A magnificent title that conveys the three parts of a knitter’s personality; we collect like magpies, we sometimes prefer the quiet of our own perch like any homebody but we also venture into the world to meet friends and gather inspiration like a nomad, Cirilia Rose explains in the introduction; Finding Your Inner Bricoleur, and continues: “The past decade has seen a proliferation of knitwear designers, myself included, and we’re all working from essentially the same sourcebooks, with the same basic resources: the knit stitch, the purl stitch, and a whole lot of yarn. So how does one innovate in an increasingly crowded landscape? The answer is, of course, through bricolage. The combination of elements from seemingly disparate cultural sources creates energy that didn’t exist before, and when each of us cultivates our own unique concoction of referents, it guarantees more idiosyncratic knits.”
This hardcover book is fascinating and well worth reading, as I am sure you already have discovered, in addition to containing 24 divine patterns. Like the title it is divided into three parts with excellent introduction to each part e.g. Magpies title: “I am, as I suspect many of you are, addicted to yarn.” Yes, that rings a bell, for sure! Each part also has two articles on Style inspiration: “Color Me Brave” and “Think Like a Stylist” in Magpies, “Surround Yourself” (read: with talented people), and “Substituting Yarns” in Homebodies, and “Finding Myself in Iceland” (read: inspiration and second home) and “Looking for a Come-up (aka Thrifting)”. As if that was not enough essential reading it also includes “The Canon” with recommended reading, sources for supplies, special techniques, abbreviations, acknowledgements and about the author. Do also enjoy listening to the podcast where Cirilia Rose is interviewed by her former employer Kathy Elkins of WEBS fame: blog.yarn.com and when visiting London having a party and plenty of giggles with the lovely Pompom magazine: pompommag.com.
Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads is photographed by Jared Flood, hence utterly captivating. Cirilia Rose has worked with well known yarn companies such as Berroco, Skacel and Brooklyn Tweed and it shows in her fabulous designs and their scope. There are 8 designs in each part including: cardigans, pullovers, hats, cowls, tanks and more. You can study all the projects on Ravelry, or have a look inside the book at Amazon.com. I bought my treasured copy online at Adlibris.com.
