Designing Knitwear, By Deborah Newton

This knitting book isn't just for designers, it's for anyone who wants their knitting to fit and look stylish, whether you are knitting for a dog, a baby, yourself, or a pillow!

Don't let the title scare you off; "Designing Knitwear" isn't a book for professional designers only. This is a book for anyone who wants to insure that everything they knit will fit the person they are knitting for. And who doesn't want their garments, accessories...even pillow covers!...to fit properly after all those hours of knitting? Gone are the days of the warning, "don't knit for your boyfriend until you have the ring!"

This book was indispensable when I was doing custom knitting, from a different incarnation of this knitting website. I was able to knit gloves that fit perfectly when a customer had two different sized hands and lived 1000 miles away. I can also knit to fit distant grandchildren, and even for myself (where, alas, I tend to sometimes get lazy and cut corners).

It never fails that no matter how hard I try, when I use a pattern from a book or magazine, testing my guage and then just knitting merrily away, my garments fail to please me.

With Deborah Newton's help, I've discovered where ideas and inspiration come from (Chapter 1, Learning to See), how to understand fit and the process of coordinating the structure of a garment with the body beneath it (Chapter 3, Fit and Silhouette), textures, colors, and what elements determine a classic or theme, and so much more.

What's your Waterloo? Mine is the finishing details of any project. Debby's designer approach to these type of details puts the fun back in fundamentals.

All in all, if I could only keep one knitting book, "Designing Knitwear" would be the one. From this book, all possibilities spring forth. Thank you, Deborah Newton.

You can find this book, and most of the knitting books I review, on my bookshelf at Powell's.

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