discover & share
I had better confess straight away: Harmony Guides are my knitting bibles. I have two of the older editions of the Guides to Knitting Stitches and hardly a day goes by without using these books. So I’m not an impartial reviewer, but an enthusiastic fan. There. You’ve been warned.
For his birthday, little Cameron gets a colourful hand knitted sweater from his grandma.
Have you ever received a present that was made with love especially for you – and you didn’t like it?
When I was a girl, my grandmother gave me huge underpants that were supposed to keep my kidneys warm. With mini skirts en vogue, warm kidneys seemed to be a major worry for my gran. I hated the ‘tents’, as I called them and always hid them at the back of my drawer.
Debbie Bliss patterns are always worth a look, if not for the actual pattern, then certainly for inspiration. ‘Special family knits: 25 handknits for all seasons’ has great basic garments, some old favourites like a cabled cricket sweater, and some classics with a (literal) little twist here and there.
I’ve always loved making my own bags, and I’m one of those women who think one can’t have too many bags.
Some of my handmade bags have been rather hasty projects for (almost) instant satisfaction, some took some more time to make and turned out to become much-used favourites. I make them mostly from natural fibres, so they’re washable.
It’s one of these books I have an inane aversion to opening.
Even looking at mere pictures of creepy crawlies is not my thing. But as it is so often, I’m at the same time grossed out and fascinated by the leggy creatures that inhabit our environment, no matter how we feel about them.
Ilove the melt-in-the-mouth silkiness of a slow-cooked pork curry, the hearty creaminess of home-made baked beans and the rich, sweet lusciousness of a sticky date pudding. In fact, I could go potty over all slow-cooked meals.
It’s great to find a book that takes a complete look at food allergies in children – from understanding the nature of allergies and diagnostics to the importance of comprehensive food labelling, psychological considerations and allergy prevention.
Most crafters like their ‘crafty’ books and often have a small library of useful guides. My stash of craft books is fairly small because styles and colours usually change faster than I can buy the often expensive books on knitting jerseys or crocheting blankets.
In her introduction author Margo Marrone, a qualified pharmacist, herbalist and homeopath, illustrates the fact that all aspects of our lives are connected to each other. When she was pregnant with her first child she took a closer look at her lifestyle and realised that what she had regarded as her perfectly healthy diet so far wasn’t so healthy after all.
Much has been written about some foods – almost too much: Jack ate locusts at the back of Timbuktu, Jill had an unforgettable donkey steak in the Andes and Tom, Dick and Harry stuffed themselves with deep-fried eyeballs in Hokitika.
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