Knit your own pet! This book includes patterns for 16 different feline breeds – including sleek Siamese, precious Persian and loving long hair. The cats are surprisingly easy to make, so it will only take a few evenings to create a covetable companion for life. Idiosyncratic descriptions of the various breeds accompany beautiful photography, making this book irresistible for both keen knitters and devoted cat-lovers.

Grace Bonney created her Design*Sponge website and blog (www.designsponge.com) as an antidote to the fussy and expensive home and design magazines of her mother’s generation, leading The New York Times to dub the site, with its 60,000 daily readers, ‘Martha Stewart Living for millennials.’ Design*Sponge at Home is Bonney’s definitive guide to home decor for house-proud homeowners and renters who adore soaking up design ideas and using them as inspiration to decorate and personalise their own homes. It contains peeks of 75 real-life interiors where the decor was culled from flea markets and the owners’ imaginations, as well as a ‘Decorating Basics’ section with tutorials on everything from stripping and painting furniture to hanging wallpaper and doing your own upholstery.

From one of the authors of Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti (Arsenal Pulp Press. PB. $23.95) comes another showcase for those who take craft where it’s never gone before. Hoopla profiles innovative stitch artists who specialize in unusual, guerrilla-style patterns such as subway maps, feminist Girl Guide badges and metal band letterforms, demonstrating that modern embroidery artists are as sharp as the needles with which they work. Includes comprehensive instructions.

The very crafty Pip Lincolne is back with a third book of 20 sweet and whimsical projects that will delight her devoted fans. Step-by-step instructions are accompanied by helpful illustrations showing you how to make bike-seat covers made from vintage fabric, crochet baubles to decorate your house or car, hand-print gift bags, and customise your own ceramics. With comprehensive sections on sewing, crochet and knitting basics, Make Hey While the Sun Shines is perfect for anyone who is interested in handmaking their own beautiful things.

This is not just a book about loving vintage fashion – it’s about seeing the possibilities for reinventing all old clothes, and how to look fabulous doing so whatever your age or budget. From the creator of the popular The Crafty Minx blog (www.thecraftyminx. com.au) comes this fabulous compilation of over 50 projects ranging from customised frocks, wedding dresses and trench coats to cardigans and accessories. Kelly Doust combines her love for fashion with creativity and an enthusiasm for craft, explaining how to transform stained, musty, dated clothes into modern and unique pieces.

Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, film and fashion that is set in or references an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. The latest book from the creators of Zombie Felties (Penguin. PB. $19.95) spotlights steampunk with a raffish cast of characters for you to make, each with his or her own unique personality. From Charity Storm, the aviatrix who sports a set of built-in wings, to Tompion Zeitgeist, the sinister illusionist with mesmerising eyes, each of the eight little softies in this book shares key steampunk characteristics, firmly rooted in a past that never quite existed. Includes illustrated step-by-step instructions and hints and tips to ensure that every softie emerges in full