Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes
by Elizabeth Zimmermann
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth ZimmermannEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1971-07-01
ISBN: 0684135051
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Fireside Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780684135052
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes
Book Review: A delicious read for the full-appetite knitter!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this book through Amazon without ever having seen the book or leafed through it in-person. When it arrived at my door, I eagerly opened the cover and flipped through the pages with giddy anticipation. I am a passionate knitter, I've knit since before I could read, but this was my first time owning a book by the famed and revered Elizabeth Zimmermann. But my initial response? Sadly disappointed! Afterall, where were the bright glossy photos and the fun, bold typesetting found in the garden-variety of knitting books today? What I found was pages and pages of continuous text. Well, it is a book afterall.
My curiousity got the best of me, later that night I found myself curled up in bed reading the book. My initial response of disappointment could not have been further from the truth! After immersing myself into just a few pages, I felt like I had sat down to knit with an old friend. Zimmermann's candid and frank writing style brought me a smile and more than a knowing laugh or two as she shares her knitting wisdom. Yet, there is a sophistication to her writing that leaves the reader drawn into the pages, finding each new tip or bit of advice as something to savor.
Even the rudimentary skills of knitting come into new light within her chatty, and sometimes unabashedly opinionated, pages. I loved and applauded her stern lecture on the importance of gauge. (Yes, an entire chapter all its own, and rightly so!) Gauge is the golden key to the door of knitting design. Yet it is something so often overlooked by new or impatient knitters, and often with ghastly, disappointing results.
Step by step in a narrative, familiar style, she covers the tools of the knitting trade, needles, yarns, skills, and of course, her passion for knitting. All given with tidbits of enlightment even for the experienced knitter. Then gently, she takes the reader to a new path of creativity with clear guidance and instructions to explore nearly endless options of pattern and design. She does this by laying a simply, methodical ground work for the form and shape of any sweater. You can then take that skeletal form and emboss it to your heart's content with your own stitches, designs, color work, originality, and style. I have fallen even more in love with circular after reading this book, and I find the seamless, ease of style, even more liberating.
The focus is on sweater design, but really, you can take these skills to any facet of your knitting. She even covers a sampling of other projects, hats, mittens, afghans, even skirts! I found the details of what makes a sweater into a coat interesting. The section entitled "A Few Remarks on Socks" makes the book worth its price alone! The photos and details of just different knitted heel types were fascinating and most helpful. The "few remarks" are actually a few pages of detailed, fool-proof instruction which I fould both instructional and inspiring for sock knitting.
What can I say, I LOVED the book. I found it a necessary jewel for any knitter's library. I'd suggest that very new beginners to knitting will want to learn to cast on, knit and purl comfortably before digging into this treasure of a find. Once you have those basics down, however, do dive into this book with glee!
As stated by the author herself, "Really, all you need to become a good knitter is common sense...of course superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage." And that is Elizabeth Zimmermann for you!
More Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes reviews:
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Summary of Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes
Do you love to knit -- and hate to purl? Have you ever started a sweater without enough yarn from the same dye lot to finish it? When you cast on, do you end up with a tail of yarn that's maddeningly too long or too short? Elizabeth Zimmermann comes to the rescue with clever solutions to frustrating problems and step-by-step instructions for brilliant, timeless designs.In Knitting Without Tears, you'll find elegant designs for:
- Color-pattern Norwegian ski sweaters
- Seamless patterned-yoke sweaters
- Hooded garter-stitch jackets for babies
- Watch caps, socks, slippers, mittens, and more!
This classic and influential book is poised to inspire a whole new generation of knitters who have yet to discover the joys and comforts of knitting. As the lady herself once put it, "properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either."
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