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| Most helpful customer reviews 64 of 64 people found the following review helpful. This book is not a pattern book so if you’re looking for out-of-the-box patterns, this book is not for you. Rather, this is a designer’s handbook, a tutorial, a workshop, a reference for knitting sweaters that fit the way the knitter wants them to fit. The first five chapters alone are worth the price of the book. Here, they discuss measuring and charting, increases, decreases, figuring gauge, short rows, neckline shapings, sleeve styles, and a host of other technique issues. The authors use charts, diagrams, fill in the blank forms, and readable text to teach the reader how to measure in the right spots and how to create fit–all in an amazingly short volume. I believe the actual projects and patterns are only there as an aid for the reluctant or less sure knitter to put feet to the teaching done in the first five chapters. In addition, they constitute a gallery of possibilities and idea starters, especially when it comes to color. They serve to get the ball rolling, but regardless, the fit is still up to the knitter, not the pattern, if the first section is taken seriously. Honestly, if a knitter reads the first five chapters, follows the suggestions, measures the curves of the body, accurately figures gauge, fills in the forms to guide the process and uses the aids provided, and then knits a boxy unattractive sweater, they have no one to blame but themselves. I’m impressed that the authors have provided such encouragement to explore and experiment. If this book were full of designer sweaters and perfect specimens of fashion displayed on perfect models, it would lose much of its influence. This book appeals to the everyday and physically imperfect woman who is an adventurer and an artist at heart. Isn’t that most of us who knit? This book is the best and first step to leaving pattern dependency behind since Elizabeth Zimmermann. 50 of 53 people found the following review helpful. “I’ve knitted hundreds of sweaters but have never knitted the same one twice. Most of them sprang from the same roots, but something always changed: the yarn, the size, the shape; usually all three. As I spoke with other twisted sisters, I found that, as handspinners, most of us had to adapt either our yarn to fit a pattern or the pattern to fit our yarn.” This is one of the more frustrating parts of knitting with handspun yarn if you’re just getting your feet wet. I attempted to solve some of that frustration in Spin to Knit: The Knitter’s Guide to Making Yarn, particularly in my Faux Fair Isle sweater pattern — by making just the yoke in handspun, for example, you know you’re not going to run out halfway through the sweater and be stuck without more of the same “dyelot” — or “spinlot,” if you prefer. But Lynne and her Twisted Sisters take it a step farther, brilliantly, with the Knitter Fitter system. (A sidenote: Some of the sweaters in the book were on exhibit at a gallery when I was down to take pictures of Lynne’s dyeing class for Spin to Knit, and I can attest that photos don’t (cannot) do them justice). There’s valuable sections on knitting with handpainted yarns and calculating how much yarn you’ll actually need. But the cornerstone of the book is the Knitter Fitter system, comprising the Fitter List and the Sweater Map. The List is measurements you need to know to get started, and the sweater map, not surprisingly, shows you where you’re going with those measurements. If you like using noncommercial yarns, if you’re a spinner or just a fan of handspun, you will adore this book. If you’ve got a massive stash that varies in yarn shape and style? You can use this book to help create some truly one of a kind stashbusting sweaters. No matter what your personal knitting style and yarn preferences, The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters will give you both great information and inspiration to use. 22 of 23 people found the following review helpful. |
Not a Pattern Book
