Books, books and more books

I've been reading some books and magazines lately. Here are some mini-reviews:

Poetry in Stitches: Clothes You can Knit by Solvig Heisdal - The colorwork is great, but many of them do not have much shaping, and the sizes seem rather limited. I am most interested in how the sweaters are assembled after knitting (the way she does the picot edge and hem, the shoulder binding, etc.) and many of the colorwork motifs (though I do not like the overall arrangement or the color choices for many of them). There are some solid colored shaped garments as well which I think are very lovely. The instructions assume that you are familiar with many of the concepts, so I would not recommend it for a beginner. Also, I like the projects in Norsk Strikkedesign more.

Sweaters From Camp by Meg Swansen - This book is absolutely fantastic and inspiring for anyone who wants to design their own fair isle sweater. There is a thorough section on techniques that covers a lot of material.

Überlieferte Strickmuster by Maria Erlbacher - This is a set of three paperback books that are much smaller, but denser than the Barbara Walker Treasuries. They are in German, but everything is charted with an insert on how to interpret the charts. The charts are different from other charts I've seen, but they weren't hard to read with a little adjustment. There are lots of twisted stitch patterns and even patterns for whole garments including some *amazing* socks. Here is an example of a sock pattern (it is continued over more pages, but that is the beginning).

I've also been reading Designing Knitwear by Deborah Newton but am nowhere near digesting enough of the information to give a review. All I can say is that while the sweater shapes pictured are fairly dated, the information includes a very wide variety of shapes beyond what was fashionable when it was written. I liked Newton's section on set-in sleeves more than Elizabeth Zimmerman's in Knitting Without Tears (I'm sure EZ covered the topic more thoroughly somewhere else though).

And I finally got my hands on Rebecca 29 at an LYS! I like a lot of the patterns. Minor gripe: I was looking at one of the patterns in the store and trying to see if they carried the yarn for it. When I asked, she told me no, but that I could substitute any yarn with the same gauge (not true if I want the same drape, etc!!!), so she looked at the pattern and saw that it was 28 st/in IN PATTERN (a textured lacy thing) and pointed me towards the fingering weight yarns. I did not buy any yarn there, came home, and checked the gauge online. The suggested gauge for that yarn in stockinette is 22 st/in. I hope she's not leading other customers astray!