Emma King

I LOVE this book! It's laid out well, the patterns and directions are very clear, and I love the photos and the patterns.

First of all, and I know you've heard it before, I love toys even though I can't make them. This book once again makes me want to desperately try. I love how the book is set up - an easy bear to make (and some clothes), a harder bear to make (and different clothes), and lastly, the hardest and biggest bear in the bunch to make, with more clothes. The bears are knitted flat, but an knitter can easily convert the bears to being knit in the round to save some of the seaming chores.

The clothes are only written for each individual bear size, but again, an experienced knitter can easily make them a little bigger or smaller to fit the bear you knit. You can also adjust yarn weight & needle size to make the bears a little bigger or smaller.

Most of the outfits are beyond cute - I love the wizard and pirate outfits the best - and a few are rather simple, like the princess dress.

Any knitter who enjoys toys and making them for the children in their life - or big kids like me! - will love this book.… (más)

I like colour and I like knitting, so this book seemed perfect. The book focuses quite a bit on theory, which I found really interesting as I hadn’t considered colour in relation to knitting before. The many different swatches allow the theory to be seen in practice. I didn’t agree with everything the authors said, but I don’t think I was necessarily meant to. One of the first sections is on personal responses to colour, for example. The part I found most interesting was the section on colours and their values, .i.e, the range from white to black. The authors advise taking a photocopy of your colour scheme so that the relative darkness/lightness of a colour can be seen in relation to the others. When I tried it, the results were surprising. I attempted to get thirteen colours in order from lightest to darkest, and I broadly managed it, but there were some colours that were completely out of place. It really made me think about what I was doing. There is a project after each concept so that the skills learned can be practiced. I don’t know if I’ll complete any of these, but the extra examples were useful. Colour ratios and choice of stitch are also discussed in relation to how they affect the appearance of a finished piece.

Techniques such as joining in yarn are covered near the start, which is useful, but there aren’t many sections like this. Fair isle knitting is covered, but not cables or bobbles, for example. These are also illustrations rather than photographs, which would ordinarily hinder my ability to follow, but the use of coloured yarn and an outline for the hands make the technique clearer to see than most. One area where I could have done with a demonstration of technique was a two-colour cable, which looked great, but there was no explanation of how to achieve it, which was a little frustrating.

This is a great reference for ideas and colour theories. Even if you bung their ideas in the bin and go your own way, it’s a good jumping off point.… (más)

While there are many good books on color out there, few of them are written with knitters in mind. Up until now, the only one I'd read was Color Works by Deb Menz, and Menz's book covers several crafts, not just knitting. This book focuses entirely on knitting and does it well. After a couple of chapters introducing color and color theory, the authors explore how best to use color with knitting-specific techniques. There are chapters on how different stitches change our perception of the colors they're knit in; the effects of beads, edgings and buttons; and of course, intarsia (including entrelac) and Fair Isle. Each chapter concludes with a pattern that features that chapter's topic.

I think the Fair Isle chapter will be especially useful, because the authors outline a procedure for re-coloring a Fair Isle palette and one for inventing your own palette. I've always thought either of these would be overwhelming, but these instructions make them look possible(!). And I'm impressed that the authors fit all of this into a mere 160 pages—there's very little wasted space in this book. I look forward to putting its lessons into practice.… (más)