Each year, as we leave December in the rear-view and welcome January with a whole-hearted cheers, we at Trafalgar Square Books (www.TrafalgarBooks.com) like to look back and consider the books we published over the past year. Often, the space between Januarys feels like decades, so it can give us a mighty big lift to revisit each project and what it has brought to the world of knitting, crochet, weaving, embroidery, and mosaic.
“We are so lucky to publish amazing new craft books every year and this years list didn’t disappoint,” says TSB Craft Book Editor Kim Cook. “Our niche is all things Scandinavian–crafters can’t get enough of them, and we’ve been told over and over we have the best craft books!”
Watch this short video for a snapshot of the books we published in 2022.
Happy New Year to all from the TSB staff!
Trafalgar Square Books, publisher of fine equestrian and craft books, is a small business based on a farm in rural Vermont.
TSB is SO excited to celebrate Local Yarn Store Day, tomorrow, April 30th! We are incredibly lucky to call many wonderful small yarn stores throughout North America partners in supporting our talented authors. We are incredibly grateful that they continue to value quality craft books and highlight them in their shops and on their websites. Their business helps keep our doors open as niche publishers.
In honor of Local Yarn Store Day, we are featuring our regular customer from our neighboring state of New Hampshire: The Elegant Ewe. We hope that if you are ever in the area you will stop in and say hello, buy some yarn for your next project…and maybe even a book or two.
Opened in 1998, The Elegant Ewe in Concord, New Hampshire, has become a premier destination yarn shop for New England and the greater knitting community. Founded by Marci Richardson, The Ewe has always specialized in high-quality yarns and other fiber arts materials sourced locally and from around the world. We offer our local community experiences with world-renowned knitwear designers, expert knitting instructors, and a friendly, knowledgeable staff that just loves knitting vicariously through our customers! We pride ourselves on having a wide selection of yarns to suit a wide range of projects and tastes as well as a large number of models show-casing the potential of our wares.
Photo courtesy of The Elegant Ewe
In 2005, The Elegant Ewe began producing its own exclusive pattern line for the most part inspired by our customers’ needs and wishes (and some of our own!). This pattern line can now be found for purchase on Ravelry through our Elegant Ewe shop page.
In 2015, Marci Richardson and Amy Goldstein founded our sister company, Elegant Ewe Travel. They have enriched the lives of many fiber fanatics with annual trips to Shetland’s Wool Week, as well as visits all over Scotland, Wales, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. Focusing on the history and beauty of place as well as the role of textile in community, taking a trip with EE Travel has become a highly sought-after experience in the fiber world.
In March of 2022, Marci retired as owner of The Elegant Ewe. We have no doubt she is off to make a splash in some other aspect of life here on earth, including more of a focus on Elegant Ewe Travel. Happily for our fiber community, long-time manager, Kelly Bridges, has taken the helm of The Elegant Ewe. She is thrilled to be able to continue sharing all the excitement of the knitting world with our community and delighted to continue The Ewe’s legacy of quality, enrichment and connection with a few twists of her own!
Kelly can’t wait to start the Bandit Cardigan from SCANDINAVIAN SWEATERS by Kristin Wiola Ødegård.
Join TSB in celebrating Local Yarn Store Day tomorrow, April 30, by showing your local shop some love, and when near Concord, New Hampshire, stop in and visit our friends at The Elegant Ewe (or visit them online HERE).
Trafalgar Square Books, publisher of quality craft and equestrian books, is small business based on a farm in rural Vermont.
The birth of a baby is the perfect occasion for all kinds of gifts—and there’s no better way to welcome brand-new members of the family than with handmade blankets to swaddle them close on the way home, settle them down for a nap, and keep them cozy all night long.
What’s best about knitting baby blankets? They are straightforward, adaptable projects, quick to work and satisfying to finish; and all the inspiration you need to knit the perfect bedtime companion, from comfy cuddle bags to complete child-sized bedspreads, is waiting for you in KNITTED BABY BLANKETS & CUDDLE BAGS by Marta Skadsheim Torkildsen.
Choose between dozens of different stitches and techniques to find the look you want. Add weight and coziness with wide, soft cables; create warmth and loft with relief stitches, not to mention charming texture-effect patterns like swimming fish and shining stars. Or keep it simple with soft, stretchy ribbing, for a blanket that wraps around little arms and legs and stays comfy and secure. There’s even a “preemie” section included, with extra-airy yarns and extra-warm patterns.
And no parent should be without a snug “cuddle bag” or “sleep sack,” worked in touchable, squeezable textures that little hands will love to explore. Whether you prefer a crocheted picot edging and wide, gentle ribbing, or soft, single-color openwork—large enough to make a light, breathable surface, small enough to avoid catching tiny toes—or elegant intertwining cables, these cuddle bags are the perfect solution to cool nights or morning walks in the park.
Using specially selected, baby-soft yarns in extra-fine Merino, baby alpaca, and silk blends, from beloved brands like Dale Garn, Sandnes, and Garnstudio, each of these projects will feel warm and comfortable against newborn skin. Put it all together, and you’ve got the ideal gift for baby showers, the perfect present to let parents know you’re thinking of them, and a thoughtful, handmade addition to the crib.
“Pretty and straightforward, and should keep you happily knitting for a long time,” says CraftGossip.
KNITTED BABY BLANKETS & CUDDLE BAGS by Marta Skadsheim Torkildsen is available from the TSB online bookstore, where shipping in the US is FREE.
The year spins by so quickly that we always need to pause come January and give ourselves a second to look back at what we published in the year prior. Every book is special to us.
In 2021, we brought beautiful Scandinavian design books to you from the very best knitting, crochet and weaving experts around the world. Authors and contributors included Arne & Carlos, Maja Karlsson, Anne Bårdsgård, and Nina Granlund Sæther. We gave you mittens, hats, sweaters, slippers, socks, and more. Take a look back with us and see which books you’ve already added to your collection and what might be missing!
What are your favorites? What is our list missing? We love to hear from you, so reach out and let us know which quality craft books are missing from bookstore shelves. And stay tuned–we have a whole lot in store for you in the months ahead.
Happy New Year!
–The TSB Staff
Trafalgar Square Book, publisher of fine equestrian and craft books, is a small business based on a farm in rural Vermont.
This year, April 22 marks the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, a day when we recognize the beauty and value of the natural world around us and make new efforts to clean up our surroundings, protect our environment and the myriad creatures within it, and support efforts to ensure a healthy globe for generations to come.
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Restore Our Earth,” and we will all find ways to make steps, small and large, toward that goal. One small, and very easy step is always carrying a reusable shopping bag with you and using it as often as possible. Even better? Make your bag yourself.
Fun knitting fact for fans of the PBS Masterpiece series Atlantic Crossing: During the German occupation, Norwegians knitted pro-Norwegian slogans and designs that honored King Haakon, as an act of resistance! The royal family also favored traditional Norwegian patterning in their own clothes (including the three-year-old then-Prince Harald, pictured below), a timeless look that persists today in contemporary Norwegian knitting.
Prince Harald, shown above a few days after his third birthday, wore the same outfit when the royal family fled Norway on the night of April 9, 1940, to escape the German invasion. The knitted sweater was saved so we know that the outfit was all red and white. (Photo and fact from MITTENS FROM AROUND NORWAY by Nina Granlund Sæther, published by TSB.)
If you’re following Atlantic Crossing, or just a fan of Scandinavian knitting, we want to give you a free pattern that resembles the one worn by Prince Harald. Please enjoy “Autumn Blocks” from our new book SCANDINAVIAN SWEATERS by Kristin Wiola Ødegård.
From Scandinavian Sweaters by Kristin Wiola Ødegård, published by TSB.
Just in time for the weekend, this free knitted sock pattern is springing up here for you to enjoy! (And if you knit quickly, you can even treat the Easter Bunny…)
Edelgard Janssen and Ute Eismann have elevated sock knitting into an art form in their book SOCK ART. Inspired by nature and the treasures of ancient cultures, fascinating designs that stimulate the senses are their for the plucking: A fresh Lily of the valley pattern lets go spring fragrance into the nose, fiery red lizard socks radiate the shimmering heat of Africa, a color harmony in Azure brings back memories of Greece…and so much more.
Taylor Swift’s pandemic album Folklore, featuring the hit song “Cardigan,” won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and we’re celebrating with a FREE BOOK OFFER!
That’s right! MY FAVORITE CARDIGANS TO KNIT by designer Birgitta Forslund, featuring 24 patterns. “A collection of cardigans that span the seasons, drawing inspiration from work and play,” says Knit Simple. “Whatever your passion (pottery? theater? the tango?), you’ll find the perfect layering piece. … Chic choices abound no matter your mood.”
As Taylor Swift proved this past year, the cardigan sweater is always in style, and there are many ways to wear it: unbuttoned with a belt around the waist, buttoned up for warmth and comfort, or maybe a cropped design over a dress or your exercise outfit. The possibilities are endless, and the advantage of knitting your own is you can make changes to fit your body and your style. Play with color, make it longer or shorter, add a pocket or collar…create your own one-of-a-kind cardigan.
Let’s celebrate CARDIGANS! We want to give you a FREE BOOK of patterns! CLICK HERE
Watch Taylor Swift’s performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards:
Trafalgar Square Books, publisher of fine equestrian and craft books, is a small business based on a farm in rural Vermont.
Trying to figure out what to do for someone special this Valentine’s Day? Nothing says you care like something handmade, and we have just the ticket: These “Knit with Love” socks are yours for the making! From the popular WILD MITTENS & UNRULY SOCKS by Lumi Karmitsa, these socks say it all.
There’s no denying she’s got a super-fun and distinctive look, and we of course LOVE the fact that she uses knit and crochet to express herself through fashion.
If you follow Ella Emhoff on Instagram, you’ve seen some of her playful and colorful creations. She’s closed to commissions, and of course, as reported by the New York Times last week, embarking on a modeling career, so there’s little chance we’ll score a pair of her coveted striped or patchwork knit pants. BUT, we found a pattern for handknit tights in our book KNITTING EVERYDAY FINERY by Mel Clark that feels like something right out of Ella’s closet. And we’re giving it to you! Free!
Needles, Hooks, and Lovers of Books 