If you are clever with needles and yarn (or want to be), here is a new book to help you cozy up your home for autumn. The Knitted Home: hand-knitted projects room by room presents charming knits for nine different rooms and the garden.

For the kitchen, a tea cozy topped with a sweet posy of roses will keep the brew warm while adding a pretty touch to the tea tray. You can see it pictured on the cover of the book.

A knitted cover for a hot-water bottle sports a textured pattern. Although it’s featured with accessories for a bedroom, I think this would make a nifty gift for someone who likes to go camping.

Butterflies and flowers are attached to long cords to decorate a window. A butterfly is the large central motif on a cushion cover bordered with three-dimensional flowers.

The seaweed door curtain makes imaginative use of crochet which twists and twirls in long strands made from varying hues of mercerized cotton.

For the nursery, the characters from traditional rhymes and tales inspire playful accessories. Humpty Dumpty sits on the knitted wall of a storage bag for small toys. He can also be detached for play. Three little polka-dot pigs hang on a mobile that includes a knitted hut where they all tuck in for bedtime.

Each project includes clear instructions. At the back of the book, basic techniques for knitting and crochet outline the skills needed to get things started. Special methods, such as felting, embroidery and intarsia are illustrated there as well.

-Jane

If you love colour and craft and reclaiming vintage furniture, you will enjoy the rooms created by interior stylist Selina Lake. In her new book, Homespun Style, she celebrates the power of hand-made furnishings to create homes that are personal and distinctive as well as welcoming.

She takes “a modern approach to craft” favouring simple creations over tricky techniques. The contemporary shape of a swivel chair is transformed by a funky, over-sized granny square afghan that is casually wrapped around it. Colourful textiles are made into easy cushion covers or simply draped.

The look is light-hearted and casual. In a cheerful dining area, candy-hued finishes are painted onto mismatched chairs. The walls are decorated with pop art trimmed with swags of pin lights and coloured beads. Above the arrangement hangs a bunting of pretty handkerchiefs knotted together at the corners.

Old light fixtures are redeemed with a splash of flowers painted on a lampshade or ribbon streamers fluttering from a chandelier. A modern chest of drawers was customized by refinishing the drawer fronts with pastel paint and vintage wallpaper.

She also demonstrates how to make eye-catching, still-life arrangements from favourite objects.

Lake insists that applying your passion for handiwork to your home does not mean that you need to be handy. She advocates support of your local artist and craftsperson. And good on her.

I’m thinking that if you admire their artistic ablility or tricky techniques mastered, you should be happy to pay for them.

- Jane

This week, a trio of craft books arrived and they’re all pretty with pink.

First, from textile designer and “Queen of Quilting”, comes Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. Her namesake colour appears on the Fade-to-Pink quilt where the design features a gradual transition from one colour to another.

Pink reappears as a punch of colour on the Lollipops Pillow. Here, scraps of fabric cover buttons that are applied to a stitched pattern on a neutral background. The Beanstalks quilt is another charmer where the pop of pink adds excitement to a whimsical pattern.

Quilted Gifts from your Scraps & Stash invites you to use your collection of fabric ends to create a wide variety of pretty projects.

Ruffled fabric roses embellish the patchwork pillow you see on the cover of the book. Narrow pink and violet fabric stripes separate wider sections of floral fabrics to make attractive placemats. Pink energizes a tote bag designed with lots of pockets and trimmed with apple-green rickrack braid.

In Flower Power Patchwork, you find the power of pink in many other clever projects. Pink prints are mixed on a fabric-covered notebook, cute little pincushions and zigzag chair cushions.

All of these lovely books feature good photos and step-by-step instructions.

While sipping ice tea on your sunny summer deck, you can plan some nifty projects for rainy days and colder months.

- Jane

Now that it’s October, I’m here to tell you that September was National Sewing Month. A flyer from Fabricland announced it in early September and online I found a National Sewing Month organization. Every now and again throughout September, I thought about it, but the blog wandered off in other directions.

According to the website, National Sewing Month began in 1982 with a proclamation from President Ronald Reagan “In recognition of the importance of home sewing to our Nation”. I found nothing specifically Canadian; but if our government famously stays out of the bedroom, it probably has no interest in the sewing room either.

Sewing is a traditional domestic skill that helps you to furnish your home in original ways with both new and vintage textiles. Many projects in Design Sponge at Home, reviewed last blog, rely on sewing skills and inspire you to acquire them.

While it’s lovely to have a month to celebrate the skill, there are still eleven others to practice it. Here are a few new books to get you stitching.

All-Time Favorite Scrap Quilts from That Patchwork Place shows 18 quilts with step-by-step instructions. The Big Book of Patchwork: 50 Fabulous Quilts from Judy Hopkins – has 32 more. Both books offer traditional quilt patterns to create a comfy country style.

Sewn by Hand: Two Dozen Projects Stitched with Needle & Thread offers charming projects that can be made without a machine. The button-down apron uses recycled shirts. Owie Puffs are sewn from scrap fabric and filled with rice to make thermal packs to apply to little hurts. Handsome linen cushion covers are decorated with appliqué.

Sew step by step: more than 200 essential Techniques for Beginners offers a thorough course with well-illustrated instructions.

Sew Decorative: Quick and Easy Home Accents from SEWNEWS will have you whipping up custom accessories like cushion covers, table mats and patchwork pot holders.

Sew much for the good news.

Summer flowers and plants hold a promise that outlasts the fleeting season: they are a traditional source of colour for dyeing fibres. Rebecca Burgess, an artisan and teacher based in San Geronimo, California, shows the way with her new book, Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes.

In the first part of the book, Burgess walks you through the steps of establishing a safe, simple home workspace. She identifies the necessary tools and equipment, demonstrates the process and offers master dye recipes.

The second part of the book is divided by seasons and plants associated with them. For many wild plants, she shows the range of native growth throughout North America. Many of the plants are common garden flowers, for example, the zinnias pictured on the cover of the book or black hollyhocks which produce a pretty mint-green hue.

She uses Japanese indigo, which is not indigenous to North America, to yield blue dye and describes its culture in her garden. For more detailed gardening information, have a look at the Sheep to Shawl website. It was created by Donna Druchunas, an author of several knitting books in the CPL collection.

A Green Guide to Country Crafts is another new book which offers information on the natural dyeing process along with a selection of homespun crafts like rug hooking which reuse household materials.

Both books offer resource lists for the States; Burgess includes a list of Canadian resources.

The Heritage Weavers and Spinners Guild of Calgary offers workshops and classes on weaving, spinning, dyeing throughout the year. In addition, they have a well-stocked library and equipment rentals and for their members.

Here is the perfect book for those of you with a cupboard full of fabric remnants.

Furoshiki: The art of wrapping with fabric (2011) by Kumiko Nakayama-Geraerts introduces a traditional Japanese craft. A furoshiki is a cleverly knotted piece of cloth, about one metre square, used to carry or wrap things. According to the author, the practice dates back as far as the Nara period (710-794) but became firmly established in later centuries when the population was nomadic.

In Japanese culture, furoshiki is also linked to the ceremonial nature of gift giving; the wrapping and the presentation are symbolically as important as the gift.

Today, the custom is enjoying a revival in Japan promoted by the Minister of the Environment because it is an eco-friendly craft that helps keep packaging out of land fills. It’s trendy: Google “furoshiki”, you will find an amazing number of sites embracing the custom. Check out this demonstration on youtube from a famous furoshiki store in Kyoto.

The whole concept is easy and fun. The basic four knots used have been mastered by anyone who has learned to tie shoe laces. The preferred method of hemming the fabric is by hand rather than machine. There are folds for carrying and folds for wrapping. Learn to make knapsacks and carriers for bottles and books. Wrap an apple into a rabbit-shape.

Did I mention stylish? The summer issue of Marie Claire Maison features an article on Furoshiki: “Baluchons nippons” on page 121. This lovely magazine is available at the Central Library. The back issues have been sprung from reference captivity and are now available for borrowing.

Friday: Crafts to dye for