Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Color for Needlepoint and Knitting

Rating:
Summary: Gave a new dimension to my knitting
Review: I met Kaffee Fassett for the first time through the first edition of this book, and my knitting life totally changed. From then on I have seen colors and patterns everywhere, and love to blend and mix colors in my knitting.

The book is a great pattern book, but even greater book for inspiration. Filled with color pictures there are so many wonderful items to look at you hardly get time left for knitting.

Fassett started from scratch when he learned to knit, and he shares his way to become a master with us. And with his explanations everybody can become a knitter, everybody can become an artist.

Good luck with your colors and needles.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Rating:
Summary: Welcome back, Kaffe
Review: This is a reprint of the original Glorious Color, which was a groundbreaking knitting book. Kaffe Fassett, a London-based artist, discovered that he could use a rainbow pallette of yarn as well as paint to express his particular artistic ideas. The rest is knitting history.

Kaffe also pioneered a new type of "less technique, more design" knitting. He uses cut strands of yarns to create wonderful repeating patterns of circles, tumbling blocks and multicolored stripes. The ends are woven in as he goes along --or not. Finishing on the back is not so important; getting a wonderful colorway and exciting visual pattern is the objective.

Likewise, the shape and structure of the garment is not the focus although I really like the swing of the long coat and the shape of the peplum-styled jacket. But Kaffee Fassett is first and formost a colorist and painter, not a designer of couture. So the patterns are better for inspiration and finding your own path than for being followed with the exact yarn and exact pattern. But these patterns can be made successfully, and most people who've made them report that it has been an exciting adventure.

In summary, I'd recommend this book if you like to design your own knitted garments, if you want color and pattern inspiration and new ideas, and if you just like to read gorgeous books. If you want couture and shaping, or knitting instruction this is not the best book on knitted garments.