More of a good thing
Back in February I went on a little stroll down memory lane about the first of the Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet books. It was sort of awesome to go back and spend some time with it, and so I thought I’d make some time to talk about the other two books in that series too. I’ll start with Volume II today, and we’ll chat about Volume III later in the year.
Just like last time, I’ve gone ahead and put both the paper book and the electronic book on sale for 25% off and made the individual patterns available on ravelry (normally it’s only the whole book that’s available). You don’t need a code or anything, the prices are already changed. They’ll be that way through the end of the month, and then they’ll go back to normal and the individual patterns will flit back away.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. The only thing I regret about this whole series of books is that I wasn’t brave enough to put ‘Volume I’ in the title of the first book. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted there to be three books, but some very wise and reasonable people told me calling something Volume I was risky (what if you didn’t do a Volume II?), so I left it off. But before the first one was even back from the printer, I was hard at work on Volume II.
The first volume had used botanical prints to inspire the patterns. For this one, I worked with drawings of butterflies.
Tracking down the source materials for these books was always a huge part of the process. The source materials are all old enough to be public domain, so you can generally find reasonable scans of them online, but I wanted to have the originals.
Part of that was so I could make high quality scans of the images to include in the books (you can see lovely large versions of the prints that inspired each pattern on the patterns’ ravelry pages, they’re worth spending some time with).
But part of it was because they are just beautiful objects and I wanted to have the chance to examine them up close. They’re all tinted by hand, and you can often see significant differences in color and shading between different copies of the original books. I love the individuality , and it reminds me of the variation from one skein of hand dyed yarn to the next.
I still have a plan to pick three of my favorites from each book, get them framed in matching frames, and hang them up together. If I ever manage an office whose walls aren’t covered in bookcases, I think I’ll have to do it.
They’d serve as a good reminder to trust myself and know that if I think something is going to be a set, well then I can go right ahead and name the first book accordingly!
I love these books! The spot where your inspiration springs is such a lovely place.Thank you for reminding me why I read them through when I received them. I am heading for the bookcase immediately!
I am working on my fourth project from volume II and I have several more on a future agenda.
so mean! I’ve been trying to get through school before I went back to buying your books… but I think I’m going to have to grab this one. I have volume 1 and love it. I’ve read through volume II and love it as well.
Not only before I’m out of school, but days before payday too! 😀
Oh well, I’ll get it on payday!
I absolutely love all your beautiful patterns. I have made a couple, and look forward to doing more!
Nice blast from the past! I had so much fun knitting the Metsopilus (did I spell that right?) socks in the third picture! I miss sample knitting for you!
And someday I will make all the other projects from the books (shush – I can dream, can’t I?)
Just got Vol II for mother’s Day, and finishing sock one of Delias Eucharis, the over picture…so much fun.
OMG your books are so beautiful! I guess they are going to have to have a shelf all to themselves!
I actually don’t mind when the first book of a set doesn’t say “volume 1” on it, unless it’s a fiction book. The lack of a volume notation tells me that it’s the original, the first. I like the way it looks.
And it’s also a marketing decision.
See, having “vol 1” on a fiction book tells me to put it back on the shelf. I no longer buy books that are parts of sets, before I can get the whole set. I hate waiting for the next book to come out, so I just won’t buy or read any of it until the whole set is out.
That doesn’t really carry over to crafting books or certain types of research books, because sometimes I only like one or two of them well enough to own them, and don’t need the whole set; but having “vol 1” on that first book does tell me that it’s incomplete by itself. That I’m not getting the whole thing right now – and that can still put me off.
But if I think this is a complete thing, and I love it enough to buy it, and then I really love it… Then when a “vol 2” comes out, I’m excited to get that, too, because it’s more of what I’ve already decided that I love. And after that, I almost have to get “vol 3”, because I’m a little bit of a collector, and how can I not have a complete set? 🙂