Dazzling Knits [Paperback]

Patricia Werner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2011

Turn basic shapes into fashion statements with a simple "modular" method! The technique works like a puzzle: start by knitting one shape, and then build on that by knitting additional shapes to create a finished garment. Includes 14 vest, jacket, and coat designs. Projects rely on easy-to-knit shapes such as squares, shells, cubes, and triangles. Featured knits spotlight vibrant, bold colors, as well as alternate versions in more classic colors.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hometown: Corrales, New Mexico

Patricia Werner has studied with some of Europe’s, Great Britain’s, and America’s most renowned knitwear designers. Her work had been showcased in galleries across the U.S.

Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Martingale & Company (March 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564775224
• ISBN-13: 978-1564775221
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better instructions than previous books on this subject. Whew!, October 1, 2005

By 

Plein Jane (new england) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dazzling Knits (Paperback)

Because I already own both of H. Schultz's books, you'd think by now I would be whipping up a domino storm. Alas, though I have been knitting since before the invention of the lava lamp, I was pretty much unable to produce the desired fabric of squares by following his instructions. Anyone can knit a domino square, but things get tricky after the first one's finished. How--and where--to join the yarn to begin the next, adjacent square is not clear in his directions, or at least it was not clear to me. Also, his instructions rely on charts which are not the way most of us on this side of the pond learned to knit. So Werner's book is definitely worth the price if you want to actually MAKE something with this technique.

The garments are stunning, but not so weird as to be unwearable. Most have a southwest kind of feeling to them, not surprisingly since the author lives in Taos. The colorways are exciting and the garments are photographed advantageously--by which I mean a knitter can actually SEE the garment in good detail.

I suspect a couple of errata here and there, but as I have not finished reading the book through I'll leave that problem to future reviewers. But the technique is so easy once you get the hang of it (I am smacking my head that I didn't identify my error sooner!) you will sail right along with no problems.

There's just one more thing I'd like to add. The author's tone gets a little preachy, with a kind of I-am-such-a-free-spirit-colorwise-and-you-aren't presumption that is rather off-putting. Furthermore, she says more than once that "it's just yarn!" and no one is going to die if you put yellow next to purple, or some such example. While this is not exactly revelation teaching to most people, who love yarn and color every bit as much as the author does, it would be well to note that she is using mostly Noro silk and wool yarns, which are extreeeemly expensive if one considers the variety and quantity required to produce any of these garments, let alone the coats. It might be "just yarn" to someone who is getting a deal on it from the manufacturer, or is perhaps independently wealthy, but for those of us who have to pay full retail (plus shipping and handling, since even your average LYS can't afford to carry a full inventory of the stuff)these projects could conceivably represent an investment of at least a couple hundred dollars. We've all been disappointed by color projects we thought would be brilliant but turned out to look like clown's pants, so if the average knitter tends to err on the side of sound color theory, it might not be entirely due to a lack of imagination or personal freedom. Some of us work for a living, though we would vastly prefer to knit all day, or hire somebody else to do it for us, and the purchase of even just a knitting book is a real treat which doesn't happen every day. Would it be too much to ask that when we curl up with that special book, selected with care and insight from among so many others, we could please avoid being talked down to, even just a little bit?

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling knits--color duds, December 16, 2005

By 

S. Sur "Beads of Glass" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dazzling Knits (Paperback)

This is an exciting technique, and the book does provide knitting order and assembly instructions and drawings.

But the attitude towards color that is supposed to set you free from thinking about color intelligently is wrong. The samples in the book are all examples of bad color usage. Most of them look muddy because all colors are of medium value. some of the color changes obscure the design unit as in the tumbling blocks sample where you cannot see the design graphic from the bad color changes. The piece de resistance coat on the cover is really bad with a thin orange stripe that interrupts the flow of the eye and joins a turquoise thin stripe in the middle of the back with an uneven match.

The author can use a few color theory classes, and training in the use of dark medium and light values.

Edited to add after I made two vests:

I knitted the Ojo de Dios learning one, and the scalloped shell one.

I had to write out the instruction steps myself, because they are presented out of order, and you have to search for the next step. A sure way to make mistakes is to have steps out of order and jump back and forth before one memorizes the pattern.

In Ojo, she does not write the odd rows at all. This presents a problem because the color changes occur on the odd rows.

There are no total number of stitches per row after each decrease given. This is not a problem until you have to take out a few rows due to a mistake (what? you make no mistakes? then you don't have to worry about this) and try to figure out where you are without a total stitch count per row. And the underarm join as written leaves you with a join that is missing the dark colored outer rows. Changing directions to make the "eyes" symmetrical would work better if done in the middle of the back,and joined with two rows of garter stitch in the middle of the raw edges of the squares to make it symmetrical.

You have to be willing to work around instructional steps out of order and generalized information that applies to a group of different steps which you are supposed to remember by reading once in an overview to the steps.

And modular knitting is lots slower than straight knitting. So if you enjoy finishing and wearing projects, this will try your patience. I got down to 25 minutes a module but even then it takes forever to finish a little vest.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, August 2, 2004

By 

K. L Hunt (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dazzling Knits (Paperback)

This book, and its author, Pat Werner, will inspire not only beginning knitters, but knitters with many years of experience. The book itself is beautiful, and Ms. Werner's own work is extraordinary. Although the technique of mitered knitting has been around for a long time, and there are a number of other books on the subject, this one demonstrates more fully the unlimited possibilities of the technique. Although there are specific instructions for projects to complete, the information is available for designing your own. This is one of three books on knitting that have really inspired me, the other two being Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop and Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Knits. Highly recommended!