Customer Reviews

Latvian Dreams, Knitting from Weaving Charts

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First, for those who are not familiar with Joyce Williams, let me offer my humble opinion that she is one of the most inventive knitters alive today. Joyce has an amazing ability to solve little nagging problems that have been deemed "unsolvable" by the greater universe of knitters. This book is chock full of these solutions.

The first 30-plus pages of the book concern techniques - including a nice write up Joyce's great two needle circular method (no more double pointed needles when knitting socks!!!) This part of the book is worth the price all by itself.

The bulk of the book are Joyce's designs for a variety of garments, most of which are knit in the fair isle or stranding tradition. These are gorgeous garments. One blessing/caveat -- I was lucky enough to participate in a showing of these garments at Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp and they are very heavy and warm. It's also important to note that Joyce deliberately leaves out needle sizes and yarn amounts for these patterns. Why? Because most of the sizing is accomplished by changing needles and guage. Her instructions on this are clear but the presentation is likely to be disconcerting for knitters who are used to conventional "blind following" of patterns.

The final segment of the book is a terrific collection of charts for stranded or textured knitting. This is where the "Latvian" aspect figures into the art. All of these patterns are based on Latvian weaving patterns. The result is nice group of charts (and resulting knitting) that strongly resembles it's Nordic "cousins" but has its own sort of spice.

Bottom-line: An absolute keeper for the technique and charts alone. Not recommended for novices or beginners who are heavily reliant on patterns. A wonderful addition for thinking knitters who miss Elizabeth Zimmermann's works.

Latvian Dreams contains so much information for the thinking knitter that the reviewer's job is difficult. Should I concentrate on the innovative techniques Joyce Williams has come up with--I-cord variations, built-in hems, buttonholes with facings, and on and on? Or should I focus on the pages and pages of charts she painstakingly created from the Latvian originals? But I cannot leave out the garments themselves--sweaters, jackets, socks, vests--knit in a number of weights and showing the reader many ways to use the charts. This book is filled to overflowing with exciting and empowering techniques and ways of seeing (really seeing) the possibilities of knitting.

For all these reasons I am very impressed with this book. But most importantly, Joyce is one of those authors who inspires knitters to create their own designs. She lets us see how she combined elements to make her vision come alive, and then she gives us the information we need to plunge in ourselves. This is exactly what I look for in a knitting book--the "you can do it too" teacher with spirit, technical know-how, and humor.

This is craft raised to the level of art; mouthwatering. Sweaters (with added socks etc.) mostly two-coloured, mostly knit circular, but I should give special mention to two aspects. One: many of the designs use the all-in-one construction with real innovation, as if an artist had taken a plain 'toile' and painted it without regard to seams, etc, making best use of three dimensions. Second, the book contains pages and pages of charts - not the automatically symmetrical ones you get with fair isle; big, little, corners, bold - for plundering. All I want to do now is knit them and I can't choose which to opt for first.

I am fortunate to have visited with the author in person at knitting events. Joyce Williams is a phenomenal artist and has an incredibly high level of technical expertise in knitting. My advice is to buy any book that she writes. You will learn something from it, maybe many things. This book is of value for reference in technique, for patterns to knit, and for visual pleasure in seeing the photographs of garments. Can't miss on this one. The work is amazing.