Customer Reviews

Twinkle's Weekend Knits: 20 Fast Designs for Fun Getaways

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

 

 

After "Big City Knits", I was expecting more of the same kind of inspiration and freshness -- and there are glimmers of that in "Weekend Knits." The surprise was how many of the 20 designs were scarves.

It's not that scarves aren't wonderful things -- but making one of big yarn isn't necessarily a burst of creativity. It's the kind of thing you do with a troup of first time knitting scouts. Between the scarves and the iPod and phone sweaters, 25% of the book is gone.

Which seems a bit on the thin side for the price. -- like the models.

One improvement over "Big City..." is that more of the patterns are worked up in Med. and Large sizes, instead of just Small, Skinny, and Extra-Emaciated.

Final thoughts -- this is more of the "write fast, there's a lot of knitters out there; we want to sell books..." school of publishing. I think they should have waited for a few more bursts of inspiration and given us our money's worth. Interesting photography is just not enough.

I loved the big city knits book, and made several projects from it: marilyn jacket, karate sweater, diamond scarf to name a few. I am antsy to try the patterns in the new book, but am having a hard time finding twinkle yarn to do so. I used "burly spun" yarn for the two sweaters i made from the other book, and "blizzard" yarn for the diamond scarf, since twinkle is scarce to find. I suggest twinkle bulk up their production, especially when the release of a book is imminent.

i agree with the first commenter that alot of the patterns are scarfs in this book, however it's called "weekend knits" for that very reason.... scarves knit quite quickly--sweaters take a bit longer.

i like how chia indicated clearly that sizes should be taken based on measured size, not finished size of project. it makes the sizing much clearer.

i also like the small format of the book. it's much easier to tote around to yarn stores and knitting circles than the huge format of "big city knits".

one comment that they could work on would be to have more pictures of the finished product, from more angles on and off the models. and it would be nicer if the picture alongside the pattern was blown up a bit larger.

overall it's a beautiful, fun book with nice ideas for all types of knitters.

NEW UPDATE:
i was able to find 8 skeins of twinkle yarn, in 4 different colors, to make the borealis sweater in size small.it wasn't the exact colors i wanted, but they rurned out nice, i used baby pink, dusty rose, riviera, and rain. i am normally a 0-4, so the small fit fine. it knit up quite quickly. i actually had 2 skeins of yarn left over, because i only had one of the rain color, i made the rain bands narrower. i think if you plan it out correctly you can do it with 6 skeins. you just have to plan out your color placement carefully. i am a beginner knitter, so i had to sort of decipher using other handbooks what "shortrowing" meant. that was probably the hardest step in the whole sweater. weaving in all the ends was kind of tedious, but well worth it, because the sweater turned out gorgeous. i highly recommend wet blocking it after you've completed the project. and because of the easy stockinette stitch, it IS possible to knit this one up in a weekend, believe it or not!

definitely pick this one up if you liked big city knits.

This is such a break with the traditional k1,p1 sweater and yet it's not orbiting Mars. I haven't made anything from the book, but am dying to do that short, shaw-collared jacket which chock full of style. Probably some other cuties in there too after I get started. Also these projects don't take years to finish - thank heavens - as I don't have years of spare time!

I pre-ordered this book based on how much I liked her first one. It's a cute book, but nothing special. The best project is the Nimbus Sweater. The scarves and other sweaters are photographed beautifully, but are pretty plain (and boring compared to the ones in her other book). I'll probably make a few of these patterns, but first, I'll have to put some thought into the yarn I'll use in order to make them interesting.

Most of the patterns featured in Twinkle's knitting books are from past seasons, meaning they were part of Wenlan Chia's VERY first collections when she just launched her label. Why shouldn't she include those very first designs in her book? Yes, there are a number of scarf patterns, but they were equally important as the sweaters in building a line. You get a sense of how the label started and where it is today! I may not want to knit those scarves for myself, but it's a great source of inspiration when I want to make a gift for a friend.

I enjoyed seeing designs I recognized from her previous collections and am thrilled she included some designs from more recent collections too (Urchin Beret)! My favorite is the Northern Cross Sweater (intarsia cross). I've already made so many of those Sand Dune hanger covers for my closet!

I love knitting with chunky yarn and large needles. I call it," instant gratificaiton knitting". This book has some great sweater patterns that my teenage daughter is anxiously awaiting me to knit for her. I did a scarf in a few hours. You could use any chunky yarn which is very easy to find even in local fabric stores. A good purchase. I am glad I added it to my knitting book collections. If you like "stitch and bitch" you'll enjoy these patterns too.

Pattern instruction are a little better than Twinkle's Big City Knits
Still not so good i had to figure it out myself to do knitting
But, Sweater style is AWESOME i love it

Beautiful photos, but the instructions are for EXTRA small, with no instructions for enlarging, AND they contain numerous mistakes!

The book differs from other knitting books in that it inspires imagination and creativity. The styling and photography in the book are scintillating and beautiful.