Knitting: Colour, Structure and Design [Rilegato]

This is not your typical knitting book. It's opening sentence states that "This book will look at hand knitting as a way of constructing fabric and three dimensional shapes in a creative way, rather than following the conventional knitting pattern formula of describing flat, patterned shapes to be joined together by sewing." The book also explores how different types of yarn effect the drape of a pattern - how it hangs and how stretchy it is.

The book provides a history of knitting from pre-history until the present. It then proceeds to types of stitches and how they work. In this section, a multitude of stitches is provided along with samples, both written and charted. Modular and entrelac techniques are reviewed. Techniques of knitting comes next and the author encourages that knitting be done in a comfortable setting, emphasizing that there are a number of ways to knit and "there is no official way of knitting". Colour is a large section of the book "Working with colour opens up a whole world of more possibilities in knitting, both in creating patterns, geometric or free-form, and also in combining stitches and colours to get more subtle or intense effects." Stripes, zigzags, curves, Fair Isle knitting, and mixed methods are only some of the types of coloured knitting covered. There is a nice section on colour theory and a good section on dying yarn. The next section deals with the materials that make up yarn. These include animal fibres such as sheep, goat, camelids and silk. Plant fibers include cotton, linen, hemp, ramie and bamboo. There are also man-made fibers. The next section covers joining, finishing, edges and extras. It offers various techniques for knitting such as different types of cast-ons, ways to lengthen materials, joining techniques, buttonholes and double knitting. The last section of the book concludes with patterns. Most of them are modular and multi-coloured.

While the book includes a lot of information, I'm not sure what its intent is. It seems to be all over the place and is not really a pattern book and not really a colour book and not really an information book. It is a little bit of each of these things. I think, based on the title, that it should have focused more on design which is not really included much at all. It is a compendium of a lot of things, many useful and others somewhat arcane.

There are, however, many things that I would use in this book and the explanations are rather good. For instance, the section on cast-ons is excellent as is the section on colour theory. The book is written in the UK by Alison Ellen and perhaps the focus on knitting there is different than it is in the United States. I would use this book to look up and clarify things that are not covered as well in other books. The patterns are okay but not that special, unless you like modular knitting or entrelac, neither of which I'm a great fan of.

This is not your standard "Knit me! Knit me now!" book of enticing patterns. It's more a technical knitting book on how stitches work to shape and bend themselves into design features. For those of you who enjoy branching out from written patterns and creating your own designs, or who want to get into the "physics" of knitting, this is for you.

The information in this book goes over how stitches bend and shape (ie, motif knitting, mitered squares, modular knitting, and entrelac) and how color affects design (ie stripes) as well as a discussion of lace. There is also a discussion of how to take advantage of colors in strands of yarn (dots, bands of color that are repeated over the skein) and implement them in design. And there is information on grafting and joining as well as finishing, which is helpful for knitting strips or making a design that employs parts that are joined to make a whole.

The good news: many beautiful photos of motifs and their details. There is a lot about modular and entrelac. A lot of ideas here. The bad news: this book is over-ambitious, though I am sympathetic to the problem. Knitting knowledge is VAST. The authors have made a huge foray into the absolutely diverting subject of how to manipulate stitches, motifs and colors to achieve fascinating results but they obviously wanted to do it all, and ...well, you cannot do it all. There is a little about a lot, but not a lot about every single subject (ie, lace.) I think the author bit off more than she could chew in a subject as broad as this--for instance, I would have left out entirely the history chapter, even though it's interesting and important. There just isn't time to do it justice and it's not as germane to the subject as how stitches work to create shapes and designs. Ditto info on ethnic knitting traditions. This subject is a vastness unto itself and again, though relevant, not central to the book's intent.

If you love knitting design, however, or like modular or "domino" knitting and entrelac in particular, you are going to LOVE this book. It lets you get ideas to play around, to "bend and shape" your knitting, playing with small motifs to get exciting combinations and ideas. But I'd use this book in concert with other design books (among many others, Deborah Newton, Vivian Hoxbro, Anna Zilboorg and Susanna Lewis' book Lace Knitting ) if you want more depth into designing knit motifs and patterns. I do like this book and I'm going to play with many of the ideas in here, but it would have been a better book if the author could have restricted the subject just to stitch, motif, color and design. Believe me, if I were writing a knitting book, I'd face the same dilemma of wanting to put it ALL in my book, because knitters just love their craft and all its aspects, but sometimes, less is more. Hence, four stars.

I started knooking (knitting with a crochet hook with a cord) last year and have been trying to find references on knit stitch construction that imparts technical knowledge usually lacking in almost all knitting books and patterns. This book delivers this information. Things I found most helpful:
*stitch construction explained with text, pictures and standardized diagrams
*how various stitch combinations work together to create various fabric types with interesting examples
*detailed explanation on the directional joining processes in modular knitting -the pictures clear up confusion on where to pick up stitches on previous modules
*clear text and illustrations on joining techniques
*technical information on yarns and how yarn construction can affect your knitting
*a great overview on the use of color with helpful examples
*a final bonus of some interesting mostly modular projects using techniques outlined in the book
If you are looking to understand knitting on a technical level and gain insight on knitting design then this is the book for you.