Botanical Knits Blog Tour and Giveaway.

Wow there have been some amazing publications over the last few months and I'm thrilled to be part of the Botanical Knits tour, which for me, has been a real highlight. There's been some lovely features of this book so far so I will do my best to give you a fresh twist on Alana's latest release. To read or hear more about the book, check the other contributors to the tour out here. 

(c) NNK

I read through, ogled and drooled over the eBook and straight away was impressed. The attention to detail here is amazing. It's not just the designs that have interesting flair and detail but also the ebook itself. The charts are crisp and clear, the medium of an eBook fully used to make it incredibly easy to navigate and knit from and the way the pages are laid out are just so beautiful.  

Nuts and Bolts: 12 original knitwear designs; 4 garments, 3 hats, 2 sets of gloves, one pair of socks and 2 scarves. Over 110 pages devoted to this collection and available digitally as well as in print.

(c) NNK

Designer: Alana Dakos, the designer behind the Never Not Knitting Collection, podcast and blog. Alana has grown a collection of beautiful women's garments and accessories, teamed up with Hannah Fettig to produce 'Coastal Knits' and produced a children's collection as well as a children's fiction book. All self published by her family run business. 

Aesthetic: It's all about beauty in nature, from the designs and the way that they are captured in photography, to the way they are laid out on the page. Leaves adorn the knits and the pages are filled with some wonderful graphic design of falling leaves. As always, Alana's patterns reflect her eye for detail in design and continue the theme throughout every element of this book. 

Extras I liked: A dedicated website, direct links in the book to Ravelry so you can compare notes of others projects, direct links to resources used in the book. Fantastic navigation from pattern to pattern via hyperlinking. Extremely user friendly. I also love the insight to the designer we get from the introduction by Alana. Her swatches and process pieces are documented in photograph form throughout and I don't know about you but I love to see someone's design process. Someone else's swatches are very interesting to me. 

What impressed me most: The eBook is not a straight PDF, it's alive with easy links to navigate around the carefully laid out sections. The extras I mentioned above means that the knitting experience is complete for those knitters who use Ravelry as a tool and resource to aid their knitting. 

Oak Trail, (c) NNK

Patterns that caught my eye: I adore Oak Trail cloche (pictured above). It is a very distinctive and unique design which has an appealing method too. The brim is knit flat, then stitches are picked up to create the rest of the hat. My fingers are itching to recreate that embossed leaf, I bet it is extremely pleasing to knit!

Autumn's End, the cover sweater is really something. Dripping with lace leaf detail it is very typical of Alana's work: beautiful, elegant and feminine. What I have always enjoyed about Alana's design style is the femininity she puts into her careful construction. I trust her patterns implicitly. I want to knit this sweater. 

Pressed Leaves also caught my eye, not just for its' beauty but it's knitting appeal. I find leaves extraordinarily pleasing to knit and this DK beret looks amazing to knit- so much motivating texture! The chart itself is pleasing to the eye. I know I'll be making this beret at some point, it's too pretty not to. 

Pressed Leaves (c) NNK

Want your own copy? Well here are the details:

- Order the printed copy for $22 + shipping and As a special thank you for preordering the printed copy, you will get the ebook for free immediately. The printed book will ship mid-May. You will also receive an exclusive extra botanically inspired garment pattern with the copy of your printed book as a thank you from Alana for preordering.

- Order the ebook by itself for $18. (A great option for those knitters who live internationally and do not want to pay the high cost of shipping). 

- Both options will be available on botanicalknits.com site very soon.

(After the pre-order period ends in May, the book will be available EITHER in print for $22 or ebook for $18).


Can't wait till then? Leave a comment below by 16th March 2013, telling me which of the designs you would want to knit to be in with a chance to win an ecopy of the book. Good luck!