Customer Reviews

Knitter's Stash: Favorite Patterns from America's Yarn Shops

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I saw this book in my local yarn store, I began to leaf through it and within a minute knew I wanted it. It is one of those beautiful coffee table knitting books, like Knitting Across America, which make every knitting cell in your body tingle and shift into the ready-set-knit position. Still, I will only buy a book if there are at least two or three patterns or techniques in it that I do not want to miss. This book (which is a collection of favorite patterns from yarn shops across the country) has many more than three. It includes everything from a baby outfit and children's sweaters and a tea cozy to a felted bag that is unlike any of the other wonderful felted bags that have been appearing in magazines lately. There are intricate intarsia and Fair Isle sweaters, simple cardigans with easy, yet pleasing details to entice even the most accomplished knitter, a lovely pair of socks, a Celtic Cardigan, felted tropical fish (a great way to try felting, as they really do not have to fit anyone), linen washcloths, two rugs, a shawl, and men's sweaters. Oh yes, and a hat. If you've spent the last few years gazing adoringly and longingly at the line drawings of sweaters in Amazing Threads' ads, but have never been quite ready to order a kit, in this book you'll find a section about their wonderful store as well as a Lace Ribs Pullover by Jacqueline Olsen, their master designer. The sweater features her trademark seamless saddle shoulder construction, and you could work from these directions to design your own similar sweater. She has also "unvented" a lacy bind-off and a cast-on, both elastic (as in stretchy, but without the use of real elastic) and attractive, featured in this sweater. It is just these sorts of details that make me buy books. Another exquisite design is the Cable-Wise Cashmere from L'Atelier. The carefully placed lines of wishbone cables on this graceful, elegant pullover incorporate elements of a medieval maiden's gown into a modern, sleek knitted garment. I shall probably knit it, although not in cashmere. I do wish the book could have included charts for all patterns that have textured designs, but I understand why it does not. Publishing costs rise with each additional page, particularly in a book as thick, colorful, and beautifully laid out as this one. There are charts for the designs that really need them, and readers would do well to buy some graph paper, sharpen a pencil, and take a look at the charts on page 13, where they will find symbols they can use to draw their own charts. If you draw your own chart from written row directions, you will really understand designs before beginning your knitting, and will develop into a more confident, grounded knitter and may become an independent designer yourself.

I have been working on this review for a long time...
Frankly, I kept getting distracted by the patterns and forgeting to write the review.
I'd read something and have to try it. Or think..... I wonder how this would look in Hand Spun Yarn and have to try that, too.
I also wanted to read every detail of the book, not just work the patterns. And the photographs sent me off on daydreaming tangents. It is one of those books that you devour from cover to cover and have a hard time putting down.
This book is especially dear to me as I do not have a local yarn shop close to me.
While I might be able to reproduce the yarn styles with my own handspinning, I cannot replace the atmosphere that exists in these wonderful places. Reading it made me fondly remember how much I really love yarn shops and all the people who work and frequent them.
I have also visited some of the shops mentioned and have come to know other shops and owners via this wonderful worldwide internet. In addition, I felt like I was being introduced to the others as I read this book--glancing at a piece of their daily lives and actually getting to visit their shops even though I might be thousands of miles away.
The photography is beautiful, the biographies interesting, the patterns amazing!
What more could you ask for in a book?
A list of shops in every state? The Knitter's Stash has that, too--listed by state and city.
Tips? This wonderful book has them scattered throughout. It even includes instructions from Claudia Krisniski of Countrywool on using a Handspindle to make your own yarn and instructions in a couple of the patterns for felting/fulling knit items.
These tips from the people who encounter a wide variety of knitting on a daily basis are really very enlightening.Ê
With the exception of the Angora Handspun yarn from Countrywool, all the patterns in the book call for commercial yarns. It is to be noted though, that all of them could easily be adapted using the gauge information, needle recommendations and suggested yarn substitutions recommended. Most of the patterns feature styles made from textured yarns or designer yarns just like those created by handspinning.
An interesting chart at the end of the book which I have not seen in any books before is one which lists the gauge first and then indexes the patterns using that gauge with the page numbers they can be found on--a unique and useful idea!
The Knitter's Stash features patterns for sweaters, afghans, a tea cozy, hats, mittens, scarves, shawls, baby items, toys, washcloths, rugs and pillows plus much more. It would be a widely varied adventure to knit through this book from cover to cover!

This book, while beautiful to look at, has many errors. The publisher's web site contains an errata and should be looked at before any of the projects are begun.
On another note, I did make the My Constant Companion bag and enjoyed it tremendously. The bag gets a lot of compliments.

This knitting book is excellent. The illustrations are beautiful and the variety of projects intriguing. I've made the triangle lace shawl (not its name; the book is elsewhere right now) in a heavier weight yarn - beautiful. I am 1/2 way through the alpaca poncho and have the yarn for the cashmere cable sweater (will do it in cotton). A friend has done the linen wash clothes and the felted tea cozy; another friend has made the knitter's felted bag.

All of these patterns work well. The instructions are clear and easy to follow; a glossary with illustrations is available at the back. The colors and textures are enough to get the creative juices flowing. A truly beautiful and useful book with a wide variety of projects.

Personally felt that the title is misleading. The first two words says Knitters Stash so I thought that the patterns would make use of odds and ends of yarns or allow for easy substitution. But flipping through the patterns, it uses yarns which hides the stitches which may be good for beginner with uneven tension or use specialise yarns not readily available. So not very sure I can find a good substitute for the yarns stated. Otherwise, it has alot of patterns that may interest people but nothing too exciting. It is comparable to pattern leaflets that may be available outside in the shops. Look through the book in your library before buying it.

I was excited to get this book because I figured "how can I go wrong?" with so many different patterns from varied sources. But the patterns are mostly boring and bland except for the patterns from Sophie's Yarns and Maura McBride. If you are looking for something wow, check out "Poetry in Stitches" by Solveig Hisdal. That's something!

I really love the idea of this book -- yarn store owners are great resources for good, real-life designs and use of interesting yarns to make them. And I loved Melanie Falick's book, Knitting in America. But I hate this book for its design. It's an awkward shape (why haven't more people caught on to the brilliance of the purse-sized VK Knitting on the Go series of books?), and the faded pictures of the yarn stores and owners...they look like the printer printed the blue line proofs by mistake. I mean, knitting is nothing if not about color and texture, up close. The patterns were disappointing to me too. Very few I would actually make. Maybe the store owners didn't want to give up the rights to the really good, classic patterns, the ones that really sell? I hope someone else takes a crack at this great idea.

This book has inspired me to learn to knit! It is filled with pictures of beautiful knitted garments and accessories but they don't do justice to the finished products. I recently attended a book signing by editor Barbara Albright. She had many of the projects from this book displayed. Every one of them was breathtaking! When you buy this book you won't be able to decide which to do first. I chose the felted handbag. Not only was it simple to make, even for a beginner like myself, but it looks spectacular. Everywhere I go people stop me to ask me where I got my bag. When I tell them I knitted it, they are stunned. I am currently making the "Angora Furred Teddy Hood." It's gorgeous and sooooo easy to make. If you have children, they will be begging you to make the "Magic Friends" pictured on page 85. This teddy, kitty and bunny are cuter than any Beanie Babie on the market. I guarantee you will love this book and find at least 5-8 projects you will want to start immediately. This is a must buy for beginner or advanced knitters.

This isn't a great book; on the other hand, it's not a bad one either. When I first got it and opened the pages, I was quickly disappointed. For one thing, the layout was too much of an attempt to be artsy rather than straightforward. There is lots of "white space" -- blank areas -- that only raises the cost of the book to the consumer but provides no value for the added cost. The pages are covered in graphic designs that detract from the text. There are brief quotes in the sidebars that are unnecessary, advice that a beginning knitter has already picked up. And like someone else mentioned in a review below, the photos of the designers and their shops, which would have been very interesting to see (particularly since the designers were wearing sweaters that were prettier than those in the patterns) are faded. Eyestrain to look at them. Whoever planned the format of this book failed miserably. On the other hand, the full-page photos of the patterns in the book are exceptional -- it's just that there are numerous sweaters for children (I don't have any) and babies (don't have any) or for toys or what I'm calling the doodads, the little knitting projects that publishers have been using lately to cheaply fill up space in the knitting magazines rather than giving us more sweater patterns (I think it's pretty obvious that most people knit sweaters and not doodads). Then again, the glowing reviews below, particularly the one that just gushes over the book, led me to believe that I would get something fantastic. This is no Knitting Across America. I closed the book and tossed it aside, very disappointed. But two weeks later I browsed it again, already knowing it was not a great book and thus less disappointed. And I got involved, finding a few sweater patterns were actually exceptional. I'm glad I own the book now, particularly since I'm in the process of starting two of the sweaters and adapting a third to a more favorable pattern for myself. And I like a few of the camisoles, which will be quite pretty for summer under suit jackets. I still don't have an appreciation for the doodads or the numerous kids sweaters. I think the authors would have done a better service to knitters to put those in a separate book for those with an interest and let us have more adult sweaters. Then you could say that this was an attempt at bringing us another Knitting Across America, although I doubt we will ever see anything as fine as that book again. As it is, Knitter's Stash a fairly nice book, perhaps a good addition to your library if you don't mind spending the $$$ and getting only a few patterns that you will like.

I'll be the one who doesn't think this is anything more than another knitting book. Disappointingly, it is filled with typical ho-hum projects; odd sweaters, ugly shawls, uninspired baby ensembles, and for some reason, many of the projects are felted, not knitted, which was not made plain in the reviews. Add to that the fact that only a few of the projects are written with changes for plus sizes and I am stuck with a book of color photos and anecdotes about projects I will likely never make or wear. I wish a project list had been available, and the drawbacks were pointed out as well as the glories of this book. There are lots of instructions for specialized techniques (like the I-cord bind off) but these are available in books that in my humble opinion contain better instructions and projects at a much better price.