Twisted Knitter

The first I heard of The Sweater Workshop, by Jacqueline Fee, was on Skittermagoo's blog. I can't believe it's taken me almost two years to buy a copy of this book for myself.

Last night, I was able to read a couple of chapters and I can't wait to get started on my own "sweater sampler," but wait I must. However, I'm just as excited about the concept now as I was over a year and a half ago - I think this sampler is a great way to learn important techniques without fudging on a sweater-in-progress. I'm all about "learn as you go," but when there's a significant yarn and time investment involved, it pays to try to acquire the knitting knowledge BEFORE you're faced with having to know it.

My only gripe about this book is a superficial one - I don't like the slick, glossy pages. I do love the photos, diagrams and charts. My favorite thing is "The Gauge Page" -- a page you can photocopy and use to figure the number of cast on stitches according to your own gauge and a logical percentage system (inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann of course).

A quick quote from the introduction: " . . . The Sweater Workshop is a viewpoint. Its aim is to cause you to take an analytical look at sweater knitting with your yarn as the starting point. . . The purpose of this book is to hint at the potentialities, to stimulate your ideas, and to foster a keen appreciation for the knitted fabric."