Customer Reviews

The Art of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is beautiful. Even if you don't knit, the stunning photographs take knitting and photography to a completely different level.

If you do knit, most of the techniques are based on the machine knitter, however, most of the charts also work for hand knitting. Most of the uncharted techniques and stitches can be easily figured out by the advanced hand knitter.

This is not a book of patterns or a stitch library, but a book of inspiration, to get your creative juices flowing.

The entire staff of my yarn shop fought over who got to buy it!

I purchased this book because I'm always looking for edgy ideas to develop my handknitted accessories. The photography is fabulous: melding natural elements with the fabric helps you to see possibilities.
However, the book seems to be intended for students of commercial design studios. Most of the text describes effects that can be produced using commercial (industrial?) knitting machines for knitted fabrics, including the needle setting to be used.
Some of the ideas are translatable to hand knitting, and there is a nod to this in some pages describing basic hand knit techniques.
The tone of the book is scholarly and seems at odds with the ideas and illustrations.
Overall, if you are studying commercial knitted fabric design, this is a great resource. It's of limited use for hand knit designers.

Found it at a local bookshop in cellophane wrap - purchased it on the basis of "Hey - a new knitting book!!" initial enthusiasm... Unfortunately while it had many lovely photos of stitches and textures, instruction was focused on machine knitting, not hand knitting. There was a brief summary in the back about casting on but I could find nothing -for myself- to justify having this book, and so returned it the following morning.

I wish Amazon.com would not market this book so aggressively - I succumbed to advertising and bought it. Dissappointment - this book is more of a manual for a textiles student interested in machine knitting. The book is of no interest to hand knitters , unless you are just into looking at beautiful photography. The translator used terminology that is not widely known - a crochet hook is called something I've never heard of.

I loved how she connects natural objects with knitting--makes a great connection to how you can gain inspiration around you and translate it into knitting. I'm a machine knitter and this is one of the few books that properly addresses the techniques of machine knitting. For handknitters, this might be a bit disappointing if you are looking for techniques. A few times the author even says, "can't be done with hand knitting"--so be forewarned. If you don't need technique or have other books on technique this will be a great asset. I love to sit around and just look at the beautiful pictures--very inspiring.

I was absolutely amazed at the photography and its merging with the knitted structure; truly a work of art! With the explosion of knitting books (of questionable quality) on the market lately, this is a breath of fresh air. One doesn't have to be a "machine knitter" to appreciate this book. The structure diagrams of the particular stitches would also be helpful to an advanced handknitter who doesn't need/want cookbook instructions.

This is a beautiful book which I think is a good purchase for the skilled machine knitter or aspiring knitwear designer. Although not a resource for patterns or technique, I found it refreshing how the authoress found inspiration from forms and textures in nature. In my opinion, this book would be best appreciated by the intermediate to advanced skilled knitter who wants to entertain themselves with beautiful photographs of knitting textures and attempt to ignite a creative spark within themselves.

This beautiful book will launch you on flights of knitting fancy. Lush photography combines knitted pieces with the nature that inspired them. But this is not a pattern book, or a how-to volume. Grab a cup of tea and find a comfortable spot to while away a stolen hour or so with this book on those occasions when you want to keep your mind busy, not your hands. True, if you're a hand-knitter only, you won't be able to duplicate all of the stitches you see here, but that's not really the point. It's more about opening your mind to the possibilities that open up with needles and yarn.

An unusual organization by fabric types, from knits to openwork and ribbed fabric, offers the first clue that The Art Of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures And Surfaces is not your average knitter's project handbook. Another clue: over 600 color illustrations along with hundreds of diagrams to gather representative samples of hundreds of ways of working with different types of wools. Patterns serve as the point here, encouraging knitters to move beyond to experiment with techniques based on the nature of the fabric. Stitches are matched to textile properties and different yarns encourage unique yarn combinations and knitting techniques. Even the most experienced knitter will find plenty of new concepts to learn in The Art Of Knitting.

This extraordinary book could keep you inspired and busy for a long time. Each page offers an array of sophisticated techniques doable either by hand or on a knitting machine. A perennial reference book and a must have for designers. Warning: not for beginners, who will get utterly lost.