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Book Reviews by Katie Gerwien, aka khgknits Sweater Design in Plain English, Knitting Workshop & The Sweater Workshop Are you in relentless pursuit of the perfect sweater pattern: a template adaptable to fit your body, or a knitworthy recipient’s body, using the yarn you want to use and the gauge you get with the yarn? Maybe you want to be able to adapt the sleeve style, the neck style, add shaping, color work, or stitch pattern to the sweater? I have been in pursuit of this pattern for several years. I don’t think this elusive pattern exists on the open market. With that in mind, I set on a search for books to help me reach this goal. I reviewed four new-to-me books on the topic of how to design your own sweater. The four books I read recently are: - The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters (Budd, 20<strong>12</strong>) - Sweater Design in Plain English (Righetti & Shaw, 2011) - 6000+ Pullover Possibilities, Interchangeable Options for Custom Knitted Sweaters (Leapman, 2017) - The Sweater Workshop (Fee, 2002) In addition, I read the entire Elizabeth Zimmermann books series last summer while enjoying sitting on the beach of Chesapeake Bay. Zimmermann was a well-respected knitting author and teacher who was quite popular for wanting knitters to own their knitting and not let their knitting own them. Don’t ask me why I read all of them; I am not sure why I did not stop after a few of the books because there is a lot of overlap of concepts and design in the books. Elizabeth Zimmermann submitted a pattern for an Aran Sweater knit in the round to a magazine. She was surprised to find the magazine converted the pattern to knit in pieces for publication. That began Zimmermann’s self-publishing career for knitting books, encouraging knitters to knit continental, in the round, and to use the EPS method (Elizabeth’s Percentage System) to design sweaters. From Knitting Without Tears (Zimmermann, 1970) to The Opinionated Knitter (Zimmermann, 2005) and more, Zimmermann’s witty writing style has helped knitters enjoy their knitting time and projects. To design a sweater using EPS, Zimmermann has you knit a gauge swatch in the round (usually recommending a hat). Also, she suggests measuring your favorite fitting sweater to determine the final size of the sweater you will knit. From there, you obtain the key number by multiplying the stitch count per inch by the chest measurement. All stitch counts you need, cast-on stitches, underarm stitches, sleeve stitches, etc., are a percentage of the key number. I recently read Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop Expanded and Updated (Zimmermann & Swanson, 2014) again. This edition contains additional content from Zimmermann’s daughter, Meg Swanson, as well as notes from Zimmermann herself. If you want to purchase a Zimmermann book for your knitting reference bookshelf, this edition of this book is the one I recommend. You can purchase this book from Schoolhouse Press, for $24.95 at this link: https://www.schoolhousepress.com/knitting-workshop-expanded.html Also, my local library (and I suspect most libraries) carries many, if not all, of Zimmermann’s books. Continued on next page 24
Book Reviews... Continued... Knitting Workshop (Zimmermann, 1981) is a paperback book, with color photos, and detailed illustrations that contains four sections. The first section introduces casting on, knitting, gauge, increasing, colorwork, decreasing, and blocking. The second section uses EPS to design a seamless yoke and a drop-shoulder sweater. The third section reviews seven seamless shoulder shaping, Zimmerman’s love of garter stitch, lace shawls, and Aran, Guernsey, and Fair Isle sweaters. The fourth section contains seven sweater patterns, a hat pattern, and a V-neck Fair Isle vest. Zimmermann’s famous Baby Surprise Jacket pattern is also included. The Sweater Workshop (Fee, 2002), fits into this review as it is inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann’s processes and is written to allow you to design your sweater, using your own yarn (including handspun), and gauge. The book is paperback with clear illustrations and color photography. The sweaters shown are from the 1980s, in terms of the color and yarn selections. Jacqueline Fee uses Elizabeth Zimmermann’s seamless raglan sweater as the base pattern with a few changes: a lowered neckline to create a true crew neck and slowing the raglan decreasing frequency which lengthens the yoke. The Sweater Workshop has five chapters, all leading to designing sweaters by the fourth chapter. The first chapter, “The Sweater Sampler,” provides a knitting exercise to help the knitter understand why, where, and when to use stitches, increases, decreases, and knit in the round, with lessons on the various stitches and techniques used as you complete the project. In addition, it has a three-page review of six raglan seamline decreases. To be honest, I know I will not complete the knitting exercise. New knitters may appreciate the knitting exercise and benefit from completing it. The second chapter, “Equip Yourself,” provides a basic review of fiber content, using handspun yarn, ply structure, and recommended notions. The chapter includes instructions on how to sew a circular needle case. The third chapter, “Unravel your Thinking,” provides an interesting review of the history of designing sweaters, including illustrations of the tools used to measure adults for sweater design and a review of gauge. If you are interested in the history of knitting, this chapter is for you! The fourth chapter, “Basic Sweater,” explains the basics of designing your sweater. It starts with how to measure your favorite fitting sweater, then provides in-depth instructions for knitting a basic crew neck, raglan sleeve, bottom-up sweater, with sleeves that join at the underarm. She includes a few extras, such opportunities to use short rows, adding a sweatshirt pocket, using crew neck shaping, a choice of six sleeve styles (ranging from fitted to even fuller fullest), and a gauge page. The gauge page is a worksheet to use your gauge and desired sweater measurements to determine the key number of stitches, from which you determine the stitch counts for the body and sleeves (built from Zimmermann’s EPS). The fifth chapter, “The Sweater Variations,” provides resources for sweater design inspiration, pattern selection, and knitting hints. The chapter includes adding in cables, lace, moss stitch, overall Aran cables, and color work designs. It also provides instructions for placket and crew neck options, and how to alter your pattern to a V-neck cardigan. While this book is fairly accessible to knitters who are new to knitting patterns, I think it is a good idea to have some understanding and exposure to knitting sweaters before trying Fee’s methods for designing a sweater. You can purchase this on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0UWneEC Continued on next page 25
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 12
Page 3 and 4: Dear Readers, And so, another year
Page 5 and 6: Monogamous... Continued... large st
Page 7 and 8: y M. Dreary A KNITTERS PLAYLIST Her
Page 9 and 10: Dishident Continued... → Row 20:
Page 11 and 12: Join Two Sisters and Some Yarn in o
Page 13 and 14: y Deplorable Knitter YEA OR NAY...
Page 15 and 16: Selbu Contest Continued... Submissi
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Page 27 and 28: Book Reviews... Continued... At the
Page 29 and 30: Amigurumi/Crochet Patterns http://w
Page 31 and 32: DIRECTIONS: Ch 30. INCREASING SECTI
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Page 35 and 36: Bloggers & Vloggers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Page 37 and 38: Captain America Continued... This i
Page 39 and 40: DIRECTIONS: In Color A, CO 115 sts
Page 41 and 42: By Uknitted Kingdom Willful Ignoran
Page 43: Acknowledgments BLOCKED has been ma

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