Customer Reviews

YarnPlay: Colorful Techniques and Projects for the Creative Knitter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

if you love knitting anything at all (sweaters, blankets, home decor, baby items, fingerless gloves) then you must get this book. lisa does an incredible job with color and design. just looking through this once i already knew there were several projects i planned to complete.

the layout of this book is really done well. everything is accessible and easy to read and understand. there are projects in here for all levels of knitters which makes it even more appealing. try an easy one and increase your skills and you'll want to tackle another one.

if you love color and appreciate fashion forward yet classic designs then this is the book for you.

The thing I like best about this book is how the author uses color. People like me stick to the monochromatic, but her designs, as simple as they are, just sing because of all the beautiful color choices she makes. I appreciate the fact that she designs using a lot of different and available yarns, too. This is a great book for beginning and experienced knitters, and I especially love the men's sweater in the book. This one is the only one I have ever come across that I'd actually attempt to knit for my husband. It's simply designed, just like most men like their sweaters, and it's not big and bulky.

I just picked up a copy of this book and find myself wanting to make almost every design in the book! The designs are simple, colorful, up-to-the minute, and one-of-a-kind. I love the way that the author mixes various yarns, colors, and textures in a single garment. Some designers do this with results which end up looking just plain tacky, but not this author! The cover sweater is one design I am fond of, but one I like even better is a striped sweater called "Everything but the Kitchen Sink." For this design, Ms. Mason recommends using "a minimum of 18 shades of yarn", and the gorgeous sample sweater is make with 35 different yarns. Ms. Mason presents lovely designs for hats, arm-warmers, sweaters, vests, and household items such as table runners and a bath mat.

Also, the book does a great job of presenting designs for a variety of skill levels. There are quite a few great designs requiring only the knit and purl stitch.

I highly recommend this book and will be looking for more books by Lisa Shobhana Mason!

I recently purchased this book and really like it. The premise of the book is to encourage knitters, beginner to experienced, to use their OWN creativity, to build on the ideas and patterns presented in the book. The designs are clean and fluid, and lend themselves to this. The smaller, simpler projects are perfect for beginners and as an experienced knitter, I felt the book respected my ability, while still giving me some fresh ideas.

When I go to a book store to buy books, or at least look for books before ordering them online, I get a big stack and compare them all before I choose. I did this with Yarnplay and it won. I loved the looks of the cover sweater so much that I went right out and bought the exact yarn it was knit with. Then I got together with a friend to start a knit-along so we can all knit this fabulous sweater.

The best part about this book isn't that the cover sweater is so great though. The best part is that there are many other wonderful things inside to knit. Color and innovative design go well with the clear instructions.

With the glut of knitting books on the market, you've got to be careful about where you spend your money. I think that "Yarnplay" is one of the winners. It's definitely more creative than most of the other books available, and encourages you to "think outside the box" in your knitting, in more than one way. Color selection is one of these ways, and it's a big part of this book. Mason encourages you to wander outside of your established patterns, choose colors that you would never think about, and make them work for you. When you're out on a stash-enhacing trip, don't just think about the colors you've already got in your wardrobe and what would best match them, consider what might really stand out, to help you and your knitting stand out.

Another way that she does things differently is in garment construction, and several patterns in the book emphasize this. The Poppy and Lorelei sweaters are made by knitting a horizontal strip, seaming it, and then picking up stitches along one edge for the top part. Of course, that horizontal strip isn't just plain; she breaks it up with color or stitch variation. Poppy incorporates bits of the yarn used in the top of the sweater, as well as the occasional garter stitch rib. Lorelei adds a garter and eyelet motif. Edie is an asymetrical cardigan. Chelsea is a basic drop-shoulder sweater, but I love the big turtleneck, the extra arm length is great for those chilly mornings when pulling your sleeves down over your hands is easier than finding mittens or gloves, and the body is knit in reverse stockinette, giving it an interesting texture. I'm also mesmerized by the Everything But The Kitchen Sink sweater - what a great way to use up all of those scraps of yarn that you can't bear to throw out!

If you feel like your knitting is stuck in a rut and you could use some inspiration to "kick it up a notch," or you just want to try something a little different, I think that "Yarnplay" is a great place to start.

I purchased the book as I fell in love with the cover sweater Poppy and joined the knitalong. I found that I like several patterns in the book and I like the use of colorful yarns in more simplistic patterns. Sometimes designers use too much patterning with color and its just too busy. I found that this author's designs used color in patterns that played well with the color. The designs do appeal to a more younger crowd and are very fresh.

the book is colorful and gives wonderful new ideas It shows you that you are allowed to let creativity flow and knit new and wonderful designs. I am a larger woman and there may not be patterns for me but her web site makes larger sizes available besides the fact I knit for many others who would enjoy some her fabulous combinations.

This book is absolutely fabulous, but it needs to come with a warning lable that it will be bad for your bank balance. I bought the book two weeks ago and have bought yarn and casted on one project besides buying yarn for another project in the book.
The patterns are beautiful with nice clean lines that will flatter any body shape. The author uses a wide variety of color and yarns that I am not sure I've seen matched in any other book. It is a wonderful value and a book that I know I will keep coming back to for both myself and for presents for others. It matches everything that I look for most in a book. I am hoping that more people find this amazing book.

Fairly ordinary patterns knit in colorful yarns. An afghan in hot pink and orange, a horizontally stripped pullover in neon green, blue and yellow, an orange turtleneck, are what the author offers for color and they are all hideous. Of course you can knit the project in a different color or a different yarn except for one glaring ommission, i.e. the yardage for each yarn is not listed. The author tells you to look up each yarn on the internet to determine how many yards are in a skein for each and every type of yarn used in the book. That is a lot of work that must be done early on as yarns are discontinued all the time and the yardage information would become unavailble. I gave it two stars for the simple patterns that anyone can do. There is a nice table runner and a decent men's hat and scarf along with an interesting cable scarf. Better choices would be Weekend Knitting and Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick and or Mason Dixon Knitting for a wide variety of patterns and a much better use of color.