We would like to thank Merritt Books for organizing this event again this year!

 THE BOOK SIGNING EVENT TAKES PLACE BOTH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

LOCATION IS BUILDING B

2012 Authors (in no particular order): Click on a name below or scroll down to see them all!

Cap Sease
Stacey Trock
Leslie Ann Bestor
Lyn Slade
Anna Hrachovec 
Nancy Shaw
Mary Beth Temple
Janet Severi Bristow and Victoria A. Cole-Galo
Norah Gaughan
Dana Freed
Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Nina and Gianna Raqueno
Melanie Gall
Da Chen
Bruce Weinstein
Cathy Carron
Gwen Steege
Sarah S. Kilborne


 



Cap Sease  
Cap Sease of Guilford, Connecticut, has been knitting since childhood. She is also a weaver, quilter, and basket maker. Her love of using her hands led to a career in conservation, and she has extensive experience as a conservator on archaeological excavations. She is also a designer and workshop leader for the Green Mountain Spinnery.



 

Stacey Trock
Stacey Trock of New Haven, Connecticut, is the designer for Fresh Stitches Amigurumi, an exciting place where her stuffed animal creations live happy and fulfilling lives. Although she has an affinity for stuffed animals, Stacey occasionally gets involved in other fiber projects, including knitwear design. Read her entertaining blog at FreshStitches.com.
 


Leslie Ann Bestor
Leslie Ann Bestor is a knitting teacher and manager at WEBS, America’s Yarn Store. Many of her designs have been featured in books and magazines. She lives in western Massachusetts.

Cast On, Bind Off offers a compilation of 54 techniques for beginning and ending knitting projects, presented in an easy-reference, take-along format. Sure to become an essential reference for knitters of all styles and techniques, it offers a welcome surprise to many knitters who may not be aware of the breadth of possibilities. Choosing the right cast on or bind off to fit the chosen yarn and stitch technique - be it ribbed, lace, decorative, cable, circular, or stretchy - will add to the appeal of any finished knitting project.
 












Lyn Slade
Lyn Slade has enjoyed designing needle felting patterns and kits and teaching workshops for a number of years.  Her work has appeared in numerous national periodicals.

Recently Lyn has focused on needle felting as a medium for fine art and has begun exploring contemporary art and the combination of needle felting with other mediums and techniques.  She has been part of regional, solo and group exhibitions, and her work is in many private collections.

Lyn lives and works in Bolton, Massachusetts, in a 200-year-old home she and her husband renovated.  They run Charlotte's House Bed & Breakfast where she is the innkeeper and chief cookie baker.

     




Anna Hrachovec
Anna Hrachovec, a knitter who lives in Brooklyn. Anna finds inspiration in Japanese character design and illustrators like Dr. Seuss. Her knitted toys have been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, all around the web, and in print. Her first book of knitting patterns, Knitting Mochimochi, was published in 2010. Her second book, Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, will be released in August 2011. When she’s not designing new toys, Anna creates character-based fiber art, which has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo, and Berlin.

















Edie Eckman
Edie Eckman took the granny — and the square — out of granny squares! Her best-selling Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs (90,000 copies in print) helped a new generation of crafters discover the dazzling possibilities of crochet motifs. Gone are the tired old designs; her new motifs include circles, hexagons, triangles, stars, florets, and even interlocking rings.
 
One-of-a-kind motifs are just the beginning. Now, Connect the Shapes Crochet Motifs, this guide to creative joining techniques, shows how easy it is to combine multiples of a motif to form a whole new pattern, from lacy links to 3-D effects, swirls, radiants, and wheels. The variations are endless, as each joining technique can be used with a wide range of motifs.
 
 Eckman also provides more than 100 new motif designs in her new book. Each one, and every joining technique, is accompanied with step-by-step instructions and the innovative Japanese-inspired charts crocheters are enthusiastically embracing.
 
 This superb collection gives crocheters all the tools they need to create their favorite projects, making it the must-have reference.
 
 Edie Eckman is a teacher, writer, and designer. She is the author of The Crochet Answer Book, Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs, and Around the Corner Crochet Borders. Her articles and designs have appeared in Creative Knitting, Interweave Crochet, Knitting, Knit’N’Style, and other publications. She teaches extensively at conferences, shops, and guilds; her teaching schedule is available at www.edieeckman.com.





Nancy Shaw
Nancy Shaw is the author of Sheep in a Jeep, Sheep on a Ship, Sheep in Shop, Sheep Out to Eat, Sheep Take a Hike (set near Sheep's Heaven Mountain in the Berkshires), Sheep Trick or Treat, and Sheep Blast Off!, all illustrated by Margot Apple and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her work has received the Parents' Choice Award, the Parenting magazine Reading Magic Award, Parents magazine Best Kids' Books of the Year listings, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year listings, and the Horn Book Fanfare citation. Elena's Story, about a Guatemalan girl, is her latest book. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.


Mary Beth Temple
About Mary Beth Temple:  Her work appears in Interweave Crochet, Crochet Today, and Crochet World.  She creates and publishes a popular pattern line, Hooked for Life, and her many books include DIY AFGHANS and THE PERFECT PILLOW.  Mary Beth has hosted the interactive podcast, “Getting Loopy,”  which won the Flamie Award three times in a row (2009, 2010, 2011) for Best Crochet Podcast, and was among the top 200 shows on the Blog Talk Radio network for 2009.  Temple lives in New Jersey.

Celebrate your shape with 25 curve-flattering crochet patterns!  Designed for stylish fit , these smart projects offer crochet tricks and techniques for curvalicious sizes 14 and up!
 
Patterns designed specifically for larger sizes are extremely difficult to find and highly coveted!  Mary Beth Temple, whose designs have appeared in Vogue and Crochet Today has put together a book with 25 patterns as well as provides techniques and schematics to show crocheters exactly how to trouble shoot to solve their pattern-fitting problems!



JANET SEVERI BRISTOW and VICTORIA A. COLE-GALO
JANET SEVERI BRISTOW and VICTORIA A. COLE-GALO are authors of the best-selling Prayer Shawl Companion and The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion, and founders of the Prayer Shawl Ministry (www.shawlministry.com). They travel nationwide to conduct shawl ministry workshops. Both women are graduates of the Hartford Seminary’s Women’s Leadership Institute and reside in Connecticut.

The New Prayer Shawl Companion There’s something extraordinary about a handmade shawl and the sense of warmth, love, and support in which it wraps the wearer, especially during hard times. As our world unravels in various ways, caring circles of knitters are stitching together blessings—in the form of prayer shawls—to send to friends and strangers in need. The New Prayer Shawl Companion, the latest book in the best-selling Prayer Shawl series, supports and inspires these dedicated knitters. Knitting enthusiasts, of all levels, will embrace the 35 patterns—some designed for times of celebration, others for solace and remembrance. Each pattern is accompanied by encouraging stories from other crafters and blessings to knit by. Co-founders of the Prayer Shawl Ministry, the authors offer readers bountiful design inspiration, stitching ideas, and patterns for creating beautiful shawls.


Daniel Yuhas
Daniel Yuhas’s work has been featured in the magazines Interweave Knits, YarnForward, and Creative Knitting; the books Fresh Designs: Scarves, The 10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitter, Me Make Monster, and Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders; and online on Knitty and Knitcircus. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and regularly teaches at regional and national fiber festivals.

Knitting From the Center Out
An Introduction to Revolutionary Knitting with 28 Modern Projects
Daniel Yuhas teaches knitters the fascinating technique of starting a project with just a few stitches and knitting outward in revolutions (or circles). The book begins with tutorials for the minimal skills required, such as special cast-ons, increases, decreases, and working with double-pointed needles, then features twenty-eight mesmerizing projects, ranging from baby blankets and lace shawls to sweaters and stuffed toys. Throughout the book are easy-to-understand explanations of the underlying math and architecture of the flat and dimensional shapes. Clear instructions and beautiful photography ensure that knitters of all levels and inclinations—technique junkies or not—will want this book.



Norah Gaughan
Berroco began as Stanley Woolen Mills in 1810 and has gradually evolved into one of the largest importers and wholesalers of yarns, patterns, and supplies to independent yarn shops throughout the United States and Canada. Norah Gaughan, author of STC’s Knitting Nature and Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans, is Berroco’s design director; her work has been published by almost all of the major yarn companies and knitting magazines in the industry. She lives in New Hampshire.

The Comfort Knitting & Crochet Series adds a new
book featuring 50 irresistible projects for wee ones
Norah Gaughan and the Berroco design team provide patterns for baby blankets, clothing and toys The Berroco design team (led by superstar design director Norah Gaughan) cover all of the cozy bases, presenting blankets, sweaters, bonnets, and plush toys. Like the first book in the Comfort series—Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans— Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Babies & Toddlers features fifty knit and crochet projects using the company’s bestselling, affordably priced Comfort and Vintage yarns. With project styles ranging from traditional pastels and aran knits to mid-century modern color-blocking, and challenge levels ranging from beginner to advanced, there’s something for every knitter and crocheter—and every baby they love—in this beautiful collection.
In addition to an incredible twenty-four baby blankets, the book includes clothing and toys, such as:
-Cleire cardigan with crocheted bobbles and diamond cables
-Orangelo bib—bright like its namesake and even worked in segments
-Darla blanket—a variety of stitches and colors simulates a patchwork quilt
-Snowflake blanket—features cabled hexagons that become elaborate snowflakes
-Pink lemonade dress—made with a simple A-line shift
-Jet age cardigan—intarsia design of a stylized orange jet across the back
-and much more



Dana Freed
BERT and DANA FREED are a mother-daughter team whose one-of-a-kind couture beadwork is currently sold in New York City and internationally at an array of boutiques. In 2008 they exhibited nearly 200 pieces in an exclusive show in SoHo. In addition to designing and crafting, they also teach bead crochet and beading techniques at specialty craft stores, events, and privately.

Beading experts, teachers, and jewelry designers Bert and Dana Freed share their techniques and complete step-by-step directions for a delightful array of bead crochet jewelry projects. Using a wide range of stunning beads in lovely color combinations, the 27 bead crochet pieces may look complicated but are very easy to make following their clearly explained techniques and expert tips.

Organized so that you start with the foundations of bead crochet, the basic chain stitch, you progress through each level to achieve more advanced techniques like creating texture with beads, or making a six-color tubular jewelry design. Beginning with a comprehensive tools and materials chapter, all the supplies you need are covered in detail. Next come the projects, starting with simple chain stitch patterns and progressing to chunky dimensional rope-like pieces. Each section opens with step-by-step directions accompanied by clear photographs to illustrate the techniques needed for the proceeding projects. The last part of the book, ”Advanced Tips and Tricks,” offers troubleshooting advice and suggestions for making your bead crochet experience as smooth as possible.

Bead Crochet provides all the inspiration and skill you need to create unique jewelry pieces to wear or give as wonderful gifts. From dangling earrings to chunky necklaces and plaited bracelets, these beautiful and intricate-looking pieces are sure to standout and be admired by all.



Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Author of the bestselling 2-at-a-Time Socks and Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks, and a nationally respected knitting instructor and designer, Melissa Morgan-Oakes brings the unique skill and energy of a self-taught knitter to all of her endeavors. She lives, works, and maintains a lifestyle blog (www.melissa-knits.blogspot.com) from her small farm in western Massachusetts where she lives with her husband, pets, a hundred-odd chickens, and half a million or so honey bees.

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Circular Knitting
Circular knitting, or knitting in a tube rather than flat pieces, has benefits over standard straight needles that include seamless finished projects, easy portability, and not having to turn your work. Circular knitting is ideal for socks, sweaters, hats, and even scarves and shawls.
Niche knitting and related technique books, such as Wiley's Teach Yourself VISUALLY Sock Knitting and Teach Yourself VISUALLY Handspinning, have performed well. As beginning knitters build confidence, they look to expand their knowledge and dive into new challenges. For the uninitiated, circular knitting can be intimidating. It is fairly easy to find patterns, but books containing good instruction in the basic techniques are lacking. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Circular Knitting explains, step by step, all the essential methods involved, and provides a variety of patterns so that readers can put their new skills to use.



Nina and Gianna Raqueno
Pancakes of Piggies

All GG Piggy wants for breakfast is some pancakes - but the big bad wolf has other plans for the Piggy family.  What happens when piggies, syrup, pancakes, knitting and a wolf collide?

This story evolved during the nightly ritual of reading classic bedtime tales.  Every time Nina read her daughter a new story, Gianna would beg her to tell it again.  She would plead, "Read it again Mommy, but this time mix it up!"  With Gianna's love of pancakes and Nina's additction to knitting, this story soon became a family favorite.

You can follow Nina's knitting blog at yarnleftovers.wordpress.com or find her on Ravelry.com as yarnleftovers.

Melanie Gall
Classical singer Melanie Gall brings new life to these never-before-recorded lost gems. Gall, an internationally-acclaimed vocalist, has traveled to Africa, South America and the Caribbean to perform at the Semaine de la Francophonie, and she’s been a regular performer at the American Spring Festival in the Czech Republic.
 
Opera roles have included Gilda, La Fée, The Queen of the Night and Lima Energelly in the North American premiere of the Hebrew Opera And the Rat Laughs. Melanie is based in New York, and has sung at both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
 
In the summer of 2011, Melanie wrote and toured two shows throughout Canada and the USA. ‘My Pal Izzy’ was based on the early life of Irving Berlin, and ‘The
Sparrow and The Mouse: Creating the Music of Edith Piaf’ was about French chanteuse Edith Piaf and her half-sister Simone.  In 2012, Melanie toured the show 'More Power to Your Knitting, Nell!', based upon the music from 'Knitting all the Day'.
 
Melanie and her sister Deborah host a popular knitting online radio show, The Savvy Girls Podcast, where they share their knitting (and other) adventures.

Other commercial recordings include: Min HaLev (Sephardic and Hebrew melodies), and La Nuit en Rose (songs from the cabarets of France).
 
"Delivered with style and skill by a master performer" (The Edmonton Sun)
 "A voice the has an ocean of depth" (London Free Press)
 

Description of CD
 
During World War I, thousands upon thousands of women contributed to the war effort by knitting woolen socks, wristlets and other garments for
their soldiers fighting overseas. Knitting, which in the early 20th Century had fallen out of fashion, became the task of anyone old enough to hold
a pair of needles. Popular music reflected this sudden knitting craze. Women were ‘Knitting all the Day’ and they were singing about it, too.

The songs mirrored the loneliness women felt when their sons and husbands went overseas (Each Stitch is a Thought of You) and the way girls put their
knitting duty before everything else (And Then She Knit,Knit, Knit). Knitting circles were still the best place for a gossip (Knocking at the Knitting Club)
and even the sometimes badly-knitted garments that were sent to the trenches ended up as musical fodder (I Wonder Who’s Knitting for Me).

Through knitting, the ‘Soldier Girls at Home’ were an integral part of the war effort.


Da Chen
Da Chen grew up in the deep south of China, running barefoot in muddy fields and riding the backs of water buffaloes. In his tiny Fujian village, water was fetched from an ancient well swimming with snakes, and the only lights that burned in most households were hissing kerosene lanterns. As the grandson of a disgraced landowner, he was a victim of communist political persecution and hollowing poverty during the Cultural Revolution. His family was beaten, his father thrown in reform camp, and young Chen, at the age of nine, was threatened with imprisonment.
Unfailing family love helped him survive in a dysfunctional society and he found unexpected love and friendship with four other hoodlum outcasts, but dreams made him soar above the poverty and persecution. His first encounter with a Christian woman, a Baptist professor, was life changing. She taught him English and opened the possibility of another world. He excelled in college at Beijing Languages and Culture University, and stayed on as a professor of English after graduating top in his class.
Da arrived in America at the age of 23 with $30 in his pocket, a bamboo flute, and a heart filled with hope. He attended Columbia University School of Law on a full scholarship, and upon graduating, worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm of Rothschilds, Inc.

A sweeping story of passion and obsession, set against the upheavals of 19th-century imperial China Samuel Pickens, a blue blood from Connecticut’s Gold Coast, narrates this tale of obsession, lust, and lost love from his home within the walls of the Forbidden City. In his youth, Pickens had fallen passionately in love with his headmaster’s daughter, Annabelle. She had been raised in China and was worldly beyond her years. Though they were just teenagers, their romance quickly blossomed until tragically, only one month after meeting, Annabelle was dead. Initially, Pickens is devastated by the loss, but within days, he believes that Annabelle’s ghost is visiting him, and she will not rest until she is returned to China.        

Pickens becomes the benefactor of a number of lucky coincidences—unless, of course, it is Annabelle who is pulling the strings—that allow him to travel to the Orient. There, he works for the effete and powerless emperor, who keeps a concubine, Qiu Rong, who looks shockingly like dear Annabelle. Pickens cannot hide his desire, and it is requited, but the palace is filled with gossips and thieves at every turn. Once their love is discovered, Qiu Rong and Pickens must escape, but the only one who can help them is a nearby warlord, who has a shocking story of his own to reveal.



Bruce Weinstein
Bruce Weinstein is an expert on men’s knitwear, is a knitwear designer, and the author of KNITS MEN WANT and the forthcoming BOYFRIEND SWEATERS: 19 Designs for Him that You’ll Want to Wear, which goes on sale December 18th of this year!
A relative latecomer to the world of wool, Bruce picked up the needles after a successful career as a chef and food writer with his partner of 16 years. They are award-winning and best-selling authors of over twenty-one cookbooks, including their latest titles; GRAIN MAINS: 101 Surprising and satisfying whole grain recipes for every meal of the day, GOAT: Meat Milk Cheese, and Real Food Has Curves: How To Get Off Processed Food, Lose Weight, And Love What You Eat.
Bruce is the recipient of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for “The best book of easy recipes in the world” with his title COOKING KNOW-HOW and is a featured columnist on weightwatchers.com (“Sundays in the Kitchen With Bruce and Mark”)
He teaches cooking around the world on Holland America Cruises and holds private knitting classes and workshops around the country and in Litchfield County where he shares 8 acres with his partner and a collie and Dreydl.
Read more about Bruce’s knitting adventures and his life in the kitchen at www.bruceandmark.com



      



Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron is one of today's most prolific and popular knitwear designers. Her designs have appeared in Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, Interweave Knits, and other knitting publications. Cathy has also written numerous knitting books, including the bestselling Hattitude and Cowl Girls, both published by Sixth&Spring Books. Cathy sells her custom knitwear designs and blogs about knitting at pondedge.net. She lives in New York City.

Short Story 
Chic Knits for Layering 
By Cathy Carron 
Publisher: Sixth&Spring Books (OCTOBER 2012) 
In the follow-up to her bestselling Hattitude and Cowl Girls, knitwear designer Cathy Carron offers fashion-forward knitters 35 designs for boleros, shrugs, cropped cardis, and short wraps, along with instructions on how to adapt patterns to your own measurements. Carron also includes a brief look at the various forms explored, considers yarn and stitch pattern, gives advice on adjusting for length, and offers ideas for styling short knits. From a ruffled bolero in a “painter's palette” of gorgeous hand-painted yarns to a “short'n sweet” cashmere and silk capelet, these designs are as pleasing to the fingers as they are to the eyes! 160 pages, 8 1/2 X 10, paperback.


Gwen Steege
Knitters are curious, adventurous people with a hunger for everything fiber! Wherever they look, they spot yet another opportunity to add to their repertoire and knowledge — whether it’s knitting with a rare, luscious fiber; learning an intricate technique; or trying exciting patterns from a new designer. The Knitter’s Life List compiles all of these exciting knitting challenges into one beautiful book and gives readers customizable lists in different categories, including resources, tips, and interviews with experts. 

The Knitter’s Life List is a richly illustrated road map to woolly adventures guaranteed to get any knitter’s needles clicking faster. Listing more than 1,000 must-have experiences, this is the ultimate guidebook to everything knitting. Veteran knitter and fiber enthusiast Gwen W. Steege has canvassed the knitting community to create this inspiring compilation, which includes amazing yarns and classic techniques; most loved patterns; profiles of ground-breaking designers based on original interviews; descriptions of museums worldwide with knitting related exhibits; and information on destination festivals and retreats centered around the fiber-loving life. These are the experiences and events no knitter will want to miss. 

Novice knitters and masters alike can flip to the yarn chapter to read about qiviut from the musk ox — and then check it off their list once they’ve made something with that luxury fiber. They will explore classic sweater designs and be encouraged to visit the yarn-friendliest cities. They’ll discover brave folks who delight in yarn-bombing; master intarsia; and even try some spinning, weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and crochet.
 
Author Gwen W. Steege has been a fiber fanatic for nearly 50 years, and she hasn’t tired yet of spending late nights with her knitting needles and a good ball of yarn, sometimes spun from the fleece of her own sheep. By day she edits books on knitting and other fiber crafts for Storey Publishing. She lives in western Massachusetts.


Sarah S. Kilborne
Sarah S. Kilborne is a writer, editor, historian and translator. Her translations include works by Marcel Duchamp, Jean Clair and André Gervais. She is the author of two acclaimed books for children, Peach & Blue, and Leaving Vietnam: The True Story of Tuan Ngo. Peach & Blue was the 2001 Book of the Year for the State of South Carolina Science Teachers Association and Leaving Vietnam was chosen by the L.A. Times as one of the best books for children on the Vietnam War. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in philosophy and has been a fellow at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center at Mount Holyoke College. In her spare time Kilborne is also a musician. She lives along the Hudson River in upstate New York.