Sweet Shawlettes: Book Review, Q&A, and Giveaway!

I am so pleased to be the next stop on the blog tour for Jean Moss's new book Sweet Shawlettes!

Jean Moss is a British knit designer that has worked with fashion houses of the likes of Ralph Lauren! Her newest book Sweet Shawlettes is filled with designs that are sure to please every knitter's neck and shoulders.

Here are a few of my favorites!

I am especially excited to try the Penumbra Cowl. It uses the simple Japanese shadow knitting technique - one that I have yet to try!

The patterns are well written and I like that she offers a bit of the traditional and non traditional style patterns. The pieces are divided into 4 sections Country, Couture, Folk and Vintage.

Jean was amazing enough to take time to answer some questions!

When did you learn how to knit?
Originally I learned to knit before I went to school because I wanted to be like my beloved grandmother who spent hours teaching me.  A fallow period ensued but my interest was rekindled in my teens when I started to make my own clothes.  It was the swinging sixties and I loved what I was seeing on the street and in magazines, but had no way of achieving anything similar other than to pick up my needles again.  From then on I was hooked. It never occurred to me that I'd ever be able to make a living out of it, especially as I had no formal training in design, but after getting requests for sweaters I'd made for the kids, I decided that it might be a way of making some extra cash from home.  No-one was more surprised than I was to find that very quickly I was presenting my designs to luminaries such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and they were placing orders! It was a meteoric learning curve!

What made you decide to make the book Sweet Shawlettes?

The book came to me out of the blue when Erica Sanders-Foege, then a senior editor at The Taunton Press, rang to ask if I would consider doing it. The working title was Sweet Shawlettes, but Erica  assured me I could change it if I didn't like it.  However, for me the title had a certain broad brush appeal – whimsical, feminine,  could even be ironic - or it might have been that I'm just addicted to alliteration, but knowing how difficult it is to come up with decent book titles, I quickly applied the if it's not broken, don't fix it principle.  

I agreed to submit a synopsis and by the time I'd finished it I was completely hooked on the idea.  Previously most of my books have concentrated mainly on sweaters, and this gave me the opportunity to explore a totally different form.  Shawls, capes, cowls, furbelows or anything that can be worn around the neck was the brief and I was thrilled to explore as many ways of interpreting it as I could.  It took me on an interesting journey exploring the construction, techniques, yarns and the history of neck wraps and I'll always be grateful to Taunton for offering me this opportunity. 

Can you describe your design process? 

In  all my design work I travel an identical road. Every design has its own cooking time – some simmer slowly like a casserole for months, while others are immediately on a fast boil and just tumble out. At the start of a book,  I usually try to give myself two weeks of displacement activities, like gardening, playing guitar or cooking, which seem to be good for propagating new ideas.  I do a rough drawing, then choose yarns and colours I'd like to use, then I swatch, swatch, swatch until I get a combination of yarn and stitch which seems to reflect the look of the design.  I always sketch the design on a person (I'm no great artist, but I find even if I draw a  stick woman it's invaluable for focusing on the proportions) and from there I'll try out different versions of it on a mannequin using any fabric I have around.  This gives me a very good idea of whether or not the design will work. When I have the version I like, I complete a specification sheet, then make the chart and schematic and finally crunch the numbers.  

 Thank you so much Jean for creating such a wonderful book! Buy your own copy here!

Lucky for you all, I'm giving one copy of Sweet Shawlettes away to one of my fabulous readers! Leave me a comment by Wednesday 1/25 (midnight EST!)

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For more stops on the Sweet Shawlettes blog tour visit these fabulous blogs!

Mon 2 Jan	more yarn will do the trick	Jean Moss
Tues 3 Jan	wendy knits	Wendy Johnson
Wed 4 Jan	knitgrrl	Shannon Okey
Thurs 5 Jan	yarnagogo	Rachael Herron
Fri 6 Jan	the knitter	Rosee Woodland
Sat 7 Jan	rhythm of the needles	Joanne Conklin
Sun 8 Jan	knit purl gurl	Karrie Steinmetz
Mon 9 Jan	craftsanity	Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood
Tues 10 Jan	planet purl	Beth Moriarty
Wed 11 Jan	sunset cat	Stephannie Tallent
Thurs 12 Jan	a really good yarn	Julie Schilthuis
Fri 13 Jan	knit 1 chicago	Lynn Coe
Sat 14 Jan	go knit in your hat	Carol Sulcoski
Sun 15 Jan	redshirt knitting	Erika Barcott
Mon 16 Jan	in the loop	Cheryl & Ellen
Tues 17 Jan	webs	Kathy Elkins
Wed 18 Jan	zeneedle	Margene Smith
Thurs 19 Jan	knitspot	Anne Hanson
Fri 20 Jan	urban yarns	Alexa Ludeman
Sat 21 Jan	a friend to knit with	Leslie Friend
Mon 23 Jan	tentenknits	Margaux Hufnagel
Tues 24 Jan	fancy tiger crafts	Amber Corcoran
Wed 25 Jan	chic knits	Bonne Marie Burns
Thurs 26 Jan	the panopticon	Franklin Habit

 

Comments

[Marissa]

I'd love to win this one!

[Sherrell]

Looks like a really nice book. Would love to win. Thanks

[meppybn]

Love the cover design especially - fun yet very practical!

[Estella]

Thanks so much for hosting a giveaway - these shawlettes are divine!

[AnaW]

Those are such lovely designs!!

[Yuliana Ng]

Looks like a great book! Thanks for the chance to win this.

[Stacey B]

Lovely! Looks like a great book to have.

[Barbara Taylor]

What a wonderful book. I love to knit shawls and this book has wonderful new designs. I
hope I win. Thank you for the giveaway.

[Savannagal]

I'd love to knit Harlequin. I've always wants to learn entrelac and this is the perfect opportunity. Thanks for the giveaway.

[Teresa]

What a beautiful book! Would love to win!

[cguard]

I would love to work out of this book to fulfill my resolution for 2012- Knit for myself!

[Kathy]

Gorgeous shawlettes, and what a beautiful book!

[lorraine]

the designs are so lovely :)

[Evelyn]

Thanks for the great interview. There really is something special about small shawls - they add a great dimension to an outfit. I'm intrigued to try the Penumbra shawl, too. Would love to win this book.

[Helen]

Geez. I really love this book. So many chances to win it! It definitely passes my at least five patterns that I would knit!

[Phoebe]

There are so many beautiful designs in this book...it would be hard to choice even the first. I would change my mind thousands of times;)

[Leticia Burn Condon]

amazing book.... brit designers are simply brilliant :) hope hope i win:)
thanks for the interview, the author is very inspiring in her telling of how knitting transformed her life!

[Jennifer R.]

Simply Beautiful!!! I LOVE this book!

[Barbara Taylor]

I love to knit shawls....Would love win this
book....

[LesleyAnn]

I love shadow knitting! This looks like a great book. Thanks for the opportunity to win it.

[Julie]

what a great interview!! the patterns look so pretty.

[trillium]

Just found out I won the book on another blog. Please remove my name from the contest. Good luck, everyone!

[Kristin]

This is a great book! Would love to win a copy - thanks for the giveaway!