Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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140 of 151 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The editors missed a MAJOR opportunity to make this outstanding dictionary! , April 23, 2006
First of all, I will admit that I am a sucker for knitting and crochet dictionaries. I have all of the classics from the Harmony guides, Barbara Walker's treasuries to the older Mon Tricot books. There have been several other dictionaries, and I have also purchased them rationalizing that if I miss a pattern in one book, I may give it more attention in another one.
I was excited when I heard Vogue knitting was going to publish a series of dictionaries based on all of their magazines; I am not only a subscriber but have kept all of the back issues. I pre-ordered the book from Amazon, and awaited its arrival with anticipation.
As a dictionary, it does stand on its own and if you use knitting dictionaries, it is good to have it in your collection.
But wait a minute.
This is supposed to be Vogue Knitting who publishes a first rate knitting magazine as well as many books based on their magazine patterns. Moreover, their knitting on the go series was innovative. When a publication aspires to promote knitting and high standards, this dictionary is a disappointment, and I saw it in minutes after I read through it for the first time. The editors missed an opportunity to make this book stand above the other dictionaries for the following reasons:
No charts! Any stitch dictionaries published today should now have charts! Even Barbara Walker saw this in her early classics and did them for her cable work. The newer dictionaries chart their patterns and there is no excuse to exclude them in this kind of book.
Color choice and yarn weights. If this book is to be considered a classic, the faddish use of this color was a bad choice. Fads come and go, especially greens, and I don't understand what they were thinking when they used this color. Personally, I love the color green, however I found that the color was inappropriate for showing some of the stitches. The brightness of the yellow-green was a problem for showing textured stitch contrast and the darker greens were poor choices for showing floral style patterns. They also used the same yarn weight throughout the book; this was a serious problem in the lace section of the dictionary. They should have either used a lighter weight yarn or gone to a larger needle. Both the color and yarn weight compromised the beauty of lace stitches. Any knitter who submits swatches for the Knitter's Guild Master's Programs would have their swatch work rejected if they did something like this.
References! If these patterns are based on previous sweaters published in the magazine as the editors claim, why not reference the original pattern? This alone would have distinguished this dictionary from the others. I hope the editors will take this to heart and publish an erratum to this book.
Where were the editors when this book was being assembled? Was there a critical review of this book before it went to print? I would not discourage anyone from purchasing this book, but I will think twice before I purchase the second one in the series. It is good as another stand-alone dictionary but it does not live up to its title. I am convinced that the other higher end magazines publishes such as Interweave Knits and Knitter's Magazine would never publish a dictionary with these kinds of flaws. The editors of Vogue Knitting should know better and could have done better. I hope they will rectify these obvious mistakes in their future dictionaries.
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80 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Patterns look great.. any corrections yet?, December 10, 2005
This book has so many great looking stitch patterns. I wonder about the choice of the dull green yarn for some of the chapters, as it completely distracts from the beautiful stiches. I've tried out a few patterns already and.. maybe it's just me, but a few of them seem to have problems. I'll await other reviews to see if anyone else has had this problem with some of the patterns. It seems that the issues are with the intial stitch counts for some of the lace patterns. I've worked them, reworked them, frogged them, and tried again, but some aren't adding up. If I chart out the stitches, I can see that in some cases, the pattern has me working in multiples of five stitches, when the initial instructions ask for multiples of four.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aptly titled "Stitchionary" , March 21, 2006
If you are serious about knitting--like I am--and want to know if this book is for you, ask yourself the following question: Do I write my own patterns or will I in the future? If so, then this guide is indespensible. It contains all the knitting stitches featured in Vogue knitting since it's creation some twenty years ago which in reality is really what is what you want from a stack of old Vogue Knitting magazines anyway! The styles certainly fade and change, but the stitches will always come in handy and here they are--in one neat, tidy package. It's a gift to a knitter--corrections needed here and there nonwithstanding--to have a consice guide of a large vareity of stitches and as a fledgling designer, I was estatic to discover it. It has several sections: Knit and purl, lace, traveling, and unusual.
That being said, I can't say I wouldn't recommend this guide to someone who doesn't design their own patterns. Eventually, we knitters all like to do our own thing with an established pattern, such as substituting a more interesting stitch where a pattern calls for stockinette. Or when we would like to whip up a scarf in something other than the usual k1p1, k2p2 or garter stitch. So when it comes to branching out in your knitting and putting a more personal touch on established patterns, buying this book is the equivilent of dipping your toes in the water before you jump in. Either way, it's a good buy.
So my recommendation is this: if you're a designer or a patternless wonder, then buy it ASAP--it is a bargain for what you get, which is the real reason I give five stars to anything--it was well worth the money. If you are a bit timid and never meddle with an established pattern but are beginning to feel a bit constrained, then I highly recommend that you take a gander in person at a friend's house, local bookstore or yarn store before purchasing it sight unseen. (Needless to say, buy it on Amazon--it goes a long way to filling up that $25!)
As for the book's layout and the choice of green, the green doesn't bother me (although I think beige would have helped), but there is *loads* of room in this book--indeed, like the other reviewers have noted: where are the charts??? Even a few little ones would be a help to those readers who prefer charts to paragraphs, of which I am one. But all in all, this is a minor flaw, as you can work from the paragraph, although it being Vogue, I can't help but puzzle over the ommission. Vogue books usually have all the bells and whistles.
To see my future commentary and patterns using this book, check out my blog in the future at knitterhead.blogspot.com. I am working on a man's zip-up cartigan and will be using the book for the basic stitch patterns.
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