Crafter’s Chronicle COL L I NS
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NO.1 10 ISSUE NO. 2 01 2
21 YE A RS
BOOKS FOR BUSY HANDS
AMAZING BOOKS
TO MAKE YOUR AUTUMN
W
ho would have thought it? We’ve had such fun during the Olympics with the Knitlympians, and just as we were wondering what on earth we were going to do with ourselves, the advance copies of all our new books began to flood into the office. Autumn is the perfect time for crafting and we’ve got heaps of great titles, so let’s get stuck in. We’re very excited to be introducing an incredible talent to the book world with Merchant & Mills. You already love their sewing notions, patterns and products so it will be no surprise that their Sewing Book is going to be a big hit. Merchant & Mills are in the middle of a massive move to East Sussex where they’ve got some great plans, and managed to take time out to talk to us about the background to the book and what they’re up to next – you’ll read it first here. The talented team behind Best In Show are back with a second litter of knitted dogs. Jo Osborne and Sally Muir started keeping a list of dogs from the minute the first book was on sale and knew exactly which ones they had to include in this new volume. They’re just as brilliant as before – and don’t forget that we’ve also got notebooks and cards in the Best In Show range. Jane Brocket has turned her talents to the Gentle Art of Stitching – is there anything she can’t do? Her designs are beautiful and we just love the way Jane breaks the rules and presents things in such a simple and understandable way.
It is never too early to shout CHRISTMAS!! so roll up for our two fabulous Christmas titles. Debbie Harrold and the team from Knit & Purl Cards are at it again with We Knit You A Merry Christmas – packed full of fun creations and characters. The hotly anticipated Mollie Makes Christmas is finally here (the last book to arrive in the office – we were positively popping by the time it got here!). Amy gives the inside story on the fun she has had working with such an amazing selection of crafters to create this book, and also the magazine’s editor Jane Toft. You’ve all loved knitting London and so we couldn’t resist sending Emma King Stateside for Knit New York which is out just in time for Thanksgiving. Who would have thought we could recreate the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building in knit! They look great and a knitted New York Taxi is the perfect present for Christmas. We have had so much fun making this Autumn’s books – we hope you have a fabulous time reading them, and keep crafting!
The LoveCrafts Team
Clangers, has already been selected by Foyles for a window display on Charing Cross Road – Tiny Clanger can’t believe her luck
Our stars of the Knitlympics – Knitted Usain and Knitted Jessica have had the best time this summer.
Amy and Margarita ha tch their plans for the Autum n titles at LoveCrafts HQ – what are they up to?
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MERCHANT & MILLS SEWING BOOK Having just finished work on their first book, Merchant & Mills announced some rather exciting plans and so we grabbed a quick cup of tea with them and asked them a few questions… Tell us about Merchant & Mills.Who are you and how did the company start? Merchant & Mills is a creative partnership between fashion designer, Carolyn Denham and writer/photographer Roderick Field. We share a belief in strong aesthetics and the investment of labour, attention and patience to make beautiful, useful things. We believe that the talents of a good clothes maker are equal to those of any great craftsman and should be treated with the same respect. Why is it important that people learn to sew? The company was born from a desire to elevate the art of sewing to its proper place as an integral part of fashion. Our mission is to get people making clothes and accessories they really want to own and wear and so be rewarded with the quiet glow of achievement that comes from making. We started with one big idea: to create patterns and projects that were as desirable as any designer label. We hoped to encourage people away from a weekend of frustrated shopping and direct them towards the satisfaction of a self-made wardrobe. We took the fear out of making your own clothes by having a small collection of simple, classic shapes that are easy to make. We took our changing room to the public so they could try on dresses before buying a pattern – satisfaction guaranteed. We also noticed that haberdashery had left the Draper’s shop and
become pretty, floral and uninspiring. People were being encouraged to use their sewing machines to make draught excluder snakes. Something had to be done. So we scoured the world for the best of sewing tools and notions to equip our customers with the best tools for the job. We started to offer a carefully curated range of fabrics and trimmings we actually liked. And then we wrote a book to make sure everyone knows what we are doing and can join the creative movement. Have you enjoyed the process of writing your first book? The Merchant & Mills Sewing Book lets us share what we know and think. We put hundreds of hours into making a book that could teach, encourage and inspire the reader whilst truly reflecting our ethos – ‘keep it simple and do it well’. We applied the same attention to content, design and flavour as we do with everything we make. This book too should be a beautiful, useful thing. We introduce materials and equipment and explain how we make things, and even why we make things. We describe in detail every step of fifteen, really good projects – including the fabulous tweed and oilskin duffel bag and a hard working apron for people who need industrial protection from the messiness of creating. The tasks we offer build fundamental sewing skills as you work through them, until you are thoroughly capable and a confident dressmaker. And we show you lots of lovely pictures so you know just what you’re aiming for. We hear you’re on the move.What can we expect from Merchant & Mills in the coming months? The next stage of our evolution is to set up shop and workshop in Rye, East Sussex. We have taken on a warehouse in the centre of the estuary town and will present an irresistible space for lovers of good design in a very English setting. In the spirit of proper tradesmen, we will have production out the back with a (glorious) ‘trade counter’ at the front. We will have cloth and stationery that cannot be bought anywhere else and will try out new products as we think of them. Come and see us.
Merchant & Mills Sewing Book October £20.00
FOR MARKETING AND PUBLICITY INFORMATION ON TITLES OR TO ARRANGE AUTHOR WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS CONTACT MARGARITA LYGIZOU ON MLYGIZOU@ANOVABOOKS.COM OR 020 7605 1421
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HAVE YOURSELF A MOLLIE MAKES CHRISTMAS! Our very own Amy Christian, Commissioning Editor here at CraftyHQ, has been working closely with Jane Toft and her team at Mollie Makes on our new exciting range of books with the magazine. We asked Amy to tell us exactly what this involved... Everyone at LoveCrafts was very excited when we found out we would be producing a new series of books with Mollie Makes. We have been regular readers of the magazine since its first issue last year, and we have been really pleased to see how successful it has become in such a short space of time. It’s heartening to think that there are so many other crafty people like us out there! I got together with the team at Mollie Makes earlier this year and we decided that Christmas was the perfect time to launch the books, so I got straight on the phone to the most talented designer-makers I could find. We ended up with a fantastic group of contributors, who have come up with an exclusive range of Christmas-themed projects using papercraft, knitting, sewing and more. The LoveCrafts team will be holding a Christmas crafting get-together in November, where we will make projects from the book. We are definitely taking our inspiration from Mollie Makes and living and loving a handmade Christmas this year!
One of the most fun parts of putting the book together was the photography! Needless to say, I enjoyed looking through copies of Mollie Makes to find lots of crafty inspiration! We found a beautiful old house with lots of colour and quirky furniture to give us a real handmade feel. To have copies ready for Christmas we needed to work on the book during the summer. It was quite a challenge to recreate a cosy Christmas setting in the middle of a heatwave! But we did what we do best, armed with our copies of Mollie Makes, and sourced lots of festive props from charity shops, car boot fairs and vintage stores. Once we had our location and our props ready, we got down to the fun part of taking pictures!
The book has a great range of projects, but the Polar Pals finger puppets have to be my favourite!
October £9.99
Best in Show
Best in Show: 25 More Dogs to Knit September £12.99
THE SECOND LITTER Best in Show is one of our best-selling books at LoveCrafts, and has been a big hit with dog-lovers everywhere. Authors Jo Osborne and Sally Muir get a lot of reader letters and everyone loves the book, but people often ask why we don’t have a pattern for their own favourite dog breed – so it didn’t take us all long to work out that we needed to add another litter of dogs! Laura and Sally Muir grabbed the opportunity of a rare sunny day to book in the photoshoot for the new dogs – thankfully knitted dogs are wellbehaved and make very good models.
And it doesn’t stop with books… we have Best in Show notebooks and notecards too.
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The Gentlest Art The arrival of projects for a new book is always a highlight of the LoveCraft’s calendar and Jane Brocket’s stitched projects more than lived up to our expectations. LoveCrafts spoke with Jane about her inspiration for this title…
This book has been a pleasure to write. It is inspired by the generations of ordinary women (like my Nana) who brought beauty into everyday life with their stitching. I mean simple stitching, not ‘art’ embroidery or immensely intricate and skilful work. It’s an exploration of simple, enjoyable, easygoing stitching in various different forms. Instead of focussing on one branch of stitching, it covers many (eg sashiko, kantha, quilting, vintage-style embroidery, classic stitches, cross stitch) and offers lots of ideas for different projects that can be done by anyone who can thread a needle and stitch a basic stitch. It’s all about the joy of sitting happily and stitching with lovely colours on interesting textures and fabrics. It’s mostly simple stuff to do while talking, sitting in the sunshine, or on holiday, and doesn’t require great amounts of planning and nerves. It encourages readers to thread a needle and start, and to focus on the very essence of stitching
(without special equipment and complex patterns). Nothing in the book takes forever, and all the projects are easy to finish. The Gentle Art of Stitching gives the opportunity to experience the process while giving you room to experiment. Experience tells me it’s not necessary to follow rules slavishly. Sometimes you realise that there are there are many ways to do something. I feel it’s better to get started and then see where your stitching takes you, than to feel anxious about getting started and not actually making anything at all. I enjoy feeling my way through something, and find the biggest hurdle is developing the confidence to say I’ll do it the way that works for and pleases me. I make things that I know I’ll enjoy making, that are easy to fit in with family life, that can be put down and picked up and don’t require seclusion and, very importantly, can be completed in a reasonable timescale. This is what The Gentle Art of Stitching is all about. Lovely projects to guide or inspire you in the gentle art of stitching.
September 2012 £20.00
We’ve got a great selection of smaller gift books that make perfect presents and stocking fillers. You’ve already met our Clangers stars and they’re joined in October by a new cast of colourful characters from Debbie Harrold and the team at Knit & Purl Cards in We Knit You A Merry Christmas. Knitters will be able to go crackers with Chris Moose, the sledging knitted snowballs and a skiing pea! Knit New York brings together a top selection of knitted projects from the Big Apple – starting, of course, with a Knitted Big Apple and including a Yellow Taxi, The Statue of Liberty and, if you’re feeling a bit peckish – a knitted Hot Dog.
Great Gifts fromts LoveCraf
Whatever the craft, we have the book for you – just head straight to Collins & Brown crafty HeadQuarters! LoveCrafts is the one-stop destination for all things crafty, with the very latest news and information about all our books and authors. It doesn’t stop there... Join our crafting community at LoveCrafts – we look forward to meeting you!
Clangers August/£9.99
Knit NY September/£7.99
We Knit You A Merry Christmas October/£5.99
TO BE SHOP OF THE MONTH CONTACT MARGARITA!