First, the facts:
Author: Melissa Leapman
Published by: Potter Craft, 2010
Pages: 158
Type: Patterns, stitches, and techniques
Chapters:
1. Understanding Color
2. Mastering Color Knitting Techniques Using Stripes
3. Creating Color Patterns Using Slip Stitches
Pattern Size Range: Varies
The In-Depth Look:
There are lots of books out there that examine color knitting, but this one focuses on color knitting using only ONE color at a time.
That’s right. Not intarsia. Not fair isle. Instead, this book is about adding color to your knitting with stripes and slip stitches.
The book starts with basic color analysis–a look at color analysis, hues and values, how to judge which colors go together and which don’t–all very thorough. My only complaint in this section is that when discussing the relationships of certain colors, the illustration will “dim” the other colors in the wheel so you focus on the colors they want you to look at. Except, the dimmed colors aren’t quite transparent enough, so the colors I was supposed to be looking at weren’t as obvious as they could have been. It took a little work to focus on the relevant colors. But, really, that’s not that important. The writing, the techniques, the analysis are all useful stuff.
The other two main sections of the book talk about adding color by using stripes, or by doing slip-stitch/mosaic colorwork. Both sections are split into three, basic sections–basic instructions, stitch patterns, and project patterns.
This is ideal, to my mind. Nothing makes me happier than knowing WHY I’m doing something, and having the author go to the trouble of not only explainining each technique to me, and then sharing an assortment of stitch patterns for me to play with, and THEN giving me actual patterns to knit? Well, it’s like heaven. You can skip over the explanatory stuff if you’re in a rush to get to the patterns, or you can skip the patterns while making up your own from the handy stitch collections. It’s your choice … and I love having choices.
Considering how wonderful Melissa Leapman’s books on cables are, I’m really not at all surprised that her book on color would be so much fun.
This impressive and handy book is available from Amazon.com.
Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.
This review copy was kindly donated by Potter Craft. Thank you!
Other posts for this author:
Comments on this entry are closed.