Saturday, December 4, 2010

They should have stuck with Cookbooks


 
Learn to Knit Socks and Learn to Knit in the Round

By Company's Coming

These two books are just not good enough.  They look fairly nice, bright covers, wire bound which works for home use if not for a public library, the project photo's are Okay, the patterns are well written but uninspiring. There are much better books available.
There is no personality or passion for the craft present, they read like they were written by a computer or a committee, there are designer names with each pattern but all the writing is the same, bland.
The sock book has only two types, top down very standard and toe up, and two working methods, double pointed and one sock at a time on magic loop.  The illustrations of how to do these methods are mediocre.  A particular irritation is the positioning of the fingers, in one drawing page 22 the yarn is held continental style in the left hand, a page later on the same sock the yarn is poised to knit in the English way.
Knitting in the round has what might have been a good lesson plan for beginners but the drawing are inadequate, they show mostly the  needles and yarn but not the hands working. What does show is probably English style but there is no mention of there being two or more styles.  Curiously they cover magic loop in the sock book but not in the knitting in the round book.
Either book give information about different types of needles, how can a book about knitting in the round not mention interchangeable needles?
Pull them off the shelf at your local library if you see them but don't waste energy taking them home,  there are much better books.

1 comment:

  1. Jani, I think you finally put your finger on exactly why I don't like their cookbooks either - "no personality or passion for the craft present."

    ReplyDelete