Creative & colourful - Rated 
I've had this book for a while now and I love to flick through it for inspiration. The pictures and projects are so colourful and fun that it makes me want to start creating. But now that I think about it I've made only a few things using the patterns in this book. The patterns are very diverse and there is everything from sweaters to mittens, hats, home wares and toys. But the part I find to be most helpful is the text at the beginning. There are some really helpful guides on how to work out the calculations for substituting a different weight yarn, altering sizes, and changing a pattern to suit your personal tastes. This is priceless information and really helps you to go about creating a one of a kind personalised garment. The book is written in a fun and friendly style, and is a classic guide for new knitters.
Love it! - Rated 
The patterns are fun and great. I simply love it.
Need I say more?
Lost in translation? - Rated 
I am a keen knitter, having started as a small child in 1970s darkest Sussex, where there wasn't much else to do ;-) Suffice to say I have quite a bit of experience in knitting. I was recently given this book as a present. There are some lovely designs in this book and some less lovely, but the crucial thing for me that can spoil this book as a UK-based knitter is the US terminology. It's not just the needle sizes; it's the differing abbreviations and yarn weights/types etc, and I do find this gets in the way sometimes. As other reviewers have stated, if the author had at least given a generic yarn type throughout for the US yarns so that we could attempt to substitute them, it would have made such a difference. Some patterns do benefit from a better description of yarn type than others - again, as other reviewers have said, this suggests sloppy editing in that the book lacks consistency in this regard. I thought it was just me when I read through a pattern several times very carefully and still couldn't understand it. Now I realise that it was probably just one of the mistakes that have been identified by other reviewers. Another minor point is that several patterns use circular needles, which I personally detest, but of course other knitters may not. In summary, if as a UK knitter you can get past the semantic obstacles, there are some great patterns, but do watch out for errors and be careful/lucky when choosing your yarn!
Worth the effort - Rated 
I like the range of projects in this book. I think that anyone could look through this book and see something (or many things!) that they would love to make and wear. Many diferent designers are featured and this gives a new and zingy quality to each pattern. The photographs are great and for most things there is a reasonable range of sizes.
However, as a previous reviewer mentioned, there are errors in some of the instructions and charts. This is OK if you can go to the website and check for corrections before you start, or if you are a fairly experienced knitter and can spot and correct the errors yourself, but it does take away from the pleasure of using this book.
Having got this gripe out of the way, I still maintain that the book (and the patterns) are worth perservering with as the freshness and originality puts it way ahead of everything else out there at the moment.
great ideas but too many mistakes in the patterns - Rated 
This book is full of great ideas for garments and accessories that you'd actually want to make. The one (fairly big) problem I've had with it is the enormous amount of mistakes in the patterns. They don't seem to have been tested or proof-read at all. I've tried three patterns now, and every one has had something wrong with it, ranging from smallish but annoying mistakes (extra sets of needles listed as being needed but not actually used in the pattern) to mistakes in the actual instructions. If you're an experienced knitter, you'll realise that something isn't right and be able to sort it out (and some, but not all, of the mistakes are corrected on the author's website - if you think to look there before you start knitting), but I don't think a beginner would stand a chance. Also, as the previous reviewer says, most of the yarns used are only available in the US. You can find suitable alternatives in the UK, but you'd think that in a book that's being published internationally they'd at least bother to add a note to each pattern saying whether a yarn is equaivalent to, for example, double knitting or chunky, as this isn't always clear. Altogether, I found this book very imaginative but rather amateurish and lazily put together.
|