Time has flown since my initial posting.  I hope some of you visitors have toured the site and knit the initial hat!

I have included some examples of other projects I have knit from my second manuscript which focuses solely on babies!

I am leaving for Asia in a few days and will be back mid March.  I will have my camera ready for inspiration and also, for knitting stores in Asia.  I will share them with you upon my return.

All the best……………LMT

Cheers!

I hope you enjoyed looking at www.knitologiethebook.com — my new website! If you haven’t, please visit it!  Its intent is to show you the passion I have for personalized knitting.  My goal is to soon find a journalistic partner to bring my book to life.

When I committed to write a knitting book, and to develop Knitologie, I turned to the lifestyle books in my home for inspiration and reference.

Home decorating books and those with cooking themes were first.  I quickly saw that the evolution of cookbooks — their form and their content — over more than a century was remarkable.  Look at the early editions of The Joy of Cooking or Julia Child’s first offering.  Compare them to today’s best sellers — by icons like The Barefoot Contessa and Martha Stewart.  You see that evolution very quickly.  But you also see in the newer books a respect for the past and an eye to the future.

Early cookbooks featured page after page of densely constructed prose, in small fonts, with little if any “white space.”  Visuals, if they were there at all, were simple drawings, perhaps a small fish, maybe a measuring cup.  Today’s most popular cookbooks are as visually appealing as they are useful.  Attention is given to more than just ingredients and instruction. The photography is lush and innovative taking you well beyond the confines of the kitchen.  Presentation is inspirational, like the presentation of the fine food when plated on heirloom china and served on a well laid table.  The recipe instructions are, at last, user friendly.

I was also intrigued by the fact that today’s cookbooks appeal to the gamut of skills.  Some serve the novice, others the sure footed, and, a few, the expert. Additionally, the books have moved the craft of cooking into every aspect of homemaking.  They are books about “lifestyle”, “entertaining” and “decorating” as much as cooking.  They no longer just inform, they entertain.  And they have become so beautiful we can leave them out on display to decorate a cozy nook in any part of the house.

Cookbook assortments always supported the icons of the industry, but there was always a new cook on the horizon.  The new cook didn’t have to invent something new, just provide the audience with a new perspective on an old idea.  Why discard an old recipe when you can just “refinish” it?

I am struck, too, that we all tend to collect cookbooks with recipes for the same thing!  I do not have just one cookbook for scones.  I have at least five! What makes me want to buy yet another cookbook with basically the same information that I already have?  The answer is simple.  When I look at another “new” cookbook in a book store something distinctive grabs my attention. A photograph, the name of a recipe, the author, the name of the book, and so many other prompts to temptation.

Knitologie tries to transfer these ideas from the kitchen arts to the art of knitting — to grab your attention and to allow a broad range of knitters to craft projects that will become yours and yours alone.

You’ll find the basic recipe is there, in a simple, easy to follow format that is visually attractive and appealing.  You will have the opportunity to customize that “recipe” through easy personalization.

I am anxious to hear your thoughts on my endeavors and on the fresh ideas I look forward to sharing with you next month.