Customer Reviews

Melissa Leapman's Knitting Beyond Scarves: Easy Lessons That Let You Knit What You Never Thought You Could

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

 

 

even though I am an experienced knitter I wanted this books as it has a good variety of basic patterns including a poncho, sleeveless tops, short sleeve top, skirts, sweaters, jacket, tie front top etc. The best thing is that the size range is very large up to finished size 54 inches for some items, and most up to finished size 46 inches. The yarns are mostly worsted weight. The styles are very fashionable and you could easily substitute yarns.

I picked up this book because I wanted to move beyond scarves. In theory this type of book looked ideal, since each project successively builds on skills you learn along the way. However, the biggest problem I see is that it doesn't introduce the purl stitch until about halfway through the projects. To me, the purl stitch isn't an advanced technique, and is essential to giving any sort of variety to your knitting. The projects in the first half of this book are pretty dull.

I knitted the t-shirt on the cover, which was really easy. However, the photo is very misleading. There is no waist shaping or contouring of any kind, and the thing hangs like a sack, even when you get the chest measurement exactly right (which I did). I found I had to rejig the calculations, take in the waist 2 inches and add stitches gradually until I reached the chest measurement. For what's supposed to be a beginner project, that's a lot to ask. (Incidentally, if you're going to do this, make sure you measure your waist and chest and adjust accordingly. I should have had the waist more than 2 inches smaller than the chest).

This book is inspiring and well written. The patterns are classic and modern at the same time. Yarns can be easily substituted. And I like the way the book begins with the simplest items and moves to the more complex.

Re the review here that said the striped top didn't have shaping -- it doesn't have shaping ....and you can see that clearly from the schematic included with the pattern. The reason it looks shaped on the model is because the model's body is shaping the actual garment because she's wearing a size that is knit to fit her snugly (negative ease). For many of us, that would NOT be a flattering look (revealing every little roll) and we'd almost certainly want something a little looser - and in that case, you might want to add a little simple shaping (decreases and increases) at the waist...otherwise it would hang as a square shaped top.

I am pleased with this book and would recommend it to anyone who is stuck in the scarf/plain rectangular wrap mode and wants to branch out a bit. My daughter is learning to knit and she's found this book, of all of the books I have, to be the most "non-scary" when contemplating making something beyond the very simple square or scarf.

My bad. Wish I hadn't bought this book. I may make one or maybe
two projects, but for the most part I could have done without it.
it's just not that special. Sorry.

I was lucky enough to take a class with Melissa Leapman and find this book really handy to start easy projects that can be changed to suit my needs. The projects are fairly simple, but don't look elementary!