Customer Reviews

Inca Knits

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I am a fan of Marianne Isager's knitting books. I especially love her book, Knitting Out of Africa: Inspired Sweater Designs. I also like the books that Interweave Press chooses to print. Thus, it is no surprise to me that, between the author and the publisher, they have come up with another winning knitting book.

Inca Knits: Designs Inspired by South American Traditions has a lot of information about Peru, traditional tapestries and knits from that country as well as information about other art forms. There is instruction in intarsia, different knitting techniques and helpful notes throughout the book.

The best part of the book, however, are the patterns. So many beautiful patterns, so little time to knit. I was dazzled by the colors and know that I'll be knitting some of these projects soon. I especially love the colorful hats, all in traditional Peruvian style. I was smitten, too, with the Andes Sweater, a lovely intarsia pullover in wine, rose, blue and orange. The men's Fish Sweater is challenging yet beautiful in light and charcoal grey with red highlights. The Inca Child sweater is to die for. It is very colorful with rose, red, yellow, blue and white. Any little girl would love it. The Stars sweater is complex and reminded me of some patterns from Poetry in Stitches - Clothes You Can Knit. The Cats sweater, again in charcoal and light grey but this time with yellow highlights, would be a wonderful gift for any man in your life. The Rainbow sweater would make a lovely gift for a child. It's mainly white with some red, yellow and blue highlights with little braids decorating it. The Inca Jacket is zippered and a project I hope to get to soon. It is complex and not a sweater one can knit while watching television or talking. The men's Indiana sweater is a pullover with a short zipper at the top. In brown, dark blue, wine and cobalt blue, it has a lovely Peruvian motif on the sleeves and body.

I am very impressed with this book and am so glad I purchased it. I think other knitters who are in the intermediate or experienced level will also love it. Thank you Ms. Isager.

These are truly stunning and beautiful sweaters! The designs are original, colorful, and beautifully presented and photographed. There are several I would love to make but I do find them a little intimidating even though I am an experienced knitter. Any of the projects would take real commitment to complete. But there is so much here that, even if I don't take on an entire project, I have learned a lot that I will use in other projects.

I do love this book. I think it is her best one yet.

I have another Isager book and was thrilled to buy this one. Some of the patterns have been around for a while and, as a result, some of the yarn colors she uses are discontinued. But there are easily 5 sweaters that I plan on knitting. This isn't a book you buy to make just one sweater. This is a beautiful collection.

I am a big Marianne Isager fan and was really looking forward to this book. It does not disappoint. The color work patterns are wonderful but the great thing is the sweaters are so wearable. The styles are the comfortable style and weight that you would wear often. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to knit sweaters or aspires to.

This is a wonderful book. The patterns are for stunning designs that look of courture quality. You always hear of "investment" clothes; these sweaters would be investment clothing. They are stunning classic designs you would wear for years, always to a chorus of compliments.

But......they would take a real commitment to knit. They are done in fine yarn on (mostly) US size 2 needles(3mm). Many of them are made of double knitting (two layered fabric). This gives a wonderful opportunity for fine colour-work and pattern but makes the sweaters ONLY for wearing outside in cold weather.

I love, love, love the designs but I am going to take ideas from these sweaters and their wonderful detailing to make lighter sweaters that I could actually wear indoors without dying of heatstroke.