Customer Reviews

The Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book follows where the original left off. The only change is the omission of sweater patterns for men. Sweaters, tanks and cardigans as well as jackets kmean patterns for all seasons. This book would give the courage to a beginning knitter to try intarsia and cables. The only omission of things knit is socks. The introduction of shaping in this book makes for some sweaters a bit more fitted than the oversized standards of the first book. If you liked the original you will love the sequel!

Knitting is supposedly very "in" right now (there is a report of some renegade gangsta "knittas" who knit strange items such as tree warmers and leave their knitted attacks on objects at random in the city. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.) The Yarn Girls books provide patterns that are geared to the young, hip knitter.

In "Beyond the Basics", there are still patterns of basics for scarves, vests and pullovers. But there is also an a-line coat edged with furry yarn, which looks fantastic to me, very stylish and not particularly hard to knit, though you'd want to make sure you fit the coat well.

There are some ponchos, one with a hood, and best of all, a beautiful cabled mohair throw. It's done in a fluffy golden olive color in the model and is strangely like a throw I knit in moth green in college. I used that cabled throw for years and I think this one is the pick of the litter in this book. If you knit this in any decorator color, you'll have a house gift worthy of design catalogs like West Elm or Pottery Barn.

My only criticism is that many of the models are knit in a bulky, varigated yarn I find rather unlovely (however I will admit it is in style just at the moment.) You, however, don't have to use that kind of yarn. Just match the gauge and use what yarn you choose. Plenty of good instruction and drawings to illustrate techniques. Recommended for beginning and intermediate knitters, especially the young.

In response to the April 13th review titled Beginners Beware--As one of the authors of the book, I respect all opinions. However, I want to clarify that measurements are provided for each project in the book. There are schematics and we list the finished measurements at the beginning of each pattern.

I took up knitting again few months ago - 20 years ago I knit quite a bit in college. Now that I have a family and a smaller budget for crafts, I've been sticking to smaller projects like socks, but when I saw the hoodie pullover in this book, I simply *had* to knit a sweater again. And this is where I ran into my main issues with this book (two of them).


The medium hoodie takes 11 skeins of the Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted. I got online and priced how much that would be: at $18 per skein, that is $198 for one casual, but cute, knitted hoodie, assuming that there is no sales tax or shipping on that amount of yarn. I'm sorry, but no one I know who actually has to BUY their yarn (rather than have it donated by a yarn company who wants to get some advertising for their product)is going to spend $200 to knit a casual hoodie. I wish that the authors kept reality in mind and chose to use yarn that people who have to buy it can afford.


Substituting yarn that was more practical in terms of cost led to my second issue. Since the yarn used is called "Worsted," I made the mistake of assuming that it actually was worsted weight yarn and drove to a yarn store and bought worsted weight yarn. Imagine my frustration when I sat down to knit the swatch to check the guage and found that it took needles 3 sizes larger to get the recommended guage. My stitches looked very loose, not what I wanted for a pullover to wear in the Fall. I then realized that the weight of the yarn they used must have actually been CHUNKY rather than WORSTED weight yarn. If only I knew that, I would have been able to look for and buy chunky yarn, rather than worsted. Since I love the color of the yarn I selected, I'm trying to knit the sweater with a smaller guage (4 stitches per inch, rather than the 3.5 called for in the pattern) but follow the directions for a size large. If my calculations are correct, the resulting width should work for me, so here's hoping it works.


So, overall, very very very cute projects in this book. Enough to make me decide to tackle sweaters again after 20 years. That is saying something. My criticisms are twofold: using impractically expensive yarn for the samples and then not giving information to make yarn substitutions easy.

I bought this book and I love it. And I had to put my 2 cents in here after seeing the April 13th review. The patterns are wearable, fun to knit, yet not too fussy. Also they are very easy to seam and wonderful instructions for doing so are provided in the comprehensive how to section. I have knit several of the sweater patterns so far and they fit perfectly! There are knitted measurements as well as specs for each sweater pattern - which are extremely helpful when deciding what size to knit. I would recommend this book to beginners and veterans alike.

I bought this book a few of years ago, after I had just begun knitting. The patterns are all quite easy to follow and do not require too many skills beyond a beginner/intermediate level. The down side is that most of the items are kind of shapeless, which is OK for some garments but can be limiting for others. All the same this is a good book for new knitters to jump in to a project and create and complete a garment without feeling confused by too many shaping instructions. For new knitters I really recommend the Vogue Knitting hard cover book. It has instructions for almost every stitch and is presented in a really clear manner. Can't live without [...] either!

I have this book as my first request for my birthday present! I have checked it out from the library on 4 different occasions so far, and love it! I have made all of the scarf patterns several times and in different yarns and have always gotten a ton of compliments! I am even starting one of the sweaters! I have been putting off making sweaters due to fear, but reading this book and learning the patterns from it, I feel confident to take that step.
The patterns are beautiful and even fun.

The only problem I have with this book is the yarn listing. The authors listed the brands, but I had to look up the yarns to find the weights for substitution. Otherwise, the patterns are great - very classic and comfortable.

After making 6 projects out of the first book, I could hardly wait for this one to be published. I was not disappointed. Once again, the projects are stylish and fun. I have made several of them and have had numerous compliments on them. The projects in this book seem to build on the skills I learned from the first book, and I can now say that I have completed a cabled turtleneck that looks very much like a Ralph Lauren one that I purchased. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to build their skills while completing projects that look hand made, not home made! I frequently refer to the illustrations and instructions for finishing, seaming, and details in both of the Yarn Girls books, as they are clear and easy to follow, whether I am working on one of their patterns or one from another source.

I had been knitting scarves and simple hats, and wanted a bit of a challenge, but not an extremely complicated book. This book has the best cable knit hat pattern I could have found. (believe me I looked at so many cable knit hat patterns, and this one was straight forward, and turned out beautiful). I have made several more cable knit hats since then, and hardly need to look at the pattern now, because it is so well designed. Of course there are other things besides hats. I am thrilled to find some cute tank top patterns in the book too, as well as sweaters and scarves. They are modern and stylish, yet not so difficult for the newbie knitter. If you know the basic knitting and purling, (or even if you don't, there is instruction) this would be a great "...guide to beyond the basics" as the title clearly states. No regrets about buying this knitting book. I refer back to it often.