JOURNEY by Jane Richmond & Shannon Cook:: A Blog Tour
When Shannon emailed me and asked if I'd review her new book that she wrote with Jane Richmond, I did a little dance! I was like YES YES YES! Because I genuinely love both of their aesthetics so much. I think I've knit every one of Jane's hat patterns and I love seeing what Shannon is up too- she's a knitter AND a sewer which appeals to me because I like to do both as well.
Their new book is called Journey and it's everything I personally want in a knitting book. Amazing lifestyle photos by Nicholas Kupiak, easy to understand patterns with clean graphics and a stitch guide with graphics of special techniques.
I think my favorite part of the book is you are literally knitting a cozy wardrobe. Which I am so into. I love any sort of handmade every day!
You can knit:
- Swift- which is a hat!
- Climb- which are socks!
- Onward- which is a cozy worsted weight shawl!
- Spate- which are textured fingerless mitts!
- Antrorse- which is a pull over!
- And Inland which is a cardigan!
I am of course inspired by the socks, Climb. That shouldn't surprise you. They are knit toe up (my favorite!) with a gusset heel (another favorite!) and they have subtle color changes that make them special. White toes and cuffs with the rest of the sock being pale grey and then these red stripes. Eep! So good!
The styling in this book is top notch- the sock photos are so great, feet in a bed of white sheets, reading with feet on the wall, grabbing things in the kitchen on your tip toes and putting your feet into your favorite boots. Seriously awesome.
I love that each pattern has a photo narrative that goes along with it, each garment is going on a journey. Road trip, farmers market, woods, etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I find this book VERY approachable. These are items I'd knit and wear. These are adventures I go on. It's not a knitting book where I think to myself "oh that's cute but...not quite me." They are projects that aren't crazy hard and are designed thoughtfully with clever little details.
After I saw Climb, I dove into my stash and pulled out three skeins of plucky feet: oatmeal, wintery mix and barn door. I think they'd make the prettiest socks in a similar feeling as the pattern.
I'd honestly love to knit Antrorse because the panel of arrows is just awesome. And those wooden buttons!!!! I like that the model is wearing it with a white tshirt, leggings and boots because that's exactly how I'd wear it. It's a perfect weekend roaming around outside and then reading at Starbucks sweater. My only concerns are: I still haven't knit a sweater. And I'm large busted & shouldered. But it's still tempting me to give it a try BECAUSE it does go up to a 50 inch bust!!! I'm seriously debating asking Porkchop for sweater yarn to knit this for Christmas.
Out of these patterns, which would you knit?
Leave me a comment with the pattern name and on next Tuesday, December 10th I'll close the blog post at midnight and pick a winner for a copy of the e-book! That's neat right?! I'll give Shannon your email address and then you can be as smitten as I am with this book!
Comments are closed! Thank you for entering!
:):)
ps: want to see other bloggers thoughts on the book? Check out these links:
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- TANIS FIBER ARTS -NOODLEHEAD & SKIRT AS TOP
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