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Inspired
Cable Knits: 20 Creative Designs for Making Sweaters &
Accessories
by
Fiona Ellis
Rating:
4 1/2 sheep
Let
me start this month's book review with a bit of a digression.
Any of you who know me well are aware of my awesome and
much adored niece, Emily. Emily and I are two peas
from the same pod, thirty years apart. She looks like
me, thinks like me and likes many of the same things I do.
So as you can imagine, a sweater for her must be amazing.
I promised her one for her last birthday and have been mulling
it over in my mind since February. YUP. February.
I finally decided to do a denim blue turtleneck with a very
interesting cable pattern up the center front. I found
just the right things to inspire the cables in this fantastic
book. Ms. Ellis' designs are simultaneously classic
and up to the minute trendy. The charts and explanations
make cables and twisted stitches appear to be easy and are
not difficult to follow.
My
favorite project in this book is the Practice Makes Perfect
Scarf. It takes a beginning cable knitter from a simple
four-stitch cable to fairly complex ones. One drawback
is that you make two pieces that go through the simple to
hard progression and then graft them in the middle, although
if you like to graft you will like that part as well.
This makes the cables match on both sides. There is
also a nice jester-shaped hat that coordinates with the
scarf. All the directions for this pattern are given
in both chart and text form. There is a great selection
of sweaters, but also more unusual items such as the pillow
cover that evokes sand dunes and the yoga mat carrying bag.
The photography is well done and shows fairly good detail
of each garment.
Ms.
Ellis introduces each chapter and each garment with a short
discussion of her inspiration. While unnecessary to
the pattern they are pleasant to read and make the patterns
come a bit to life. This book is a bit on the pricey
side with a retail of $35.00, but if you go through the
Guild's website to Amazon.com,
the price is about $23.00 and the Guild gets a small commission
on your purchase. (Recommended with four sheep and
a lamb with the price being the only thing preventing the
full five sheep).
Respectfully
submitted, Ginny Zschau
Buy
this book from Amazon.com
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