Knitting Library. Treasures And Disappointments

BooksKnitting

Sep 9

Written By

Knitting and Reading Yarn Along

Today I want to share with you some books from my knitting library. Some of them became my constant reference books and some of them unfortunately were a disappointment...

Knitting library

"Sweater Design in Plain English" by Maggie Righetti.For me it is a good old technical knitting book that breaks down and explains the main aspects of a sweater construction. It's definitely not an inspirational book that sits on your coffee table that you pick up from time to time to look at beautiful pictures of knitwear and dream of future projects. Black-and-white blurry photography and lots of schematics of different sweater shapes with a great amount of technical text and lots of basic mathematical formulas are what to be found inside of it. And you know - I absolutely love it! All the information is concise and clear with a great amount of technical tips. I referred to "Sweater Design" in my modification project - St. Brigid cardigan - a lot. And it served me well."Designing Knitwear" by Deborah Newton.When my friend told me that she wanted to thank me in some way for the dress that I made for her as a gift to one of her best friends (Pure dress), I immediately knew what I wanted - "Get me Deborah Newton, please!!!". "Designing Knitwear" can be called a technical book as well, but it is so much more! I had a feeling that I got into a studio of a knitwear designer and she walks you through her creative process starting with inspiration and ending with a finished product. The book gets some criticism that there is a lot of "I" in there - "This is how I do it", "My process looks like this...", "I use...", "I choose...". But in my opinion there is no other way to show the designing process! Each designer has a unique style and Deborah mentions it in the book - over the time you will develop your own style, but you can start with the process that I show you here (not the exact quote, but this is the phrase that really stuck in my head). There is no book that can show you the universal method! As for the knitting projects, honestly, I wouldn't knit any of them, but again so many years have passed since the publication and of course, some styles are outdated! I am sure that some popular patterns of our days will look old-fashioned in the future. You can't help it."The New Knitter's Template" by Laura Militzer Bryant and Barry KleinYou know how I love modifications and when I saw this book I thought - this is exactly what I need! But when it came in mail, to be honest, I felt slightly disappointed... The book is just 80 pages and many of these pages are just pictures of yarn. I don't mind looking at yarn pictures at all, I love them! But I expected more information. Basically this book didn't have anything new for me. Templates for different gauges and sizes are pretty helpful, but if you are looking specifically for this kind of information, I would recommend "The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns". I got it back in August and had it for three weeks before the hurricane came and torn it apart :) But I am definitely going to rebuy it - it was very helpful!Last but not least, "Knitwear Design Workshop" by Shirley PadenThis is my favorite reference book! 300+ pages of valuable information, beautiful layout and gorgeous intricate patterns as a bonus! This book really made me more aware of the knitwear construction and the logic behind it! Though I was always fond of modifying and customizing the patterns, I was doing it mostly intuitively without fully realizing what I was doing. It is not the only book that you will ever need in your knitting library, of course. Not all construction methods are touched upon, but the amount of provided information is absolutely worth the money! I used it a lot while figuring out the construction of my Soho Dress.

Knitting

This is where you can find me these afternoons catching the last glimpses of sunshine.I carry my crochet blanket everywhere now :) Slowly progress on the Flax sweater for my husband and my favorite book of all time. 3 years ago I fell in love with "A Moveable Feast" and it still doesn't let me go...