45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit [Paperback]

Anna Zilboorg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1999

A knitting book from a successful designer and author that features jazzy hats with bright colors, vibrant patterns, and sophisticated styling. Each hat is shown in full color and is accompanied by easy-to-follow pattern charts. Nine hat styles are given, from classic berets and toques to innovative designs such as pentagons, stars, and domes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anna Zilboorg is the kind of artist and craftswoman who comes along only rarely. Her previous book, Fancy Feet, integrated a unique color creativity with traditional fiber folk traditions of Turkey. In 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit, she presents nine basic hat shapes, from a fairly standard (but colorfully interpreted) beret to amazing geometric structures such as an onion dome and a six-pointed star (knitted in two layers). Enjoy breaking the constraints of knitting "normal" hats and set yourself free. For those who really want to follow directions, Zilboorg's charts are unusually clear and her directions are brief and uncomplicated.

From Library Journal

Zilboorg's earlier Fancy Feet: Knitting Patterns of Turkey (Lark, 1994) was notable for its lack of "fluff"?just gorgeous patterns, simply presented. Now Zilborg uses the same approach with knitted hats. All manner of exotic, richly patterned woolen caps are included, among them toques, berets, Egyptian hats, and onion domes. Basic instructions for each type of hat; full-color, one-page photographs; and charts for each design variation fill the book. Highly recommended for those knitting collections catering to the experienced knitter.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579900097
• ISBN-13: 978-1579900090
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, Cheerful Inspiration, February 21, 2001

By 

Lilinah "bibliophiliac" (San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit (Paperback)

If you like knitting in the round or making small portable projects, this is an excellent book. I'm a beginning knitter - I have only been knitting 6 months and am completely self-taught - and I've made several hats from this book, adapting head bands from one, body patterns from another, and shapes from a third, in my own colors. While there may be nine basic shapes, the permutations are much greater than the 45 in the title.

The charts are clear and helpful (I gather there are minor problems with some, but I haven't had any trouble deciphering them). Zilboorg gives clear directions for various types of beginnings and finishings. As a neophyte, I found them easy to follow.

Each hat took a couple evenings and was quite enjoyable to do. The shapes and colors are uplifting and lots of fun to knit and to wear. I've been recommmending this book to people who have admired my knitting. And wearing one of these hats is a great way to brighten your day and keep you head warm at the same time.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful hats, terrible charts, December 22, 2004

By 

M. Smith (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit (Paperback)

The hat ideas are wonderful. Too bad there are so many errors in the charts. I contacted Lark books for a copy of their errata (a correction sheet for the errors in this book). What I received was a very poor photocopy of the corrected charts. The corrected charts were so small, and the photocopy was so many generations from the original, that I could absolutely not read it. I counted twenty charts from the book that have corrections! I am an experienced knitter, but I have a hard time getting into a new knitting project, knowing that the charts are wrong. I contacted Lark books repeatedly to get a cleaner, more legible copy of the errata. So far, I have received nothing. I'm very disappointed. Further, the gauge she suggests is too small. More specific instructions with regards to yarns and needle sizes would have been very helpful.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Hats, little instruction, January 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: 45 Fine & Fanciful Hats to Knit (Paperback)

I kept my copy, because the hats are prettty to look at and someday I might try one (maybe not now that I've read about the errors here on Amazon) but I can understand why someone would be frustrated enough to return this. You don't buy a cookbook without recipes. The point of having patterns/recipes is so that you can replicate something you like. It is not a crime, really, no matter what people who read the Zimmerman books might say.

Not everybody likes charts. I am sorry, but it's the truth. It would not kill these authors to write things out, at least ONCE and please do not whine that it would add to the cost of the book. It doesn't have to, and hey, we have computers now, it's not like you're scribing these books on parchment with a quill pen by candlelight.

There, now that that's out of my system, I would still say to buy the book (though it is somewhat overpriced considering you get such little guidance and that there really are only 9 hats with variations), but it is NOT for beginners, and NOT for those who have better things to do than figure out badly written charts/instructions, even if they DO know how.