Fresh Prints: 25 Easy and Enticing Printing Projects to Make at Home by Christine Leech

A nice collection of beginners projects for block printing, both with easy to use readily available foam and with found objects.  The book begins with an introduction to materials, to inks, rollers, safeprint lino foam, and inking plates.  Then there are three sections, the first on printing with found objects such as leaves and haberdashery, the second on printing using safeprint foam sheets which are inexpensive and readily available.  The third section is on other printing techniques, such as using bleach and templates.  It's a good starter packed with small easily realisable projects that introduce the very beginner to printing.

Knitting Smitten by Jessica Biscoe

This is a funky cute introduction to the gently addictive art of knitting, for the most part ideal as a book for a complete novice.

The book is divided into four section.  The first is an introduction to knitting basics looking at the stuff you will need, how to choose yarns, how to read knitting patterns and charts, measuring tension, tips, and the basic techniques of casting on, purling stitches, knitting stitches, increasing and decreasing stitches.  I like that instructions are written and illustrated with good photographs, and that two sets of instructions are given: one for the British / American knitting style and one for the European.

Then come the projects which each introduce the knitter to a new technique and a newbie could do worse than just work through the book, they would come away with a funky wardrobe and be a proficient knitter.  Projects include hats, slippers, mittens, leg warmers, a cape and snood, bracelets, necklaces, headbands, brooches, cushions, throws, cloths, a paperweight, a bow tie and the cutest egg cosies.

Each project starts with a good illustration and a supplies page covering what size the project will be, what yarn you will need, needles, tension, any new techniques you will be learning and any haberdashery needed.  This is one of my small niggles: although there is a good page in the back showing you what weight each yarn is this isn't given on the supplies page.  My second is that when the crochet chain cast on is introduced there are no instructions on how to crochet.  However, the instructions that are given with each project are well written and well illustrated with photographs.

But the missing things are technqiues that that the unsure can find videoes of online and in general I do love the layout - learning step by step through the projects - and the size of the projects, nothing is too big or daunting but each introduces the techniques in a fun a friendly way.

This is kind of halfway inbetween a coffee table book and a travel book.  It's a hardback book of a less than A4 size filled with some of our world's greatest wonders split into two sections: natural and man made.  The man made are roughly in chronological order and go from caves painted by ice age people to the Burj Khalifa.  Each wonder begins with a tantalising introduction what it is like to encounter the wonder, a full page photograph, and 'how to get there' and what to do 'while you're there' sections.  Then follows a section on the construction and history of the wonder with 'did you know' boxes and great little diagrams.  It's informative and good to look at.

So why only three stars, well, because this book is neither one thing nor another.  The 'what to do while you're there' sections suggest a travel book, but this is really too heavy to be carried unless you are travelling by car.  The construction sections are good but so brief, too brief for me, it is not really big or detailed enough to be the kind of book you could devour at your leisure at home either.