(cover image from From Mama, With Love)
Hi, Knitters,
My friend Tanis Gray sent me a copy of her new ebook, From Mama, With Love to share with you. I couldn't wait! I saw that The Knit Girllls reviewed it this week, too. Leslie and Laura did a very thorough job, sharing most of the projects and talking about the electronic format of the book.
I am so impressed with this collection of 15 beautiful knit designs to wrap around your young children. I was trying to think of how to best describe this book but no one does it better than Tanis herself. The following is the description of Tanis' newest creation in her own words from her blog, and it's perfect:
"I had an idea many, many months ago to put out an ebook of baby knits as a group project among friends, including myself, Kate Gagnon Osborn, Connie Chang Chinchio, Melissa LaBarre and Margaux Hufnagel. The knitting design world is a small one, with most of us being female, many of us mothers and many of us friends. I so admire these women… Working moms, wives, creative minds, yarn lovers… These are my people and I love them fiercely.
The idea was rather simple – we’d each design 3 garments, have our children be our inspiration and models and gather these 15 designs together in an ebook. We all work in the knitting field, whether we’re running a yarn company and taking care of our daughter (Kate), designing feverishly while awaiting the birth of our second daughter (Melissa), designing while flying across the country for work and missing our daughter and son (Connie), designing while chasing after our son (Margaux) or designing late into the night while editing knitting books and making knitting class lesson plans while my son sleeps across the hall (me). I have spent time with all these incredible, talented, wonderful women in real life and having us all work on one big project like this together in the virtual world was an example of mom power. This book is a labor of love for our children, for each other and for ourselves as mothers."
(photo from From Mama, With Love)
The designs in the book are for both boys and girls, some are unisex. There are hats, sweaters, vests, blankets, and a boppy cover. I think it is a stellar collection! I would love to make so many of these projects. The talent of these mamas is clear and apparent.
Click here to see all 15 designs! The sizes range from baby up to 10 years old in some patterns.
Right now it is only available as an ebook for $24.95. In six months the individual patterns will be available by each designer and you will no longer be able to purchase it as an ebook.
(photo from From Mama, With Love)
The photos were taken by each designer and their kids were the models. That's Tanis' adorable son above. I love that because you can feel the love in the photos. It makes the collection more personal.
Tanis Gray is a genius at curating knit design collections. I have many of her books, maybe all of them, where she gathers talented designers to work under a certain theme. She does a fantastic job and From Mama, With Love is another example of her outstanding work in the knitting world.
(photo from From Mama, With Love)
One of my longtime favorite designers is Melissa LaBarre. I have knit many of her sweaters for myself and I love them. She is a talented designer. The hat above is called Sid Scrappy Hat and I think she captured the perfect photo of her gorgeous daughter wearing her new hat. It is so simple and sweet and I just love everything about it.
(photo from From Mama, With Love)
The thing is that I like every pattern in the book. I could have gone through and shared each one. I am only showing a few of my favorites but each design in the book is wonderful. There are charts, clearly written patterns, good photos, an index to click on to get to the specific pattern, etc. There is a feeling or mood in the pages that is hard to describe. It's moms knitting for their loves and you get a sense of that love and devotion when looking through the book.
The Viviane Cardigan (above) is another Melissa LaBarre design that would knit up in a snap in a DK weight yarn. It's top-down, one piece and it is cute! The size range for this pattern is baby to 2 years old.
Luckily I get to offer a copy to one lucky winner today! Please leave one comment including either your email address or your Ravelry ID. This is one of the best baby/child collections I have seen in a long time! You will love it. Please only leave one comment and be patient for your comment to appear. It takes awhile. I'll be back in a few days to randomly select a winner.
Good luck and let the comments begin!
best, susie
