Knitting Pattern Essentials: Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear Author: Visit Amazon's Sally Melville Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0307965570 | Format: EPUB
Knitting Pattern Essentials: Adapting and Drafting Knitting Patterns for Great Knitwear Description
About the Author
SALLY MELVILLE is a widely published and highly sought after knitwear designer who every year teaches a dozen different workshops at more than twenty venues across North America. Her work has appeared in many magazines, from
Vogue Knitting to
Interweave Knits, and she is the author of several books, including the bestselling Knitting Experience series. Visit Sally online at www.sallymelvilleknits.com.
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Potter Craft (March 26, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307965570
- ISBN-13: 978-0307965578
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Well-known knitting designer Sally Melville has a gift for explaining knitting techniques in simple, easy-to-understand language. Her previous books (e.g., The Knit Stitch, The Purl Stitch) are deservedly popular. With KNITTING PATTERN ESSENTIALS, Melville has done it again. She has created a book of pattern templates for knitted garments that is the easiest to follow of any that I've seen.
This book is NOT a book for beginning knitters. But knitting isn't exactly rocket science. Any moderately experienced knitter who is motivated to draft custom patterns--patterns that will really fit--should be able to make good use of this book. Aside from basic knitting skills, all that a knitter needs is the ability to read and understand schematic drawings of knitted garments; to take accurate body measurements; and to perform basic math calculations (e.g., to multiply a width-in-inches measurement by a swatched stitches-per-inch number, in order to determine how many stitches will be required at a given place in a garment).
What sets KNITTING PATTERN ESSENTIALS apart from other books of pattern templates, is Melville's explanations of WHY you need ease, of HOW MUCH ease you need in a particular garment style, and of WHY you do (or don't) need certain kinds of shaping (e.g., shoulder shaping) in a specific garment style. Melville teaches you to understand the patterns that you draft, which of course makes for better custom patterns.
Do you follow a pattern for a knitted garment such as a sweater exactly as written? Or do you envision a couple of changes you would like to make to a pattern that you otherwise like the structure of but you don't quite know how to go about doing it? Or maybe you're not sure your changes are even going to work correctly. Well Sally Melville reveals in this book the secrets to creating or modifying a pattern so the finished project looks and fits exactly how you want it to.
Sally breaks down each skill. And the last chapter being Chapter 9, includes 8 new patterns by Sally. I confess that at first glance, I wasn't pleased with the style of all of the patterns. Well not until I took a second look [and then a 3rd] and after studying over the other chapters. I then started thinking, "I could change that collar to this one. Add more detailing or structure to the bottom, fix the waistline, or any other change I might need to that one. I could just make the alterations needed to suit my own body type. My own style. After all Sally is giving me the tools to do it in this book. I must admit I have dismissed many other patterns for the same reasons when I looked at them the first time around. But if I apply Sally's rules, tips and applications for size and personal style, I could use just about any pattern I find or even create my own design. Or just have the patterns that I do like from the book to fit me correctly. A proper fitting garment. Wow what a concept, huh? Trust me, I have a lot to learn in this department.
So maybe I do like a few of the patterns after all. But of course they wouldn't fit me without some alterations for my own measurements. Why shouldn't I give it a go and make those altereations? Style them for my own body type? Become my own designer?
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