Must have for knitters, even if you are a visual learner

books:

	• Sweater Workshop Jacqueline Fee Down East Books, 2002 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fantastic tool!

This is a wonderful book! I'm just now working on the sampler and I can see that I am learning a lot of new techniques. There are lots of great ideas and techniques for making and creating your own sweaters! A worthwhile purchase!

Jan

God's gift to knitting

Jackie comes across a bit like a dictator. She has very strong opinions, and if you're new to knitting or have perfectionist tendencies (like I do) you're liable to get caught up in Jackie's "the only right way to do things" vortex. As an antidote I suggest reading some of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books. As Steph says: "There is no knitting police!"
Having said that, the reason I give Jackie's book five stars is because you will learn more from this one book than you would from any dozen others. The sweater sampler is genius, and though I've yet to start the basic sweater, I have the sense that it will be a delightful, eye-opening experience. Don't get hung up on the dorky looking sweater models in this book - that's not the point. The point is to learn to be utterly free to design you own sweaters and have them come out right. P.S. Unless you're built like Gwyneth Paltrow, consider buying a longer circular needle than the 24" needle Jackie recommends for sweaters.

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Anyone Can Do This!!

I am a very beginning knitter. I do know how to knit and purl. This book has you make a sampler to start off with. She walks you through step by step. It is so easy and I am amazed at what I was able to do. I am getting ready to make the sweater, but with the sampler, I have already proved I can do the stitches.

Ready for the Next Step?

This book is for knitters who want to take the next step and design their own sweaters. It is not a book to glance through in order to glean ideas - it is a book to STUDY. There are some patterns/designs included, but whether or not you like the author's designs is irrelevant - the whole point is to understand how to make your OWN designs from any yarn. I spin my own yarn. I don't want to use anyone else's patterns! This book, along with KNITTING IN THE OLD WAY, and KNITTING FROM THE TOP DOWN, is a teacher, a class, and a reference book all in one. It is not for the faint-hearted! It is for the knitter who says, "I CAN DO IT MYSELF."

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Must have for knitters, even if you are a visual learner

I am a learn-by-doing-and-watching person. I do not generally learn well from books, although I have purchased several, including Barbara Walker's Knit from the Top and several Zimmermann books. Nevertheless, if you are serious about improving your knitting and want to have a little fun at it, too, this is the book. The key to this book is to knit the "sweater sampler" by which Fee takes you through all the techniques she can think of to construct a sweater. Fee's writing style is deceptively simple and VERY easy to follow, even for this very visual learner.

Even if you're not into knitting sweaters [I live in Mississippi, VERY little use for wool, although I love it]the techniques acquired working your way through the book give you the capability to make it past the "bumps" we all experience with traditional knitting instructions.
Which brings me to my second major point. I absolutely abhor line-by-line knitting directions and any knitted pieces requiring sewing or other seaming. By that I mean seamless knitting is the only way to go and Fee's workbook takes you there, although she includes instructions for "flat" knitters as well.

So, regardless of your preferred method of knitting, flat or circular, seamed or seamless, there is a great deal to be gained from this book. Although I have also acquired a great fondness for Elizabeth Zimmermann's writing, the DVD's for Zimmermann's instructional sections are better and make the techniques far more accessible to the average knitter who lacks a more experienced knitter for assistance. There is no such shortcoming with Fee's workbook, which means you can take it with you and work your way through it without access to video or computer equipment.

I really, really like this book and of the several knitting books I have purchased this one has taken me a long way to designing my own sweaters and other items without having to resort to a pattern wedded to a particular gauge, needle and yarn size.

I also strongly recommend you get the spiral bound version - it's definitely worth the few extra dollars you spend on it

Many thanks, Ms. Fee. And I would adore a DVD workshop "book" as well; if it would turn out to be anything like the book, I'd be glued to the computer with wool and needles in hand.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

This book teaches creative knitting. Sweaters are knit in one piece -- no seams! -- to the knitter's own set of measurements, enabling knitters to use even hand-spun yarns that never seem to fit a predetermined gauge. The Sweater Workshop provides an alternative for those who wish to knit sweaters of their own designs. The rewards are well-fitting, perfectly constructed seamless sweaters knit from any yarn.

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