Suggested Books – Cont'd

This is an interesting compilation put together by Nancie Wiseman specializing in lace edgings.

This book covers a great deal of introductory material, but is recommended for knitters who want to design garments using any yarn and any stitch pattern.  Ms. Zimmerman’s very interesting design approach uses “percentages” to determine fit.

This is a general knitting book with several practical projects from which one can get good ideas – especially for gifts and home decorating.  The “Mason-Dixon After Dark” section has a very nice nightgown and robe that would look absolutely stunning with a more sophisticated lace stitch and knit in either wool-silk or 100% silk yarn.  The best thing about this book is that it is light and funny.

Barbara Walker’s “Treasury” books are a classic among professional knitwear designers, and perhaps among the best knit stitch reference books I’ve come across.  The photographs are all black-and-white, which may be somewhat unexciting, but they allow the knitter to focus on structure and form.  The instructions are clear, and in most cases Ms. Walker either suggests what type of garment the pattern is most suitable for, or guides the reader so that one can adapt stitch patterns.  The only possible drawback to this book is that it does not use charts, but it is fairly easy to translate the patterns into charts.  The chapter on lace is my favorite.  The most fascinating thing about lace knitting lies in the fact that no two knitters have the same hand, and even so, if one knits a swatch consistently and blocks it “to taste,” the results may not look exactly like Ms. Walker’s photographs but they will be beautiful all the same.

Everything we said about “A Treasury of Knitting Patterns” applies to this book as well, except that there are many more patterns!

The advantage that this book brings to sweater design is that Ms. Fee is clearly a disciple of Ms. Walker and Ms. Zimmerman, so she is able to compile those two knowledge bases and add her own creative insights and ideas.  A very good book.