Knit Couture: 20 Hand-Knit Designs from Runway to Reality [Hardcover]

Henry Conway (Author), Gail Downey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2007

Gail Downey (half of the popular London label Weardowney) and Henry Conway present the philosophy and innovative designs that make up this vintage-inspired, fashion-forward design label. Vogue has said about their designs that they are like "old friends already" and Knit Couture offers twenty patterns based on their acclaimed designs plus an in-depth view of the world of fashion knitwear.

 

One of Weardowney's goals is to teach and inspire by offering modern-day knitters a window into the wider world of knitting---including the history of hand-knitting, the evolution of the medium, and an exploration of the craft within fashion and popular culture today. In addition, twenty designs, which remain true to the design philosohpy of Weardowney, are featured in full-color photography with easy-to-follow instructions.

 

From smart tunic dresses and tops to elegant cardigans and vintage-inspired skirts and sweaters, the designs are stylish, modern, and awe-inspiring and can be adapted to make them truly one of a kind, just like couture.

 

Boasting a comprehensive history, photography from past and present, stunning illustrations, and twenty exclusive designs, this is an imaginative and informative book that surely will inspire contemporary knitters and fashion lovers alike.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (December 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312375808
• ISBN-13: 978-0312375805
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone..., January 13, 2008

By 

Karen (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knit Couture: 20 Hand-Knit Designs from Runway to Reality (Hardcover)

The first half of the book reads like an essay on the history of knitwear, and of those designers that the authors feel have contributed the most to the current popularity of knitting. While interesting in parts, I do feel that it is fairly biased and pontificating upon their own importance.

The designs themselves are fairly repetitive; there is a camisole done in cotton, then again in Lurex, and finally also in Lurex, with a skirt attached to make a dress. The skirt itself can also be found as a separate pattern. The skirt is knit in a lace pattern (there are no charts), but you can't see the lace in much detail, as with most patterns in the book, since the photographs are all done in moody lighting with the models is contorted into unnatural poses. If you flip to the back of the book you'll find the garments photographed on a dummy, which is a nice idea, but the photographs are too small to see much detail.

I haven't started knitting any of the patterns yet, but have already found a few mistakes; for example, one pattern uses Rowan Cotton Glace and the gauge given in stockinette stitch is impossibly tight (needles are only given in US sizes throughout the book), so either the yarn is wrong or the gauge is wrong.

I do like that the patterns are mostly in finer gauge yarns, and the couple that I would like to knit appear to use a different construction technique to any I've seen before. There is also a photograph of a rather lovely lace tunic for which there isn't pattern given but, armed with a stitch dictionary, doesn't look too difficult to copy.

If you don't like knitting with finer yarns, don't buy this book; you've probably already got patterns very similar to the couple that do use a heavier weight yarn, and you can get a better, unbiased history of knitwear elsewhere.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was expecting, January 23, 2008

By 

Cikk "cikk" (Malta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Knit Couture: 20 Hand-Knit Designs from Runway to Reality (Hardcover)

I was really excited at the thought of a Weardowney book, but was quite let down by the reality. Half the book is a history of knitting.... hello? I expected lots of prose in KnitKnit, but not in this! (And KnitKnit does have lots of prose, but also has lots of projects...). And the patterns - well, boring, repetitive, and a bit 80s. Also - incredibly fine guage, which is fine if you like it. The photography is so stylised you can't make out much either. This is a pity, and unneccesary - Twinkle proved you can combine fashion photography with clarity of detail..... So this is going to be another dust collector. Oh well.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars modern and stylish knits, March 5, 2008

By 

D. G. Van Velsen "- EDDIE" (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knit Couture: 20 Hand-Knit Designs from Runway to Reality (Hardcover)

I liked the patterns in this book. They were stylish with some in fine yarns (4 ply or fingering) and a few in thicker yarns (10 ply, aran or worsted). There are boleros, vintage inspired cardigans, skirts, dresses and camisoles in fine yarns and a few chunkier jumpers (sweaters). A few of the patterns are for small sizes but a lot go up to quite large sizing eg 124 cm bust. Overall very fashionable but they might not suit everyone.This is a British book so the knitting history does mainly cover British and European knitwear, especially haute couture not everyday wear.