A Trio of Reviews

It has been some time since I have reviewed anything here. Let’s be fair, until recently it had been a while since I had done anything here. However, I felt it was time I reviewed something. Mainly because I can’t show any of my gift knitting yet. Yes, less than four days until Christmas and I am still gift knitting. Not unheard of but two of those days will be spent working on a busy ward. It’s unlikely the gift will be finished. Thankfully I have an understanding sister.

Yesterday I was returning from work. I was actually there to hand something in and not actually on shift. I timed it well so that the station was busy. Rather than get on the short train I decided to wait for the longer route and much quieter train. It made sense to go look at books and magazines. I came across a copy of The Knitter while I was there. I thought this magazine had stopped publishing. I used to love it. My mum and I would buy it every month and read it together. I picked it up because I was feeling nostalgic but actually I found myself enjoying it.

I loved the cable jumper shown on the cover. I normally like a longer jumper and I suppose you could lengthen it but actually this looks good in the shorter length and I can see myself one day attempting to knit it. There is also a good section on colourwork with various designers writing about their inspiration and their top tips. I actually recognised these designers and have admired their work in the past (thank you fruity knitting). There is also a pattern for a lovely colourwork jumper. The colours are all bright and not really me but that’s the great thing about these things. You can change them to suit. There is also a mini project to try your hand at colourwork and a beautiful beret which I have put on my to do list. I need to look out my old copies of this magazine and I will definitely be picking it up next month.

My sister spotted this book in the library. It’s a little late to be doing any of them now but there is always next year. There are some great patterns in there at varying levels with lots of different techniques to keep you interested. I haven’t actually knitted any of these but the patterns look to be well written out. They are broken down into sections which is always helpful. My particular favourites are the little ornaments at the back. I especially like the mini ski sweaters (I realise these aren’t stockings).

I have a new obsession. I am in love with fair iris. I wish that I was good at it but I guess that just takes practise. This book by Monica Russel was also from the library. It’s a good beginners book. The first section goes over technique with some clear photographs. YouTube will be hard to beat for technique but this was pretty well done. It then shows some charts used for borders and there are a few easy patterns to get you started. It then goes on to show more complex charts and these are my favourites. There is a fair isle dress in there that I especially love.

I’m not sure that I will buy either of these books but they were definitely worth borrowing from the library.