Customer Reviews

The Prolific Knitting Machine

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

 

 

The Prolific Knitting Machine is a wonderful guide for those of us that have knitting machines that are stored under beds or in basements. This guide explaines how to knit "fabric" and then using patterns, cut, serge, and sew complete garments -- while avoiding tedious shaping on the machine.

The author poses a new twist on the art of knitting. When searching for answers to most knitting machine questions, I found more help here than anywhere else.

This book is about sewing garments from large pieces of knit fabric, but it isn't about machine knitting. You just as easily substitute hand knit fabric - or bolts of knit fabric from a fabric store - for any of the ideas in this book.

It's still a good introduction to cut-and-sew techniques if you don't know them already, but don't expect to learn anything about using the knitting machine itself.

Have you been to any estate sales lately? The unopened Chia pets and huge stereo speakers have been replaced by knitting machines in pristine condition! Why? Because they look really easy to use, but in fact they are quite complicated and when it gets to the finer points, most of us give up and go shopping at Target. This book helps you make use of your knitting machine to actually produce garments, hence the title "The Prolific Knitting Machine." If you want to learn about your machine, other reviewers, your manual is the place to do it. If you want to find a way to make garments well and quickly with easily produced knit yardage, you can't find a more entertaining read. The writing is clever and the illustrations adorable! If you're a purist who pooh-poohs using shortcuts, then what are you doing with a knitting machine? Get yourself a couple of pointy sticks and go to town!

This is a book that assumes you know and use your machine. The book is all about making your own patterns for artistic sweaters by measuring people etc. ...The cut and sew knitting that is explained is not a "New" technique. The book is all sweaters and Longer sweaters (coats) . I wanted a book that gave me advice on how to use my machine and other projects besides sweaters. Any Brother book will tell you about cutting and sewing your knitting into garments.
I thought it was waaaaaaay overpriced and not much help to me at all.

I found this to be a charming informative guide to quickly knitting and sewing sweaters for any member of the family, without having to do elaborate machine shaping. No matter what machine, basic or elaborate, this book will instruct and entertain you at the same time. The illustrations are charming and fun. Machine knitting a garment should be fun, not boring and this can keep you chuckling while you are learning.

This book is so practical and yet whimsical at the same time. There are even projects for those who are handicapped in some way so they can enjoy something pretty and functional as well - quite an amazing book! I love it and I'm sure I'll refer to it for years to come during my machine knitting journey.

There aren't that many machine knitting resources left in the world and it's good to be able to get information. This book is really good at explaining ways to "get it done". If you are a production knitter or have a lot of household knitting to get done, this book gives some practical hints for getting through projects quickly with good looking results. If you are a purist who would never dream of cutting and sewing her knitting- look elsewhere. But for all others who just want sweaters done and dusted, some of the techniques will definitely help.

That being said, I personally could not stomach the annoying cutesy cat illustrations throughout the book. Call me humorless, but I want info and pictures in a "how-to book" - not cat cartoons and line drawings. I thought that they substantially detracted from the quality of the book.