Saturday, December 30, 2006

And for the knitters...

...Knitting Patterns Book 250, a knitting stitch pattern compendium written entirely in Japanese and using Japanese symbolcraft charts. This book is divided into several sections -- just what each section is isn't readily apparent to me, since there is considerable overlap of stitch types/techniques among the sections. There are, however, plenty of openwork patterns, cables, twisted traveling stitches and edgings. One section that interested me had stitches arranged into an overall pattern, then a second version of that stitch pattern arranged into a linear design. Plenty of opportunity for interesting twin set knitting with those designs. Components of the various patterns may appear in other, more familiar sources (such as Barbara Walker), however the various combinations appear to be fairly original. I am not familiar with the German language Bavarian traveling stitch books, so I can't comment on whether there is overlap of design with the traveling stitches in this book -- the cables and openwork ones appear different from those I have in other books though. The format of this book is similar to the crochet stitch book -- a swatch of the stitch pattern on one side of the page, and the chart opposite it. There are a few photos of completed garments, however they are for inspiration, as there are no complete garment charts. Also like the crochet book, there is a section in the back of the book that has illustrations for each chart symbol. Some, such as a twisted double decrease, would require concentration of the part of a knitter unfamiliar with that operation. All in all, I think this is an interesting addition to my stitch library. I'm looking forward to trying out some of the more unusual stitch patterns when my current projects are completed. This book was ordered online from yesasia.com -- again, other sources may be available, although I haven't done any research into that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I looked for that book at the website but couldnt find it.

Karen said...

Their (yesasia.com) website is often hard to negotiate. I'm not sure why it isn't showing up, but perhaps it's no longer in stock? I often find things simply by accident -- I'll click on one book selection, then perhaps find other books listed (that didn't show up in the initial search) listed on the bottom in the "if you liked this book, then you might like these others" section. Wish I could be more helpful, but as I said, it can be a frustrating website.