Posted on 4 Comments

Knitting in color

02 books 01

I wasn’t planning on reviewing these books this week. St. Martin’s Press sent them to me, and they’d been sitting unopened on the coffee table for several days while I went about my business.

Still, I did eventually curl up with 75 Floral Blocks to Knit and The Very Easy Guide to Fair Isle Knitting, and I am glad that I did! Both books have great introductory sections that give you the basics, and both have colorful indexes of patterns so you can jump directly to the block or stitch pattern that grabs you the most.  The bulk of both of these books is taken up with instructions for individual blocks or stitch patterns. Charts and written instructions are provided for all of them, as appropriate.

The books also include some finished projects, however the real emphasis appears to be on the blocks and the stitch patterns, which you can then incorporate into your own designs, if you like.

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Here’s a peek into 75 Floral Blocks to Knit. I’m in blanket-making mode right now, and so I’m very drawn to motifs like these.

I particularly like the gerbera daisy block. There are many styles here, too, from sculptural and textured to pictorial stockinette.

By the way, if you like floral blocks but prefer to crochet them, I reviewed a book for that, too.

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In The Very Easy Guide to Fair Isle Knitting, the concept does, indeed, look surprisingly easy. If I were going to try this out, I’d totally do it on something small like these lovely fingerless gloves first.

I like that there are two versions of each stitch pattern, so you can see how different colors effect the look of the design.

I’m glad I flipped through these books! When I am done with blanket-making, I think it would be fun to explore some of these techniques.

When I think of doing colorful things with yarn, I always picture crochet. I suppose it’s a weird prejudice. There are many examples of both knitting and crocheting that are colorful, and many examples of both that are monochromatic. And yet, for me, I always want to crochet when I want something colorful, and I like to knit when I want a solid colored object. Now that I’ve spent some time with these titles, I think I may be changing my tune a little bit… The gerbera daisy block and those fingerless gloves, in particular, are calling my name.

If you want to learn more about either (or both) of these titles, you can click on the covers below:

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Posted on 4 Comments

4 thoughts on “Knitting in color

  1. boy howdy I am jealous of that fair isle knit book. Color me green. If you want to see some COLORFUL knitting you need to check out Lone’s stuff on Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/people/Flowermouse

    She makes some of the brightest and colorful knitted wear I have ever seen. And then adds polymer to it 😀

    1. Oh, wow, she is colorful! I love some of her stuff. It makes me wish I didn’t have such an aversion to tiny needles.

      1. go forth to small needles woman. Be bold!! remember when you have an aversion to needles period and only loom knit?

        I rest my case.

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