Hello everyone

My copy of Victorian Lace Today arrived yesterday. I pre-ordered it from Amazon about a month ago - wow - what an amazing amount of research went into writing it!

It is much more than just a pattern book, I would so love to be able to see all those historical knitting pattern (called 'receipts' back then) books in real life, wouldn't you?. I love how the writer has really tried to find out what these women did for a living, whether they were rich or poor, career women or aristocratic, whether they made any money out of the publication etc., etc., etc. It made me so proud of those knitting pioneers, knitting from this book will be more than just knitting, it will be a historical statement.

And the photography! Such wonderful stately manor gardens, interiors and architecture - it really made me miss the time when I was living in England.

The other great thing is the size of the projects. A lot of rectangles and scarves mean that we're not looking at six months of knitting, like some of the shawls in a gathering of lace - which means you can knit more projects in less time.

There is one little thing that makes my brow furrow a little reading this book. The location is unbelievable, the photography outstanding, the lace is truly gorgeous. But the the models may have been styled by Richard Simmons - ugh - they are typical to me of the knitters review's style - frump in polyester. They look like they may have been borrowed from the love boat wardrobe department. And what's with the daggy fringes and long bobs? It certainly ain't Rowan in this regard, even though they must have taken a cut in the product placement department, so much ksh!

Still, it's not enough to put me off loving so many of these projects, I'll definitely be knitting a lot of these scarves/wraps for next winter.

Looking forward to seeing what we all choose, I'll let you all know further when I make up my mind fully.

Happy selecting!