All the posts from this blog are being imported into my new, all-inclusive blog, Crafting Jen. If you'd like to continue following my adventures in life and crafting, please bookmark the new site.

I will leave this blog in place for a couple of weeks, then it will be deleted to help clear my slate.

Thanks for sharing the ride

Or rather, I have gone around doing lots of things, which I've been blogging about over at I Knit Around and Confessions of a Chantraphile.

Thing is, I've had little time and energy left for continuing the book reviews here. But I don't consider this an abandoned project - just one on a long hiatus.

I am removing the "Recently Updated Blogs" frame from the side bar. Since I have retired five blogs - and consolidated their subjects under a single new blog - there is far less for readers to keep up with.

Here's the list of currently active blogs:

• I Knit Around - This is now my primary blog, covering knitting (and other fiber-crafting), cooking, geocaching, and anything else that happens that isn't beading. This will likely be posted to from 3 to 5 times a week.
• Confessions of a Chantraphile - My beading blog remains as a separate entity. I expect I'll post here at least once or twice a week.
• Folkcat's Craft Library - You can still browse through my craft book collection - at least as fast as I get it entered. Since each entry is a catalog listing for a book, this could be posted to once a week, once a month, or ten times in a day.
• The Milford Memory Box - Once we have items worth collecting from the Memory Box and posting, this will be where to find them. Posting here will likely be very sporadic, as the Memory Box collection doesn't grow quickly.

My retired blogs will remain available as archives. You can reach them through my web hub at Jenny Kubeck on the Web.

Title: Bead Knitted Pendant Bags Etc. 1
Author: Williams, Theresa
Publisher: Bag Lady Press
Copyright: 1996

Available from the publisher at http://www.baglady.com

Bead Knitted Pendant Bags Etc. 1 is the second book in Williams' Beaded Bag Series. Instructions are given for knitting two small pendant bags, as well as a larger handbag.

For more about bead knitting and Theresa Williams' books, please see my review of Bead Knitted Pendant Bags.

Title: Bead Knitted Pendant Bags
Author: Williams, Theresa
Publisher: Bag Lady Press
Copyright: 1995, 1996, 2002

Available from the publisher at http://www.baglady.com

Bead knitting is the process where beads are strung on the knitting material, then put in place in groups of 1 to, well, several beads (depending on how much of a swag effect you want) in between knit stitches. It's different from beaded knitting, where beads are also strung on the knitting material, but in a specific pattern according to a chart. In beaded knitting, a bead is placed in every stitch, and the beads ultimately make a picture or design.

Bead knitting is the specialty at Bag Lady Press, and Theresa Williams is almost single-handedly responsible for the current popularity of the technique. This book, which I believe was her first, gives the how-tos, the whys, and the wherefores for how to make two different styles of bead knitted pendant bags. By the time you're done, you'll understand the process and be able to produce endless variations on the basic bags.

Recommended for those who love little bags, but are in a rut making peyote-stitch amulet bags; or for knitters who are tired of sweaters, scarves, and socks.

Title: Handmade Silk Paper
Author: Russon, Kath
Publisher: Search Press
Copyright: 1999

This is a book that was only recently given to me as a gift, and I haven't had much opportunity yet to evaluate it. Let me, then, offer you instead some quotes from the Introduction by author Kath Russon:

Paper is such an ordinary thing. We use it every day, usually without thinking about it. Silk, on the other hand, has always had an aura of mystery about it; it is extraordinary. Its lustre stops you in your tracks and makes you long to touch it. Imagine, then, making something as ordinary as paper out of something as extraordinary as silk.

There is nothing new about silk papermaking. Whilst paper as we know it is thought to have been invented by Cai Lunn, a Chinese eunuch in the court of Han emperor Wu Di in the year 105 AD, silk had been used long before this to record events for posterity. Apparently, by the second century BC it was widely used in China for official letters and documents. However, it was very expensive, so a method was developed by which old silk rags could be pulped; the resulting mixture, thinly spread on a frame, produced a material which could justifiably be termed silk paper.

In the course of this book, we shall try to copy the Chinese ancients in producing paper; in our case, not from pulp, but from actual silk fibres which are now available in a variety of formats, either undyed or dyed. The process of silk papermaking could not be simpler; you need no special tools or equipment and the process takes minutes rather than hours.

Kath Russon is a papermaker first, and this book thoroughly explores using silk to make paper. She covers the different varieties of fiber you could work with; how to dye the fiber; and how to incorporate non-silk fibers in your work. She even gets into how to mould three-dimensional shapes, and how to make felted silk leaves which take their shape and details from real leaves.

I'm not sure if or when I'll actually get to making silk paper, but I think I'm awfully glad I'll have this book to refer to when I do.

Title: More Things To Make and Do
Adapted by: Wycoff, Joan
Publisher: Golden Press
Copyright: 1960, 1969

Out of print. Adapted from the earlier work McCall's Golden Do-It Book, this small paperback is a collection of projects for children. It's a great nostalgia trip as well.

Techniques include papier-mache with newspapers, making marionettes out of thread spools, and decorating boxes, among many others. The age of the book is revealed with projects that require "berry boxes" made of thin slats of wood, the assumption that all thread spools are made of wood, and the use of the term "pipe cleaners" instead of the modern "chenille stems".

In spite of its age, I think that books like this offer much to families of today. There is a simple, magic sensibility to the concept of making things from materials around the house. I fear sometimes that the level of imagination displayed in books of this type has been lost in a day when people can readily go to any craft or discount store and buy pre-packaged, clean, prepared ice cream sticks, and wooden spools that have never seen thread.

There's no guarantee you'll be able to turn up this little volume, but it's worth keeping your eyes open for similar craft books at yard sales, used book stores, and even thrift shops. And don't just hand it over to the kids - do the projects with them! You'll be sure to enjoy it as much as they do.