Customer Reviews

Armenian Knitting

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I ordered Armenian Knitting sight unseen because the Product Description seemed to imply that the book would reveal not only a new ethnic knitting technique, but also 3 methods for avoiding floats (long stretches of unsecured yarn on the wrong sides of knitted garments). Alas, the description proved to be somewhat misleading.

First, the "Armenian" knitting technique of "trapping" the yarn to avoid floats is not new to seasoned knitters--it's usually called weaving and has been included in a number of books published over the last 40 years. A few that come to mind are Ida Riley Duncan's Knit to Fit, Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop, and June Hemmons Hiatt's exhaustive The Principles of Knitting.

And then there are the puzzling "three choices of how to trap [yarn]". I could find only one technique in the entire book: weaving. The writer of the Product Description seems to have mistaken the three sets of illustrations describing the weaving technique for three independent methods (or choices). The weaving technique does have two different ways of trapping yarn; however, deciding on which one to use is not a personal choice--it depends on whether the yarn to be trapped is color A or color B.

In fairness to Meg Swanson and her co-authors, of the various descriptions of the weaving technique that I've read, hers is the only detailed description. She is also the most forthcoming about the weaving technique's drawbacks: yarn peek-through and reduced elasticity. Other sources either touched lightly on these important points or failed to mention them altogether.

So far as I know, the patterns in this book are the only ones designed specifically for the weaving technique. Ms. Swanson has provided patterns for a variety of warm and elegant looking sweaters, jackets, and vests. She has also included several hat patterns so that hesitant knitters can sample the weaving technique before committing to a larger garment.

Is there any reason to buy this book? It depends. If you are an intermediate knitter who wants to knit a warm garment with large, isolated motifs without resorting to intarsia, and you can accept that the color of the motifs will peek through elsewhere on the garment to become part of the garment's over all design, yes, this book is for you. You'll find it thorough and informative. However, if you are looking for a technique to avoid floats on that lus-patterned Norwegian sweater you keep hoping to knit, this book will be no help at all.

BTW: If you use the weaving technique for small, busy, all over patterns, such as Robin Hansen's Fox, Geese, and Fences (from the book by the same name), the peek-through problem seems to disappear. I knitted mittens for years using this technique, blissfully unaware that there was such a thing as peek-through.

I love the patterns in this book. Meg never disappoints. Can't wait to get started!