New Directions in Knitting

Rating:
Summary: Glad I borrowed this first!
Review: Not impressed at all! Lots of pics of the projects and details, but ugly designs. I only like two. Some are downright hideous.

Rating:
Summary: great new directions, lousy art direction photography
Review: There are some really interesting techniques, and some interesting sweater construction in this book. If you are interested in expanding your horizons in sweater construction this is a good book. If you need to be inspired by great looking models standing in beautiful landscapes (such as the Rowan books and magazines) this is not the book for you. If you can look beyond the terrible color combinations the seventies style backgrounds and makeup on the models to learn some new techniques then this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Great variety of patterns--unconventional contruction!
Review: This book does live up to the editor's description & title: none of the sweaters are knit in the conventional waist to shoulders direction. There are 36 patterns by 15 designers, many of whom are familiar from their designs in Vogue Knitting, Knitters, and other knitting publications. The patterns are mostly for women but there are a few designs for children and men as well.

The variety of knit directions include: side-to-side, top-down, patch-work/strip knitting, knitting center panels with stitches picked up on the side to complete, knitting from the bottom up and continuing over the shoulders to the back (with no shoulder seam), knitting a separate side-to-side yoke and completing with the body knit downwards.

All of the sweaters are knitted in Plymouth yarns, since this publication is a collaboration of House of White Birches and Plymouth Yarn Company. However, they generously provide all yarn specifics (weight, fiber content, yardage) so that you may easily substitue your own yarn choice. Most of the sweaters are knitted in either worsted or DK with a couple of chunky designs included.

Out of the 36 patterns, I counted 14 (not including a couple of really cute little kids' patterns) that I personally would try myself which is pretty good considering that this is a book aiming to appeal to a general audience as opposed to a specialized one by gender, age, style, type of knitting. And even if I hadn't cared for any of the patterns, this book is worth it just for giving alternate ideas on contructing sweaters.

All in all, this book has a permanent position in my knitting library!

Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth a perusal
Review: This collection's primary point of departure is hinted at in the clever title: unusual sweater construction. Not being a designer, I marvel at the inventiveness of the patterns shown here, not one of which is constructed in the traditional manner. As such, it provides much material for those who are looking for something new. In some cases, the effect simply cannot be duplicated in any other way (bias knitting). In other cases, a traditional style is not only refreshed, but produced in a remarkably easy way (the "gansey-ish" beachcomber).

Its biggest drawback, in my estimation, is that the the specific design choices seem not to be to the taste of enough knitters to make this volume a hit. My particular objection is to the colors. I find many of the combinations, frankly, hideous. In other cases, the colors themselves are not objectionable, but the technique in question was over-exploited to an unfortunate degree: the sweater appeared to have been fun to create, but I would not be caught dead in daylight with it on without simplifying the effusion of ideas. And although the models are very attractive as people (one particularly delightful little girl), in general the styling and photography are outdated and amateurish in style. Sorry to be uncharitable, but the visual effect is one of an earnest, self-published effort.

My best advice: this book will benefit intermediate to advanced knitters most, and possibly an adventuresome beginner or two. This is because most of the designs will require some tweaking to produce more attractive results. Given the number of modular designs this will not be hard to do for an experienced sweater knitter (recombinant ideas will percolate almost immediately in the imagination!), but a complete beginner will be left at sea. As an inveterate tweaker myself, this fits right in with my general mode of knitting operations, but many knitters want or need their patterns to be perfect right off the page. LOOK CAREFULLY FIRST.