I've gotta get this book! | Custom Knits: Unleash Your Inner Designer with Top-Down and Improvisational...

More than just the patterns! | Custom Knits: Unleash Your Inner Designer with Top-Down and Improvisational Techniques | Wendy Bernard

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	• Custom Knits: Unleash Your Inner Designer with Top-Down and Improvisational Techniques Wendy Bernard STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book, 2008 - 168 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Perfect for me

I'm a fervent knitter, but not yet an experienced knitter. I have always knitted my garments based on written patterns. This book open up a whole new world of possibility for me to design my own knitwear. Excellent instructions.

I've gotta get this book!

I just got this book from the library and am definatly going to purchase it at the next possible opportunity. I have never designed my own sweater, but this book, along with reading Elizabeth Zimmermann, has me getting really close to doing just that. While most of the patterns provided aren't something I would make, they are all definatly jumping off points for me to consider when I do start my own, original masterpeice and the techniques in the last chapter empower me to jump in with the knowledge I need. Very good book. A definate must for any knitters library.

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More than just the patterns!

If you make the mistake of judging this book on just the patterns (or worse, the cheeky photography), go back and take another look! If I were allowed to keep only one knitting book of the many I have on my shelves, this is the one I would choose. This has nothing to do with the fact that I loved Wendy's blog & designs before she published this book. The title is Custom Knits for one very precise reason-- using the suggestions and detailed directions in the book, a knitter could knit just about any garment desired. Right now I am knitting a v-neck, cabled cardigan with set in sleeves based on Tang, which is presented as a turtleneck pullover in the book. What Wendy has done here is what I had been hoping someone would do for years-- take the somewhat convoluted and wordy concepts Barbara Walker offers up in Knitting from the Top and distilled them into clear, followable directions and diagrams... with specific patterns to follow, if you so desire. For a a new knitter, the patterns offered here are simple and classic with a modern twist, but have the amazing benefit of being knit in one piece! No more knitting in pieces & laboriously seaming, only to discover that labor of love doesn't even fit! Seamless knits can be tried on as you go. For the intermediate or advanced knitter, this book will set your imagination free! Seriously, sometimes I go to sleep at night thinking about how I can change a pattern in the book to make it into the garment I'm envisioning. That is what makes this book unique and invaluable. It's NOT just another book of patterns for knitters to slavishly follow. It is a book that gives you the power to knit whatever your knitterly brain can dream!

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Love This Book!

I want to make every single pattern in this book. I've been pouring over this since I received it a couple of weeks ago. I've almost finished knitting the first pattern (Pink) and will continue through them all. I am a huge fan of Wendy in her Knit and Tonic blog and have many of her patterns not in this book already in my favorites on Ravelry. Seamless sweaters are the only way to knit sweaters for me so this book is perfect. Her patterns are well written and I like how she explains different options to make the sweater unique. This is not only a pattern book, but an instructional book on sweater design.

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And the photos don't hurt!

I've owned this book since it came out in 2008, and it is my go-to book for thinking about making knit clothing.

I'll be honest: I've not made any of the patterns. Most of the time I've been reading the directions and the techniques and using them in my own work. Ms Bernard's book is on the nighttable with EZ's works, jumpstarting a million ideas about knitting and its possibilities.

Yes there are patterns. Basic raglan with variations, another variation on picking up stitches for top-down inset sleeves. There are yarn suggestions, but enough variation so that substitutions should be easy. The valuable part is in the back, with information about creating your own work. Much of this material has been written elsewhere, but in one book that fits in a knitting bag (without the endless charts of numbers in other 'make your own sweater' design books. I can do math, thank you) it's the one I go to.

It does help that the photos are not frumpy. I would recommend this book to someone who knows the basics and is hoping to learn more. Ms Bernard's tone is refreshing and fun, and she makes knitting seem FUN. If not, why do it?

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Along with being pleasurable and satisfying, knitting can sometimes be frustrating: the turtleneck that looked so fabulous on the model is too bulky for your body, or the cardigan you spent countless hours on just doesn?t fit right. Herein lies the beauty of Custom Knits, which teaches knitters how to use improvisational techniques to achieve spectacular results?and to unleash their inner designers.

Wendy Bernard, creator of the popular blog Knit and Tonic, provides 25 original designs for sweaters of nearly every type, plus variations, most knitted in one piece starting at the top, a method that allows you to try on as you go, alter as desired, and essentially design on the fly. ?Make It Your Own? prompts in each pattern suggest easy alterations to suit your style and body type. And an in-depth reference section teaches how to alter key sweater elements, for example, change a crewneck to a V-neck, add sleeves to a vest, and much more. For the truly adventurous, the book concludes with guidelines for knitting sweaters with no pattern at all.

Bernard?s friendly writing style and photographer Kimball Hall?s lively images create an inviting book of beautiful designs and key techniques that a knitter can use to customize nearly every garment she knits from now on.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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