Knitting for Anarchists

Rating:
Summary: Knitting without boundaries
Review: Archists follow rules, like to be led by the hand; anarchists don't follow recipes and strike out on their own. The philosophical leanings of Anna Zilboorg, admittedly an unusual person who lives as an Anglican hermit and does handknitting and dyeing as manual labor, form the basis of a book on knitting technique.

Whether or not you are a confirmed anarchist, the techniques in the book are interesting. By knitting structures and strips, you can come up with some stunning ideas.

This book is illustrated with many photos, and has a lot of conceptual help on the arrangement of knitting stitches along the needle (whether the leg of the stitch is front of the needle or back of it. This determines the twist of the stitch and its orientation after knitting or purling.) As the author promises, if you are the type who can't resist changing a pattern or hates to follow a set of instructions, you will find a lot of interesting new ideas. If you are a lover of well-written, step-by-step patterns, you may not like this book.

Rating:
Summary: This is an important book
Review: For several years I've been told by friends that I ought to lay hands on a copy of this book, before it goes out of print. When I finally found one and spent an evening reading it, I discovered why there is such a buzz about the book.

Although you may be drawn to the colorful pages and designs (which are only a small part of the volume), what lies at the heart of this book are its sensible, clear, illuminating explanations of how those loops operate as they slide across your needles, leaning this way and that. Anna admits that it was not particularly appealing to her to so thoroughly describe the characteristics of stitches, but she seems to have dedicated herself to the task and succeeded very well. In fact, her explanations are really quite engaging, because they are so illuminating.

Once you take the time to read through her pages, studying her illustrations, you will never again knit without understanding what your stitches are doing. Basically, Anna has taken the time to open her eyes to the movements of stitches, and articulated and illustrated it well enough for the rest of us to benefit from her examination. If this sounds hopelessly abstract, it isn't - it's liberating and right before you.

Now that I've read the book myself, I have begun to recommend it in all the workshops I teach. It answers one question I hear several times every workshop, which is: "Why does this stitch lean the wrong way/what should I do about it?" This question will never mystify you again, and the concept of a wrong way will vanish.

Cat Bordhi, author of Socks Soar on two Circular Needles, A Treasury of Magical Knitting, and A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting.

Rating:
Summary: eye opening!
Review: I only just picked up a copy of this book the other day, but already it's having a profound effect on the way I look at my knitting.

It's not a pattern book, and it won't make you hip, but it will explain how knitting actually works, and how knitters can make that work for them. Zilboorg's book is a real eye opener, and equips those of us who do our stitches a little differently with the knowledge and ability to deflect purists, stitch nazis, and other fiber arts authoritarians when they tell us we're doing it wrong, and show them that our stitches are perfect regardless of whether we knit Continental or English, leading leg in front or back, or if we wrap clockwise or counterclockwise.

Rating:
Summary: How AND Why
Review: This is likely among the best knitting books ever written, reminding me of another design classic, architect Christopher Alexander's masterful A Pattern Language. Anna Zilboorg insists that knitters understand what they are doing, not lamely follow instructions for techniques or patterns. Starting with first principles, she takes her readers step by step from the most fundamental concepts about how stitches are formed all the way through the most sophisticated techniques. She asks us to stop, observe, and think, and in so doing assumes the best of us--that we are aspiring to be artisans, not knitting machines.

This is a must-have book for any serious knitter, novice or advanced. Brava, Anna!