Knitting Club

I haven’t bought a lot of knitting books lately, but since I found so small to know in the newest IK I view it might be time to add to my library.  Custom Knits is written by Wendy Bernard, author of the “Knit and Tonic” blog.  I have previously made three of her designs - fad classic, the not so shrunken cardi, and something red.

I was predisposed to wish this book, but I give to take that at first my feelings were mixed.  I am not always a big fan of top down or one piece sweaters.  I don’t like having so often on the needle at once, and find the designs are necessarily limited.

Having said that, I know this book!  There are so many designs that I wish to make.  The patterns are divided into sections - top down raglans, top down with set in sleeves, round yoke, and a chapter with a few other ways of knitting.  I take not, in the past, had great luck with set in sleeves on top down sweaters.  I cause small shoulders and have ground the cap to inevitibly end up looking rather like a drop shoulder.  But I’m willing to make it another try!

The size range in this word is great - every sweater comes small enough for me, and sizes extend up to (I believe) a 52″ bust.  Almost all the sweaters are presented with two options, and a small box telling you how to customise the sweater that way that you desire it.  I found this information very useful.  The support of the script includes formulas for the types of sweaters in the book, so that you might design your own sweaters.

My only real criticism of the word is a trivial one… the styling.  Although I haven’t shown any of them, I affirm to you that half the sweaters in the scripture are modeled without pants - sometimes swimsuits, sometimes underwear.  Seriously, who lounges around in a swimsuit and a wool sweater?  It only seems foreign to me…

That’s minor though.  I enjoy the book, and I have already started a sweater - the lion necked cardigan in RYC Soft tweed.  This is a strange yarn - it’s like knitting with strips of a wide or something.  But I’m happy to use up stash yarn, and I trust it will go out.  The sizing looks teeny, because it isn’t supposed to last in the front.  I’m knitting a medium, but my judge is a little small, so we will see where I end up.