The Story Blanket

I picked up a picture book at our local independent bookstore. The Story Blanket, written by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz, illustrated by Elena Odriozola. I am always on the lookout for new and fresh looking illustration styles and the cover of this book, immediately jumped out at me.

I leafed through my new find and was happy to see that the cover wasn't the only lovely illustration there. Believe me, it happens often that a book doesn't measure up to it's cover, but not this time. "You didn't read the story?" you ask me, "It's a picture book, a quick read!" I have to admit a little secret of mine, I didn't read the story, and it's certainly not the first time I buy a book just for the art. Last night I read The Story Blanket to my 3 year old daughter. Oh, what a nice tale. I loved it. The main character Baba Zarrah unravels her beautiful story blanket piece by piece to secretly knit warm clothes for the villagers. There is a lot of snow and no way to go to the town for new yarn. The story is sweet and warm and good. And, as I said before, the illustrations are great. Every single page is beautiful. Elena Odriozola, I am a big fan. The layouts and use of white space in masterful, the bright colors complement each other fabulously and the character design is original and fresh. A new favorite book in our picture book library.

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Knit Bella & Bean Hat

I know, it's been a while... What can I say. I have been knitting. After being asked a few times if the Bella & Bean hats were available somewhere, I decided to knit a couple of sample hats. You know Bella & Bean, from the book Rebecca Kai Dotlich wrote and I illustrated. The one that is at the top of your shopping list! Anyway, so here it is the hat as Bean sports it in our book, and below is the knit version.

It's a pretty tall hat!

I am planning to make some in different colored stripes. Maybe I will have to open that Etsy shop I've been thinking about, after all.

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Lovely Mayfest

In between rain showers, in a nearby park, we celebrated the coming of spring, with people from my daughter's school. Everybody brought flowers to share for making crowns, we danced around a Maypole holding ribbons and we shared a delicious picnic. We had a lovely time and I wanted to share some pictures with you on this dreary NY day.

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