Sunday 5 June 2011

The Bush Jumper

I received a lovely surprise this week from Knitting magazine. A reader all the way from Australia had sent me a parcel! Bronwyn Benn from Burwood, Victoria had read my article about my growing collection of knitting related children’s books and decided to add to it.

The Bush Jumper by Jean Chapman and Ali Beck is a story that Bronwyn’s own children loved to read as they were growing up. As it’s full of Australian animals, plants and imagery I don’t think I’ll ever forget who we received this lovely gift from.

The book tells the story of a little Koala call Mitti who wants her Mum to knit her a jumper. But whilst knitting the second sleeve her Mum runs out of yarn; it’s happened to the best of us! So instead she knits a multi coloured sleeve in all the colours of the Bush. Mitti doesn’t like the jumper but her friends love it and want to try it on, which is when all the trouble and fun begins!

The book is beautifully drawn and coloured in pencil and I particularly liked the accuracy of the knitting process.

“Clicketty-click-click-click! Koala knitted and knitted. She knitted the back of the jumper, then the front, then one sleeve”

I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d have described how she washed, blocked and sewn each piece too!

This is a lovely book and is a very special one to add to the collection that so far consists of: Knitting Nell, Little Bear’s Big Jumper and Mr Nick’s Knitting. Thank you so much to Bronwyn for thinking of us and sending us such a thoughtful present. Mwah!

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely surprise! How exciting is that! I very much like the accurate knitting terminology too. I found a book called Noodle's Knitting which I bought as a present and it's beautiful. However the long, straight, stocking stitch scarf under construction is apparently made with a continuous repeat of "knit one purl one knit two together". Disappointing.

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  2. That's so nice. The cover certainly looks beautiful.

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