Noelle R. B. Stiles is Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at New Jersey Medical School. She is a core member of the Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research within the Brain Health Institute at Rutgers. She was a vision research scientist at the University of Southern California in the Department of Ophthalmology for over 5 years, and earned a doctorate in Neuroscience from the Computation and Neural Systems Program at the California Institute of Technology.

Her research focuses on studying how the brain changes and adapts when vision is lost and when it is restored. She currently works with retinal prosthesis patients, who have vision restored by means of a biomedical implant and performs psychophysical evaluations and neuroimaging with these individuals. She also studies how the senses interact and has innovated new illusions such as the Audiovisual Rabbit Illusion (https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCpsQ8LZOco), which has over half a million views on YouTube.

Dr. Stiles has always been artistically as well as scientifically inclined (perhaps inherited from her artist paternal grandmother and math-teacher maternal grandmother). She has been crocheting for two decades and designing award-winning crochet items for over eight years. She was the winner in the Baby Category for the 2017 Herrschners Grand National Afghan Contest. Under her designer label, Rebecca's Stylings (rebeccasstylings.com), she has designed patterns for Red Heart Yarns, and has published over 150 crochet patterns on Love Crafts, WeCrochet, Ravelry, and Etsy. The focus of her fiber art is complex Aran-style cabling made with standard crochet stitches. This texture-rich fabric created in bright modern colors is the perfect canvas for her intricate yet intuitive designs.

Award-winning crochet designer (and neurologist) Stiles has written a book that offers much more than advice and 20 patterns to try; it also presents a nuanced discussion of how color affects the brain. Her book moves from the speculative to the spectacular with colorful designs that incorporate multicolored yarn and intricate crochet cables. For each pattern, Stiles provides yarn suggestions, lists the difficulty level, and gives both written instructions and a chart. The easiest patterns rely more on the yarn selection than the technique but still require some knowledge of crochet that may be beyond beginner level. But each project--scarves, cardigans, gloves, hats, ambitious blankets, and more--has a wow factor that's worth the effort. The book also includes references for further reading. VERDICT A unique approach to crocheting that's backed by science. It's suitable for advanced fiber artists who are ready to explore the magic that cablework and colors can add to their creations.

-- "Library Journal"

A unique approach to crocheting that's backed by science. It's suitable for advanced fiber artists who are ready to explore the magic that cablework and colors can add to their creations.

-- "Library Journal"

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Pub date: 2024-07-16

Length: 176 pages