Well, I am indeed going to go to the mini reunion. And there will be a knitting connection. One of my classmates, Gayle, is a knitting designer/artist (you can see her work here and here). She's pretty awesome.
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My KnitPicks book order arrived a few days ago.
I love, love, love knitting books, and there are items on my shelf that I've poured over multiple times, daydreaming, plotting and picking up information. So far, I've just skimmed this lot, but I'm looking forward to more careful and more intense perusal in the near future.
The Wiseman Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques is a nice little primer, spiral bound, which is handy and of a good size for throwing into a knitting bag. After a quick look, I don't expect to find much that is new to me here, but I think it will be a good quick reference and possibly a good teaching resource.
I bought Lace Style partly for eye candy, partly just because I love that cover jacket so much and partly to study how other designers incorporate lace into garments (both from an aesthetic and a technical standpoint). I don't knit a lot of other people's patterns (though I wish I had time to do more), but boy do I study them. I'm not interested in knitting the dress with the handkerchief hem. It's too goofy (or too fashion forward, depending on your point of view) for me to wear. But I am interested in looking at how it was accomplished.
The Selbuvotter book has a little history (I would have liked more, but that's just me), and a lot of mitten charts, including a couple that are intriguingly different from any I've seen elsewhere, so that's satisfying. And I like the way the charts are laid out, with with the left palm and the right palm on either side of the back, which means no mentally flipping the thumb placement for the second mitten. One of those brilliant ideas that never occurred to me, though once I saw it I couldn't figure how I has missed such an obvious approach.
Janet Szabo's Aran Sweater Design is the one I have looked at least so far, because it is the one that looks like it will most repay truly careful study. I want to set myself down with that baby and really pour over it. So not even an interim report yet, but I'll get there.
Monday, July 16, 2007
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2 comments:
Cindy, I'm glad you decided to go, and I hope it's even more fun than you expect it to be.
I'll be interested on your review of the Szabo book. I generally just put my Aran sweaters together based on what patterns appeal to me that day, and I'm sure I could learn something more from a good book.
What I like about Finishing Techniques is that it tells you the benefits and disadvantages of each technique. I own this book and the Compendium, and I found FT to be more helpful when searching for a stretchy bind-off for my first toe-up sock because it clearly said "this one is rigid, this one is stretchy, and so on". I think you'll find it more valuable than at first glance. :-)
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