Anticraft: Knitting Beading & Stitching for the Slightly Sinister

I had this on my wish list for months but was hesitant to buy it. I finally got a look at the book in a store and bought it right away! There are a lot of knitting patterns and I don't knit, but many of them have charts that can be used for one of my other loves: cross-stitch. Lots and lots of skully charts = love. There is only one crochet pattern (for a choker) that I might try, but the duct tape corset, Wheel of the Year skirt, and chainmail earrings are all calling my name. The authors also suggest making the Wheel of the Year skirt as a Phases of the Moon skirt, which is more my speed. The commentary throughout is amusing enough for me to pull the book off my shelf and read it when I just want some crafty inspiration.

I just received my pre ordered copy and words really can not do this book justice but I will try. Before I even started looking at the patterns, I was immediately reading and although I do not know these two personally I would like to, they are full of character and fun. Now on to the patterns, skulls, earrings, corset, hat, wheel of the year, and more. I am actually thrilled with the layout of this book and again the sense of humor contained in these pages is well worth the read. Grab yourself a copy, you won't be sorry and the first thing I want to make is the wheel of the year skirt. Oh I almost forgot, there are thanks to the academy (this really cracked me up).

I'd pre-ordered this book after seeing the authors at the 2007 New York Book Expo -- how two human beings could be filled with so much awesome I'm not sure. I'm not a beader, or a stitcher, but I know plenty of slightly sinister people and thought this would be a perfect gift. Well, it arrived today and the result was far better than I could have imagined. Not only are there instructions for knitting slightly sinister pirate hats, constructing corsets out of black duct tape, sewing wiccan dresses, crocheting stuffed rats, and the like, but there are absolutely stunning photographs with each -- not Sears catalog photos but truly sumptuous (and slightly sinister) fashion shots by the extremely talented al parish, AND the authors are ... magically hysterical. The book design is engaging and gorgeous and includes a section in the back with step-by-step instructions on how to knit, crochet, bead, and, most importantly -- make chain mail. Plenty of people on my friends list will be getting copies of this from me, but I'm keeping this copy for myself.