I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

I recently obtained a copy of Kathleen Taylor’s new book, I Heart Felt, to review. The book was released for purchase today (2/19/2008) so you should be seeing it at your LYS shortly.

The book is a follow-up to Knit One, Felt Too, Kathleen’s book of easy-to-knit felted projects. The projects in this new book are a bit more advanced but there’s really no project that couldn’t be tackled successfully by an adventurous knitter of any skill level. That’s mostly because Kathleen’s instructions are incredibly clear and concise. She’s packed a lot of information and tips into the book and I really appreciate her unambiguous, straight-forward writing style. Even a new knitter shouldn’t have any trouble following her detailed instructions. And because felting is so forgiving, the projects would provide excellent practice for the more advanced techniques Kathleen uses in the designs like intarsia, stranded colorwork, and cables. In addition, there’s an excellent section on needle felting; Kathleen explains in detail how to add needle-felted embellishments to your finished projects.

Plus, the projects are just so dang cute.

I showed the book to a couple of friends and we all decided this bag was a must-knit:

There’s also a nice felted Christmas stocking and some whimsical projects for children including this cute set:

I also appreciate that Kathleen has used yarns that are widely available and reasonably priced. Most of the projects call for Cascade 220 or Knit Picks yarns. So the projects are very affordable to make. I enjoyed the book and think it’s a good resource for patterns, information, and inspiration.

Today’s post is brought to you by Donna Druchunas. I’d like to thank Donna for providing such comprehensive answers to the questions you posed about her new book, Ethnic Knitting Discovery.

Donna answered: The short answer is yes. Here’s the long answer: I’m working on a series of three books on ethnic knitting techniques. The first, Ethnic Knitting Discovery, is available now. This book includes chapters on Norwegian knitting, Andean knitting, Dutch knitting (from the Netherlands), and Danish knitting. The sweater “recipes” are all for drop shoulder and modified drop shoulder sweaters. Since this is the first book in the series, I wanted to stick to simple sweater shapes so newer knitters could learn the basics of circular knitting, working with texture and color, and designing sweaters from scratch. The second book, Ethnic Knitting: Exploration, will include raglan, yoke, and saddle shoulder sweaters from Lithuania, Iceland, and Ireland, as well as a chapter on designing and knitting cardigans. This book is currently scheduled to come out in fall of 2008. The third book, Ethnic Knitting: Adventure, will have sweaters from Bavaria, Japan, and Turkey that feature fitted sleeves and shaping, and the book will also tips for knitting and sizing Japanese patterns and reading charts and patterns that are not written in English.

Cayenne asked: I would be interested in knowing how Donna did the research and gained the experience she needed to write this book. It seems pretty extensive and thorough. How did she come up with the idea of making it more a book to design from than just patterns to follow? It reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmerman. I like how she has various levels of instruction for novice to designer. It looks like a very interesting book. I thought I read somewhere that there will be a couple more books like this too. What other countries does she plan to explore and write about?

Donna answered: Indirectly through Meg Swansen, Elizabeth Zimmerman was an inspiration to me. Priscilla Gibson-Roberts was also an inspiration, especially her book Knitting in the Old Way. I love that book, and I often knit sweaters that I make up myself as I go along. But I felt that Knitting in the Old Way expected a lot out of knitters. If you don’t already have a huge amount of knowledge and knitting experience tucked away in the corners of your brain, that book will be frustrating for you. I wanted to create a book for newer knitters who might feel intimidated by the idea of designing. I’ve known how to knit since I was very young. I don’t even remember learning how to knit. I also read voraciously and I have a large library of books on traditional knitting techniques from around the world, and I take knitting workshops all the time. I also sort of “collect” knitting skills. I often make a project to try out a new technique, not particularly because the pattern is for something I want to wear. So in a way my whole knitting life has been the research for this book. To do the detailed research for each chapter, I did a lot of reading. I wasn’t able to travel to the places I talk about in this book, so I had to rely on the primary research that others have done before me. I tried to distill that in a way that is easier to digest for newer knitters, because many of the books on ethnic knitting that have been published in the past had very vague or high-level discussions of how to make the sweaters, with no detailed instructions.

Susan asked: Donna, I loved the chapter on Andean knitting, especially the information on working with two colors with the yarn tensioned around the neck. What’s your favorite technique presented in the book?

Donna answered: The Andean technique is actually my favorite. First because it’s so unusual, and second because it’s so easy! I have always had trouble getting even tension with color knitting, and using this technique my work almost looks machine knitted. I was amazed when I took a workshop on this technique and found out how easy it was and how beautiful the results are. It sounds like it will be hard because you are purling with multiple colors — an idea that gives many American knitters nightmares. But with this technique, you can use as many colors as you like, and you just hold the unused colors out of the way with your right thumb and you flick the working color around the tip of the needle with your left thumb to make each stitch. It’s amazingly simple.

Femke asked: Donna, I’d like to know how you determined what regions and techniques to include in the book. I’m also curious how you researched the book, did you travel, what sources of information did you use? I haven’t had a chance to look at the book yet, but I am definitely going to. I am from the Netherlands and very curious about that particular chapter!

Donna answered: For the first book in my ethnic knitting series, I wanted to include two chapters on texture knitting and two on color knitting. As I mentioned above, I also wanted to focus on drop shoulder sweaters. So I went through all of the books I had on different styles of knitting and I did a lot of searching on the internet until I came up with a selection of four regions that met that criteria. The bibliography in the back of the book lists the sources that I used for my research. If you’d like to learn more about knitting in the Netherlands, I suggest you also try to find a copy of Knitting from the Netherlands, Traditional Dutch Fishermen’s Sweaters by Henriette Van Der Klift-Tellegen. This book was my primary source of research for information on Dutch knitting techniques and sweater construction. It’s got lots of historical photos and charts for different sweater designs from different fishing villages in the Netherlands, and a map showing where each of the villages is. It also has a stitch library and an introduction that discusses the history of knitting in the Netherlands in more detail than I was able to include in my book. The sweater instructions, however, are quite vague and probably appropriate only for intermediate/advanced knitters, even though the sweaters themselves are not that difficult to make.

Thanks for including me in your blog tour, Donna! I’m really looking forward to the next two books. I do, however, have one last question . . . What the heck are you knitting in this promo photo???

[ETA: My apologies to everyone from Google reader who has already seen this post.  I cannot get damn Bloglines to recognize my ping so I’m trying the republishing route.]

True to my word, I’m opening up the blog this weekend to questions for Donna Druchunas about her new book, Ethnic Knitting Discovery.

Here’s my copy, resting on my half-finished, Rhinebeck Not-Sweater:

My copy of the book arrived a few hours before I departed for a trip to Denver (more on that later, including tales of how Wanda and Michaele strong-armed me into buying a wheelbarrow full of back issues of Interweave Knits and Knitter’s magazines). I had a chance to read a large portion of the book on the plane and found it to be an excellent resource for adventurous/advanced beginners seeking to venture into the design process. Here’s some comprehensive and helpful information Donna sent me that really does a good job of characterizing the book:

Donna Druchunas presents traditional knitting designs and techniques from across the globe in step-by-step fashion. She begins with what ethnic knitting is, what you don’t need to know, and color tips. For each geographic location, she offers brief knitting-specific history, instructions for key techniques, and a handful of versatile patterns (texture or color). A small introductory project lets the reader practice new
skills, which are then applied to the knitting of individually designed pullover sweaters.

Features:
Four skill-building small projects and eight sweater projects, each with worksheets geared to three levels of knitting experience—suitable for self-study or group workshops. First of a set of three books introducing traditional knitting techniques in a graduated fashion.

Skills covered include:
• knitting patterns back-and-forth and in the round
• working from charts
• steeks
• puntas
• stitch-and-cut armholes
• centering patterns
• managing repeats
• welts
• half-gussets
• Andean-style purling

You can see more information on the book, including excerpts by clicking here and here and here. So start clicking and then leave a question for Donna in the comments. Her answers will appear here in a blog post on October 20th.

Don’t pass up this great chance to speak directly to the author of a knitting book about her inspiration for the book, or her yarn suggestions for the patterns, or her insights on the design process, or anything else that interests you.