Brave New Knits: 26 Projects and Personalities from the Knitting Blogosphere
Julie Turjoman - 2010
The Internet has made it possible for the knitting community to connect through photos, pattern-sharing, and blogs that document the knitting projects and passions of dozens of designers and enthusiasts. With a Foreword written by Jessica Marshall Forbes, co-founder of Ravelry.com, Brave New Knits includes 26 must-have garment and accessory patterns, all gorgeously photographed by knitting celebrity Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. Contributors range from established designers like Norah Gaughan, Wendy Bernard, Anne Hanson, and knitgrrl Shannon Okey, to rising stars such as Melissa Wehrle, Connie Chang Chinchio, and Hilary Smith Callis. In-depth interviews with the designers reveal their design philosophy and passions. From shapely sweaters and delicate shawls to fingerless gloves and stylish hats, each of the knitted designs features detailed directions and charts to inspire both the beginner and experienced knitter.
Stashbuster Knits: Tips, Tricks, and 21 Beautiful Projects for Using Your Favorite Leftover Yarn
Melissa Leapman - 2011
As renowned knitwear designer Melissa Leapman knows all too well, every knitter has a stash of yarn that they just can’t bear to part with: the one or two extra balls of yarn bought “just in case,” or the bits and pieces leftover from completed projects. Stashbuster Knits gives you the absolute best way to use—and enjoy—your treasured yarn collection guilt free. Leapman offers valuable step-by-step guidance on organizing and shopping your stash to inspire creative new knitting ideas and color combinations. Then she gives you 21 ingenious projects for men, women, children, and home that are designed so no one will ever guess they were made from odds and ends. Included are projects both large and small, from a glorious Fair Isle sweater for your favorite guy to a chic little scarf made with a Magic Ball. Each yarn weight has its own chapter, from super fine to super bulky, ensuring that knitters will find a way to use every piece of stored-up yarn. Filled with tips and hints on customizing projects and ideas to use even the tiniest bits of yarn, Leapman’s Stashbuster Knits will help transform your beloved stash into projects you’ll love even more. So dive into your closets, dig into your bins, rifle through your drawers, and bring your precious yarn out of hiding. Let’s begin putting that stash to good use!
Hoop Dreams: Modern Hand Embroidery
Cristin Morgan - 2018
Author Cristin Morgan of Marigold + Mars outlines the basics of 10 classic embroidery stitches and then teaches you how to use them to create 20 beautiful and practical projects for hoops, for the home, and to wear. New and experienced embroiderers alike will be delighted by the fresh motifs and bold color palettes and empowered by the easy step-by-step instructions and templates, which show that with just a few simple stitches, some basic materials, and an idea or two, you can stitch just about anything. A glossary of more than 50 additional patterns and motifs will inspire you to personalize your projects and use your newfound embroidery skills in fresh and imaginative ways. As an added bonus, the book includes an envelope with 10 carbon transfer papers for quickly transferring patterns to fabric. If you received a first printing of this book that includes transfer papers that do not work, please email us at abrams@abramsbooks.com or call (212) 206-7715 to receive replacement papers.
Alterknit Stitch Dictionary: 200 Modern Knitting Motifs
Andrea Rangel - 2017
These non-traditional colorwork charts are perfect for the creative knitter looking to break away from the ordinary. Derived from graphic design elements, these fresh motifs include everything from geometric mountains, waves, and spirals to modern bikes, skulls, and sheep. Dive into stranded colorwork with confidence with a section on reading charts, working floats, and choosing colors. Learn how stranded colorwork can be used in design with five accompanying projects including mitts, cowls, and sweaters. Plus, use your imagination to modify, deconstruct, and combine the unique motifs to create your own designs. Be inspired to break the rules and use charts in creative ways with AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary.
Sweater Design in Plain English
Maggie Righetti - 1990
In clear, straightforward terms, Maggie Righettie shares her knitting know-how and good fashion sense so that, no matter what your knitting level, you can overcome the fear of failure, avoid costly mistakes, adapt already-existing patterns, and plan and create sweaters that really fit and look terrific-sweaters that will be worn for many years to come. Topics and techniques include:-Understanding the nature of yarn and pattern stitches-Choosing the most flattering color and design for the wearer-Taking accurate body measurements-Estimating the amount of yarn you'll need-How to tell whether or not a sweater will look good on you-before you start to knit-How to alter printed patterns so they really fit-How to understand the mathematics of gauge and pattern design-Plus start-to-finish instructions for thirteen classic sweatersEach technique is illustrated with clear diagrams, sketches, or photographs. Complete with conversion charts and a personal-measurements record-keeping section, Sweater Design in Plain English takes the guesswork out of every creative knitting effort.
Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers
Nicky Epstein - 2006
Her books Knitting on the Edge and Knitting Over the Edge are both bestsellers, and her many collections of Barbie™ Doll knitwear have proven enormously popular. Here, Nicky knits up a garden of colorful and whimsical flowers to adorn clothes, shoes, pillows, bags—almost anything at all. These pretty blossoms range from ruffled roses to lazy daisies, from single blooms to complete bouquets, from layered petal varieties to scalloped and corkscrew styles. Some are made of soft, sensuous felt; others showcase sparkling, eye-catching gold lamé. With Epstein’s detailed instructions and the breathtaking images, knitters will find completing these projects a pleasure.
Increase, Decrease: 99 Step-by-Step Methods; Find the Perfect Technique for Shaping Every Knitting Project
Judith Durant - 2015
Approachable and insightful, Judith Durant provides clear instructions and step-by-step photographs that showcase swatches for each technique. From working shaped lace to adjusting necklines, you’ll soon have a go-to strategy for successfully tackling knitting challenges of all shapes and sizes.
Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter
Stefanie Japel - 2007
It features a comprehensive section covering the skills necessary to create a well-fitted garment, removing the guesswork from customising patterns.
Knitting Lingerie Style: More Than 30 Basic and Lingerie - Inspired Designs
Joan McGowen-Michael - 2007
Once kept demurely concealed, lingerie now pervades every fashion category, inspiring designs for day looks, loungewear, evening clothes, and accessories. Slips have become dresses unto themselves. Bra straps are meant to peek out from under tank tops. Camisoles are worn on their own or as layers over or under other clothes. Now, with "Knitting Lingerie" Style, designer Joan McGowan-Michael interprets this undeniable fashion trend for the knitter and, along the way, shares fascinating stories about lingerie history. Did you know that it was airplane magnate Howard Hughes who masterminded the underwire bra? McGowan-Michaels 30-plus designs, stunningly photographed by Thayer Allyson Gowdy, range from the truly functionalknitted bras, slips, corsets, camisoles, and stockingsto the purely fun. The brassiere inspires a curvature-enhancing twinset. The baby doll negligee is the basis for a lacy little gown and a matching thong set thats both luxurious and (slightly) notorious. And a ribbed, laced-front sweater is an updatedand much more comfortable!take on the classic corset. The only book of its kind on the market, "Knitting Lingerie Style" includes projects that are bold and sexy, daring us all to bare a little skin, as well as more understated and demure, with sizes ranging from petite to plus.
The Knitter's Book of Socks: The Yarn Lover's Ultimate Guide to Creating Socks That Fit Well, Feel Great, and Last a Lifetime
Clara Parkes - 2011
No other knitted garment has as many structural demands or endures as much wear and tear. The humble sock must defy gravity, suffer the confines of our shoes, and endure being trampled on all day long. All too often, the root cause of a sock's triumph or failure is the yarn itself. In The Knitter’s Book of Socks, Clara Parkes shows you how to knit socks from yarn up, following the sock yarn life cycle from its foundations to its final moments on a proud foot. By understanding a sock's basic needs—elasticity, strength, and moisture management—you’ll learn how to play with these tools like building blocks, confidently combining fiber, twist, ply, pattern, and clever stitch tricks to construct your perfect pair of socks. To help put these principles into practice, The Knitter’s Book of Socks also offers 20 fresh, original patterns from today’s sock-design luminaries, including Cookie A, Cat Bordhi, Ann Budd, Nancy Bush, Anne Hanson, and Melissa Morgan-Oakes. The socks presented here run the gamut from simple knit-and-purl combinations suitable for beginners to innovative designs with lush colorwork, swirling cables, and delicate lace. Understanding the elements of yarn is the first step on every successful sock knitting journey. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn how to make any sock yarn shine and love every pair of socks you knit.
Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume One: Knit & Purl: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine
Trisha Malcolm - 2005
Some 300 stitches are detailed, and hundreds of charts, photographs, and illustrations make it easy to understand how to construct each stitch, as well as the ways they can be used in projects. The experts at Vogue® Knitting demonstrate rib stitches such as brioche, herringbone, chevron, and quilted patterns; traveling patterns like parquet, ripple, and diamond stitches; lace, including daisy and wave patterns; and such unusual stitches as eye of lynx, bobble block, peppercorn, and bamboo. The most complete book of its kind, this is the definitive stitch reference!
Knitwear Design Workshop: A Comprehensive Guide to Handknits
Shirley Paden - 2009
The four exceptional projects demonstrate the level of uniqueness and beauty that can be achieved with these expert techniques and how to achieve the elusive “perfect fit” that defines a successful end product. Knitters will gain a clearer understanding of commercial pattern instructions, improve their attention to detail with a meaningful test swatch, and acquire a stronger knowledge of proper body and garment measurements.
One Skein
Leigh Radford - 2006
The stitch patterns and clear instructions make it easy for even procrastinators and the less-than-diligent to create a ruffled cravat, a drawstring bag, a tank top, cozy scarves, arm and leg warmers, lace wristlets, fingerless gloves, a mohair pillow, and even a sweater for a baby. Several projects do not require any new yarn at all—instead projects such as the Felted Striped Tote or the Labyrinth Circle Rug are designed using up a skein's worth of leftovers from other projects. A guide to terms and techniques, a resource directory, and a bibliography are also included.
World of Geekcraft: Step-by-Step Instructions for 25 Super-Cool Craft Projects
Susan Beal - 2011
Best of all, it's easy to get started with step-by-step instructions and handy templates included in the back of the book. With lots of photos and plenty of geekery throughout, this one-of-a-kind book shows that geek and craft go together like...pixels and cross-stitch!
Power Cables: The Ultimate Guide to Knitting Inventive Cables
Lily Chin - 2010
Basic twisted stitches, complex interpretations of cables, reversible cables, adding texture and color, turning stitches around, constructing cables with I-cord, and wrapping stitches to create the illusion of cables are some of the integrated techniques detailed in this guide. Contained within are more than 15 original cable patterns for pullovers, jackets, bags, socks, and accessories. Also included is information on a new charting system for predicting cable behavior as well as tips on cabling without a cable needle, choosing the best yarns for specific cable effects, and designing original cable patterns.