Customer Reviews

Sweaters from Camp: 38 Color-Patterned Designs from Meg Swansen's Knitting Campers

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

 

 

People chuckle when I talk about going to knitting camp. These days there are camps all over the country but the original (and quite possibly the most widely attended) is the camp started by Elizabeth Zimmermann several decades ago. Her daughter, Meg Swansen, now runs the camp which actually takes place in a hotel in Marshfield, Wisconsin. It's a fabulous experience filled with beautiful yarn and loads of knitting wisdom.

"Sweaters from Camp" might be better titled "Sweaters from the Campers." A couple of years ago Meg challenged all current and former campers to design sweaters using the extensive colors (160 plus) of fingering weight shetland wool in a fair isle style format. Campers, some who are professional designers and some who had never designed a sweater, responded. This book is the stunning result.

So what might you want to know about the book if you can't look at it before buying? Ironically, my favorite part of the book isn't the sweater patterns. Rather it's the 27 pages at the start of the book. This section includes 7 pages on how to design a sweater - ribbing choices, armhole options, neck shaping, sleeves from the top or bottom, and borders. There's a handy table of suggested numbers for stitches based on size and guage. The second half of the introduction section is an awesome collection of tips on technique. When I attended camp, these tricks were the most valuable part of my experience. The book lays them out in great detail. Virtually every tip on using i-cord is offered. Other goodies include the "jogless jog", "spit splicing", "knitting back backwards", "circular knitting on 2 circular needles", five options on steeks, swatching options, and two color knitting with two hands. This section is worth the price of the book alone.

As for the sweaters, there are 13 vests - one childs, 2 mens, and ten for women. Most are button fronts with a v-neck. The next section, entitled "Small Things" includes two children's pullovers, tams for children and adults and a teddy bear outfit. We're then treated to ten pullovers - mostly unisex looks. The book concludes with a nice selection of cardigans.

The "look" of the book is primarily traditional fair isle. Most of the sweaters use several colors. My favorites are probably the less conventional sweaters. There are several that only use two colors in all-over patterns. There's also a terrific block effect fair isle in a child's sweater that will need translation into an adult look someday.

All told, it's a stunning book. The photography is plentiful and a visual treat. The print is large and the patterns are detailed (averaging over four pages per pattern). Even if I never knit one of the sweaters as written, "Sweaters from Camp" will be a steady source of both pratical and inspirational ideas.

If you love Fairisle style knitting, this book is definitely for you. It is a compilation of sweaters knit by attendees of Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp, a famous knitting event held every year in Wisconsin.

These knitters are some of the most experienced and creative around, so it is interesting to see what they can, as a group, come up with when challenged to create a knitted garment using all-over patterning and the rainbow of colors available in 2 ply Shetland wool.

Of the 38 designs, my hands-down favorite was Ann Feielson's "Shirt-Tailed Fair Isle" with its complicated rounded hem and gorgeous colorway. A close second was Joyce Williams' Shaded Latvian Vest--she's able to create some amazingly complicated and lovely designs.

If you don't like Fair Isle (changing 2 colors on every row, with many color changes over the entire garment) this book will not be for you. Nor are these patterns all "traditional" Fair Isle, with the typical OXO and peerie designs (wider bands of large X's and O's alternated with narrower bands of tiny patterns with a short repeat of 4 to 6 stitches.) These patterns are done using Shetland yarns, with typical all-over patterning and 2-color changing per row, but they move far afield from the traditional Fair Isle as typified in Katherine Misegades' interpretation of the Prince of Wales Vest, modeled after the famous vest modeled by royalty and causing a resurgence of popularity of Fair Isles in the early-mid 20th Century.

The photos are lovely, showing the beautiful Wisconsin countryside and making you wish, perhaps, that you could attend Knitting Camp and see some of these wonderful knits as they fall off the needles. A pretty book, and useful to those who love colorwork and patterns.

As a knitter who loves fair isle and stranded knitting, I am delighted to see 38 intricately patterned garments, but wow oh wow! the techniques section is worth the price of the book all by itself. Years of tips from the Knitting Campers plus Swansen's expertise make the book technique-rich. If I was just starting out as a two-color knitter, I would need this book. As an experienced knitter, I'm delighted to have all things pertaining to fair isle and stranded knitting in one handy book. Some Starmore fans, like the two-star reviewer, who need to have their knitting patterns and color schemes completely dictated to them, may find the designs exhibit less color mastery than Starmore's designs. However, all other knitters may rejoice in a book of techniques and designs by knitters for knitters. If you want to learn two-color knitting, I highly recommend Sweaters from Camp. If you already know how, I bet you'll still find brilliant techniques that are new to you, and that you'll wonder how you ever did without. The techniques section really is that good!

I have very little experience with color-patern designs and I belive this book is very well designed - it is easy to follow the instructions and even to try and customise some of the charts for different garments.

This is one of my greatest knitting aquisitions of the past 5 years as a wonderfully inspirational resource for a beautiful array of colorful fair isle style sweaters and more. And just as her mother did before her, Meg has carried on the tradition of providing comprehensive, easy-to-understand patterns that challenge the more advanced knitter, but the clearly written instructions make it a perfect book for the intermediate knitter to take the next step. Additionally, the photography of the Wisconsin landscapes that surround the knitting camp were definitely a treat for the eyes. Thanks again for such a wonderful knitting resource!

I largely agree with the other reviewers' assessment of the technical info: It really is quite good. However, in this age of the Internet, most (perhaps all) of this instruction is available elsewhere for free, often accompanied with photos that are easier to follow than the black & white illustrations in the book. That these web-based resources often cite the book's material while essentially giving it away is, perhaps, a bit unfair, but such is the electronic world we're in.

As good as the technique description is, I can't say that I enjoyed most of the designs, which make up roughly 85% of the content. While I'd eagerly tackle Amy Swanson's Snow Sky pullover or Joyce Williams' Tradition Fair Isle Jumper, nearly everything else seemed to be stuck in the 80's. To be fair, some of that impression may come from what I found to be unattractive color choices, so more imaginative readers than I may be able to see past the photos and find a few more pleasing designs underneath. It's too bad that the publisher does not offer the Look Inside feature, which would allow you to make up your mind before buying.

If you can find this title used for $25 or so, I'd suggest buying it. Spend the extra money on yarn.

Haven't had a chance to read this but flipping through the patterns they are quite stunning. Lots of excellent photos and color choices. A real asset to my book collection.

this book is a great resource. I am currently using a borrowed copy. Meg Swansen owns her own publishing company, why oh why isn't she making money off the obvious popularity of this book and do a reprint of it? Come on Meg, it's easy money for you. The prices for this book are just stupid. Get moving and make yourself some bucks.