This book aims to teach readers how to take their knitting from one color to beautiful color gradients weather through bold stripes are subtitle mix ins. The author does a good job making color theory easy to understand, and the patterns included look fun and actually doable. My galley was “optimized” for digital reading and while no words were missing, may of the beautiful pictures were cut off. But what I could see looked like very fun projects to make and wear. ( )

I grew up in a town without a yarn shop. In those long lost days before mail order knitters were at the mercy of the local 5 & 10, and those stores stocked baby weight and worsted weight synthetic yarns, brightly colored and machine washable. Variegated worsted yarns tended to jump across colors more than gradual shifts within color families. Multicolored knitting was usually stripes. There are lots of variegated knitted and crocheted afghans in my community.

That is not what this book is about. Today knitters can choose among thousands of yarns of all weights and composition and, thanks to the availability of a wide range of knitting help, online and in books, the ambitious artisan can do almost anything the mind can imagine in thread.

In the same way that detailed instruction on shaping is useful, even for experienced knitters, direct instruction on color changes in knitting will result in more creative and skilled use of color. Here we are seeking gradual color changes rather than contrasts to give the desired effects.

The book begins with a discussion of color theory. The explanation is too simplistic and thus not exactly accurate. There are whole books devoted to color choice in display and crafts. Some of the best online sources are prepared by Cynthia Brewer a famous cartographer. I use her book on designing better maps as a color guide. Cartographers work in print and thus have more perfect control over color choice than knitters, but Ms Brewer's discussion of how color choices affect usefulness and beauty is relevant to all color applications.

From color the book moves on to a few methods of color switching and suggests some swatches. I found this discussion unclear and had a hard time identifying what was being shown in the swatches. There is no instruction on advanced color knitting techniques like brioche, although one of the patterns is knitted in brioche.

These introductory sections are only about 15 mostly-white pages. From there the book jumps right into patterns, which is ridiculous. The patterns are just ordinary patterns for hats, tops, scarves, and shrugs, shown in gradient colors. There isn't enough instruction for beginners and the book is too simplistic for experienced knitters.

I would not recommend this book to anyone. If you are interested in color, look at books on color theory. If you need instruction on knitting techniques, there are loads of excellent ones.

I received a review copy of "Gradient Style: Color-Shifting Techniques & Knitting Patterns" edited by Kerry Bogert (F+W Media) through NetGalley.com. ( )

Gradient Style informs about knitting with color: color-shifting projects, fundamentals of the color wheel, gradient yarns, etc. The techniques for gradient patterns include even and uneven striping and double stranding. If all of this sounds overwhelming, fear not as the instructions are well-detailed and simple to grasp. The book also presents 19 patterns to practice your color skills on: tees, socks, mittens, hats, cowls, shawls, pullovers, cardigans and scarves. Gradient Style is a useful and beautifully-photographed addition to any knitting bookshelf. Thank you to Interweave and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )