Customer Reviews

Harmony Guides: Colorwork Stitches (The Harmony Guides)

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

 

 

This latest "stitch dictionary" from Interweave Press has 250 colorwork motifs and repeating designs. The book is organized from simple repeats to more complex intarsia motifs.

The designs include some Norwegian style stars or roses, stripes, zig-zags, little men and women, and most importantly, an entire alphabet of monogram letters, to be knit in intarsia. The designs, by themselves, are rather insipid-looking, but if knitted combined into a design, they could be amazing.

I did find two designs that were beautiful all-over repeats that would be exceptionally useful--a chain-link design and a "Bannock Trellis" which was rather like a Norwegian design but with a diamond, reminiscent of a thistle-like English element. Harbor Wall was like a Delft tile and also very nice for an all over.

If you are always looking for new color designs to knit, you would be able to do strips or squares and make afghans, sweaters, vests, socks and much more. If you know how to do basic designs (plain socks, vests, for example), you can incorporate these easily into what you are knitting.

I found the book slightly boring compared to the Turkish colorwork and Selbuvotter (Norwegian) patterns I like to knit, but the utility of these colorwork patterns is definitely something that you should check out. If you want to embellish patterns or design your own things, this book is an excellent resource.

I really like the point of this book - a reference for color pattern stitches. That said, however, I am fed up with knitting books which contain obvious errors that someone at the publishing house should have caught!

I specifically purchased this book because I liked the designs for flowers, people, and animals. On page 236, however, it is quite obvious that the stitch diagram for the bunny is NOT the same as the accompanying photo of the knitted bunny. (At this time, the publisher has no corrections listed for this book title on its website.) While I can prepare my own graphed diagram to create the bunny shown, it defeats the whole point of buying a book which is supposed to provide that information! It also puts all of the rest of the patterns in this book and the publisher's other books into question.

In the book introduction, the editor indicates that the Harmony Guides have been been around for more than 30 years and that the newest titles not only contain traditional patterns but new ones. Well, I don't know if this bunny is a 'new one,' but regardless, how could such an obvious editing error go unnoticed by the publisher!

So normally I would have given this book four stars, but I am cutting them in half, and hope that others will do the same for all the craft books recently published that seem to have more errors than ever!

P.S. - Better yet, don't purchase knitting (or any craft) books that have obvious errors. I know that in this case, I don't want to have to check each pattern stitch photo, stitch by stitch, against the pattern diagram.

I like the Harmony Guides both Knit and Crochet normally. They are usually well done with lots of variety within thier catergory. This book shouldn't be called Colorwork. Wasted space with 5 different ways to solid rows of color! I think we can figure out how to take a two rows each color and turn it into 4 rows each color. It's not normal caliber for this series. Even the samples in the photos weren't as well made it seems. I have the series and there are patterns I'll use, but if I didn't have the other books already this one would have turned me off. There are better books on colorwork out there.

I collected the old series of Harmony Guides (love them), and I considered it worthwhile to add the recently reworked Guides as well. Ah, but then came Colorwork Stitches. Looking beyond the fact that there's not a lot of originality exhibited in these stitch patterns, the swatches are sorely lacking in execution - mediocre technique without blocking, at best. Compared to the other volumes in the series, this one leaves much to be desired as a model of precision or perfection. A knitter would be hard pressed to look at the photographs and say, "I hope my [insert project here] ends up looking this good."

I only hope there's a good back story to explain the poor quality of knitted examples in this book. Maybe all the swatches were lost in the mail. Maybe there was a crazy moth infestation right before the shoot. Maybe someone saw them on the photographer's desk and wanted to make a small blanket for a homeless child. In any case, your money is better spent on a different colorwork stitch guide.

I have a bunch of colorwork books, and this one is really nothing new, just repeats of others. But it would be a good starter book, or an addition to your knitting library even if you did have others. Nicely produced in a paperback; designs are shown knit and underneath them is the chart to knit them along with the total number of stitches & reps needed. Basic.