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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
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