermediate yarn crafter. Nor does it pretend to be anything else,
as in the author’s own words “this section is not a
lesson in knitting”, and the crochet pages are described as
“a reminder”. There are hints too on making up, stuffing,
wiring and other useful things to know and then it is on with the
directory of plants and animals. These are grouped under various
headings, for example Spring Things contains nests with eggs, Leaf
Fall shows a variety of tree leaves both green and autumnal, while
Midwinter has some items that would be great for Christmas decorations
such as a snowflake, dove and Christmas rose. Other titles that
speak for themselves include Rock Pool, Vegetable Basket and Butterflies.
The instructions for these are listed under knitting and crochet,
and you will need to be au fait with following diagrams as well
as written instructions. Some help is given at the beginning but
of the reminder type rather than actual tuition. There are six projects
too, such as framed “specimen” butterflies which are
kinder to the environment than mounting your own with a pin, a straw
hat featuring a bumble bee and a tea cozy trimmed with olives. I
think it will be a long time before any owner of this book runs
out of ideas! This is one for the keeper shelf.
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