Season's Readings

For Christmas, I got two knitting books I've been wanting. One (received from my sister) is Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. This book has been blogged to within an inch of its life, but I do want to just mention a couple things. First, I confess that I was first drawn to Norah Gaughan's designs because of her name (there are so few of us Norah-with-an-h-es around that I feel a particular kinship with her), but that I've since been hooked by her effective balance of visual interest and distinctive shapes. Her designs tend to be intricate without feeling busy (although the Nantucket sweater I'm working on may be treading that line a little heavily), and that's the kind of knitting project I'm into right now.

The other thing I'm into is cables. Frankly, the last three or four patterns I've started have all incorporated cables. I think I got hooked on them while making my Knitting Olympics sweater, even though I detested them while I was in the midst of that whole process. Ergo, when I received a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, I picked up this gorgeous book: Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. I've already started the Braided Cables hat. Most of the patterns are very inviting (I'm actually seriously thinking about knitting that skirt . . . ), but what really hooked me on the book was the extensive cable reference at the back of the book--a great way to get inspired about incorporating cables into other simple patterns.

What other projects will I be making from these books? Not sure yet. A lot of it depends on what I end up doing with my third knitterly Christmas present--which I'll post about tomorrow.