Yarn Scoop

When I first received my copy of The Knitter’s Bible – Knitted Accessories by Claire Crompton, I glanced at the patterns, thought “Eh,” and stuck it on the bookshelf. I recently took a closer look, and was surprised at what I found.

For a lightweight book about small knitting projects, Knitted Accessories contains a huge volume of information. One large page is devoted to each of the basics (casting on, casting off, increasing, decreasing), including technical illustrations of a generous size.

This is then followed by similar pages on a surprising array of more advanced techniques, including cables, circular knitting, working with beads, embroidery, fulling, an overview of generic mitten construction, and much more. This book contains roughly the same volume of knitting information as a copy of Deb Stoller’s “Stitch ‘N Bitch,” which surely goes above and beyond the call of duty.

If I’d realized this book included embroidery instruction, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. I’m itching to try out the chain stitch technique! It also offers a method of weaving in ends as you knit. I’ve seen this method described in various places, but the technical illustration is what really made it click for me.

The projects themselves are… well, a little bit “Eh” for me.

However, I love the way that author Claire Crompton never misses a chance to encourage knitters to experiment with knitting the pattern in a completely different yarn. Several patterns feature a section called “New Yarn, New Look,” where she demonstrates how the pattern changes depending on the yarn. A pattern that calls for a solid purple yarn is also shown in a multi-colored hand-dyed hand-spun yarn. A pattern which calls for a cream-colored solid yarn is shown in a tweed, a mohair, a chenille, and one strand of mohair held together with one strand of tweed.

I read somewhere that 85% of knitters knit their projects using the exact yarn the pattern calls for, in the exact color as shown. I find this a little sad, and obviously Crompton does, as well.

The only thing that annoys me about this book is that it seems, at first glance, to be exceptionally coy with regards to the yarn used. Under a pattern’s materials list, it will specify something like:

1 x 1 3/4 oz (50g) balls of light-weight (DK) nylon-covered linen cord (152yard/140m per ball) in each of pink and mauve.

Obviously the pattern has a specific yarn in mind. (A pattern which isn’t written for a specific yarn will just say “110 yards of sport-weight yarn” and leave it at that.)

The mystery deepened after my discovery of a page in the back which lists all of the yarns used for each pattern. So to save you having to search the internet for “nylon-covered linen cord 50g yarn for sale,” it explains that the pattern on page 74 calls for GGH Safari, one ball each in pink and mauve.

Is it just me, or is this weird and overly-complicated? I’m sure there’s a reason for it. And I suspect that the reason may involve lawyers. Or maybe this is just a standard feature of UK knitting books. “Guess which yarn we want you to buy! Did you guess? No? Flip to the back of the book to see if you’ve guessed correctly!”

Baffling.

At any rate, it’s a fairly minor quirk, and easy enough to work around.

Do you want to buy it?

I would recommend Knitted Accessories for any beginning knitter who has completed a few projects, and is ready to ease into something a little fancier. It thoughtfully includes a pair of gloves worked on two needles (in case you’re not quite ready to tackle the DPNs). But the inclusion of more advanced projects (e.g. cables and beads) means that the book will grow with you, so you’ll really get your money’s worth. Buy it at Amazon!

Posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 4:08 pm in Reviews   |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback URL