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Zimmermann, Elizabeth - Knitting Without Tears
(subtitle: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes)
I wanted a book on knitting techniques instead of just going through the various stitches and cast-ons and ways to bind off and etc. I've got another book on sweater design, and I was bored to death during it -- I don't think about these things, and I don't really want to design sweaters. This book is somewhat the same. I feel like the advice would probably be horribly good if I would, say, actually listen to it.
Unfortunately, I knit sort of like I do everything else -- haphazardly, randomly, with much improvisation and really no clue at all what I'm doing. I seem to be really bad at following rules, largely because I will inevitably be lacking a specific piece of equipment, ingredient, yarn, needle size, whatever. I really wanted this book to be like my ideal cookbook, i.e. something I could flip through and get really cool tips and shortcuts from.
Also, while Zimmermann is supposedly (to continue my knitting-to-cooking comparision) like the Julia Child of the knitting world, I don't actually find her to be all that accessible. She reads as very opinionated, which, understandably, she says she is. Alas, I am not the kind of knitter who likes people with strong opinions tinkering around in my knitting and telling me that I really should be gauging and swatching and whatnot. I do know that I should be gauging, but honestly, I'm too lazy. I don't gauge. I just sort of start out on the piece, whip out a tape measure a little later, and see if it's around what the pattern says. If it isn't, I'd honestly rather recalculate the pattern than re-cast-on on different sized needles.
Plus, things just happen!
I am being unfairly cranky with Zimmermann; my general impression is that she is very opinionated on how she likes to knit, but she does indeed encourage readers to knit however they like. She just sounds so authoritative that it turns me off.
But yes, I suppose I wanted something with more nifty tips and tricks, like... if you suddenly have a burning desire to start on a pattern that requires stitch holders and you have none, cut up twist ties into little segments and use those. Or... If you suddenly have the burning desire to start on your new scarf with cables and have no cable needle, just use a random needle out of your interchangeable knitting needle set! Erm, yes, this is stuff I do, and as a result, my knitting looks very ghetto. But I care not! I get my results anyway.
Anyway, I think the Yarn Harlot's At Knit's End will probably appeal to me more.
I wanted a book on knitting techniques instead of just going through the various stitches and cast-ons and ways to bind off and etc. I've got another book on sweater design, and I was bored to death during it -- I don't think about these things, and I don't really want to design sweaters. This book is somewhat the same. I feel like the advice would probably be horribly good if I would, say, actually listen to it.
Unfortunately, I knit sort of like I do everything else -- haphazardly, randomly, with much improvisation and really no clue at all what I'm doing. I seem to be really bad at following rules, largely because I will inevitably be lacking a specific piece of equipment, ingredient, yarn, needle size, whatever. I really wanted this book to be like my ideal cookbook, i.e. something I could flip through and get really cool tips and shortcuts from.
Also, while Zimmermann is supposedly (to continue my knitting-to-cooking comparision) like the Julia Child of the knitting world, I don't actually find her to be all that accessible. She reads as very opinionated, which, understandably, she says she is. Alas, I am not the kind of knitter who likes people with strong opinions tinkering around in my knitting and telling me that I really should be gauging and swatching and whatnot. I do know that I should be gauging, but honestly, I'm too lazy. I don't gauge. I just sort of start out on the piece, whip out a tape measure a little later, and see if it's around what the pattern says. If it isn't, I'd honestly rather recalculate the pattern than re-cast-on on different sized needles.
Plus, things just happen!
I am being unfairly cranky with Zimmermann; my general impression is that she is very opinionated on how she likes to knit, but she does indeed encourage readers to knit however they like. She just sounds so authoritative that it turns me off.
But yes, I suppose I wanted something with more nifty tips and tricks, like... if you suddenly have a burning desire to start on a pattern that requires stitch holders and you have none, cut up twist ties into little segments and use those. Or... If you suddenly have the burning desire to start on your new scarf with cables and have no cable needle, just use a random needle out of your interchangeable knitting needle set! Erm, yes, this is stuff I do, and as a result, my knitting looks very ghetto. But I care not! I get my results anyway.
Anyway, I think the Yarn Harlot's At Knit's End will probably appeal to me more.
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I'm not very good at following rules exactly myself; that's why I'm a knitter and not a sewer. However, I think with a little experience you will find out exactly why gauge swatches are (usually) good time-saving devices, especially if you substitute yarns. I just had to redo about eight rows of knitting on a hat because the yarn and needle combination was not producing the fabric I wanted.
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Plus, brains on yarn, not happy ;).
Wow, she's so the Julia Child of knitting! Or something...
I've found that I sort of mock-gauge, in that whenever I start a new project, I end up casting on and knitting a few inches several times anyway. I don't know why undoing this and redoing it makes me feel less "wasteful" than making a swatch... my brain is weird. I should probably start with swatches when the projects get bigger and aren't as easy to undo and reknit as inches of scarf or something.
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* I used to have a site called Historical Knitting Patterns with patterns I transcribed while procrastinating in research libraries. The patterns tend to be very unspecific ("decrease until the sleeve is the desired width," that sort of thing) and there's much less emphasis on fashionability.
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You owned Historical Knitting Patterns? I found that a while back! It was cool! I keep wanting to buy Vintage Knits, but saw on Amazon reviews that the instructions weren't so great, so I haven't...
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I think you should check out Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop. She has a very experimental knitting style and an almost sculptural fine art approach. Even if you don't like her aesthetic it's a fascinating book because she writes about her knitting philosophies.
There's another knitter out there who does CRAZY stuff. I can never remember her name though. But I've always wanted to read her book. From the sound of it she's practically reinventing knitting in bizarre and unusual ways. I've seen one of her patterns for a pair of socks where she had to make up her own pattern notation because regular charts were inadequate to express the complexities of what she was doing. Ah! Here she is: Debbie New author of Unexpected Knitting (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0942018222/qid=1133438462/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9396503-4976754?s=books&v=glance&n=283155).
I enjoy reading EZ for her andecdotes and her obvious fondness for the craft. I pick up interesting tidbits from her as well. I don't really knit the way she does, nor do I share her style, but I like the way she writes about knitting. It's kind of like the knitting version of The Yankee New England Cookbook.
Another person you might want to check out if you haven't already is Barbara Walker. I adore Knitting From the Top which is a sweater design book of sorts, but it's written rather conversationally and has a great list of random knitterly tricks in the back. She also has published what is basically THE stitch library in four volumes.
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But do check out the others, they're zany!
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I hate the idea of wasting perfectly good yarn, so I don't bother cutting the yarn when I'm checking my guage. Yeeeeeah, it means I won't have a swatch for future reference, but it's really not that difficult to write down "Yarn XYZ, dk weight, 5.5 stitches on size 7 needle" in a notebook.
Incidentally, I really lucked out the last time I didn't bother checking guage. I was making Tempting a size bigger than I should have... but it turned out that I knit very, very tightly... so it ended up fitting perfect. Hee!
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I am so bad about knitting for fit! So I usually just end up knitting two of each garment if they're easy (like Sexie in SnB Nation) and giving the first one to a friend if it doesn't fit me! Heh heh heh.
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I'm a slow knitter, so when it takes me a couple of months to knit one sweater, I want it for ME, dammit!
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So I guess I'll move the needlemaster back to the top spot on my channukah wish list.
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Heh heh, part of why I am refraining on knitting software is so I can get the Needlemaster as well ;). Have you tried the Denise kit as well? I've got that and love it.
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I think if you put in "socks" you can get free shipping on orders under $30.
As far as software goes... it seems that they forgot to disable the save/print feature on the demo... so I'm getting it to do everything that I want.
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