200 Fair Isle Motifs: A Knitter's Directory

The book is fantastic! It was in excellent condition and shipped fast!

If you enjoy Fair Isle knitting, you will definitely want to add this excellent Fair Isle technical reference and stitch dictionary to your knitting book collection! It's a wonderful "quick reference" guide to colorwork knitting that beautifully complements my two favorite "complete" Fair Isle knitting references,  Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting , and  The Art of Fair Isle Knitting: History, Technique, Color & Patterns  (both of which discuss Fair Isle knitting techniques and design theory in depth, and include some wonderful garment patterns).This book contains no garment patterns. Most of the book is given over to a directory of repeating Fair Isle motifs, which are arranged in order from the simplest (single-row, two-stitch "lice") to the most complicated (19-row, 24-stitch rosettes). The directory starts with a "Motif Selector" that shows each motif knitted in a full-color swatch. The stitch pattern pages that follow for each motif include (1) a chart for the motif by itself, (2) a chart for the motif in a repeating pattern, (3) a full-color chart for the motif as knitted in the sample swatch, and (4) a full-color chart for the motif in the repeating pattern as knitted in the swatch. Each motif page gives the row and stitch counts for the individual motif. Motifs include the traditional OXO, poinsettias, pine trees, rosettes, hearts, Greek keys, and many others.Knitters who are new to Fair Isle knitting will love the beautiful full-color, close-up photos of Fair Isle knitting on the needles that appear in the comprehensive "Essential Skills" chapter. Particularly valuable are the "Holding the Yarn" photos that show three ways of holding yarn for two-color knitting, and the "Weaving" photos that show the back of the work with perfectly-tensioned floats.The "Essential Skills" chapter covers (1) yarn, (2) gauge, (3) casting on, (4) circular knitting, (5) holding the yarn, (6) increasing and decreasing, (7) correcting mistakes (by taking back, unraveling rows, or using duplicate stitch), (8) joining pieces together, (9) steeking, (10) blocking and finishing, (11) color theory, (12) color harmony, (13) color choice, (14) classic design principles, and (15) planning a project. Each topic is clearly explained using text, drawings, and step-by-step photos.Because it is beautiful to look at, this book should make a wonderful gift for any knitter, regardless of the knitter's skill level. However, knitters should be able to read charts to get the most out of the book. (For learning to read knitting charts, I recommend  Charts Made Simple: understanding knitting charts visually ). Because the book is an invaluable reference for any knitter who is interested in Fair Isle colorwork knitting or design, I give it an unqualified 5 stars.

I love to knit Fair Isle patterns and often have the urge to incorporate some Fair Isle motifs into mostly solid projects that I am making. These include hats, sweaters, afghans and the like. This book is perfect for incorporating Fair Isle into your knitting patterns or developing a pattern of your own using one of the 200 motifs from this knitting directory. It is a wellstone of pattern possibilities. The author describes the book as "a knitter's directory of 200 Fair Isle motifs". Is is, in essence, an encyclopedic dictionary of most of the motifs you can imagine in the Fair Isle tradition."The directory is organized by row and stitch count. It includes a stunning, actual-size photograph, a black and white chart, a color chart, a color variation chart, and a suggested all-over repeat chart for each of the 200 motifs." There is a section on Essential Skills for Fair Isle knitting. For the purist, there is no substitute for Shetland wool. However, the author concedes that baby and sock yarns, Norwegian yarn, Icelandic wool, mohair, cotton, variegated and novelty yarns can all be used to create Fair Isle. The section on gauge stresses the importance of knowing gauge before starting the project. We all know this to be true but even I have knitted sweaters big enough to fit the whole state of Iowa into because I was lazy about gauge. There is a nice section about casting on and another about circular knitting. The author has a page on how to hold the yarn and another page on stranding. There is a section on weaving and one on increasing and decreasing. Steeking, a process that has always scared me, is covered as well. Color theory is addressed which is very helpful because the multi-colored basis of Fair Isle depends on color harmonies and choice. The author addresses design principles and ways to plan a project.Excitedly, I turned to the section on Motif Selector and was gaga. There are so many motifs and so many beautiful ones. Each motif is shown in multi-colored possibilities. The photographs are close-up and beautiful. Interweave Press and Mary Jane Mucklestone have outdone themselves with this book, a resource any Fair Isle knitter (or knitter-to-be) can not do without. It is superb.

Bardzo dobra pozycja.Wyczerpujące opisy,piękne ilustracje.Piękne i ciekawe wzory Polecam wszystkim fankom kolorowych robótek na drutach

Muito bom! Gostei!

De los mejores libros de punto que tengo

I hand knit and have used many of the designs upon edging of cardigans

I really like this book. The swatches are clear, the graphs are nice and large, and the colours are modern and inspiring. It isn’t as detailed on history and construction as Alice Starmore’s “Book of Fair Isle Knitting”, but it doesn’t need to be. It does its job as a book of motifs and does it really well. I love the joy and excitement that Mary Jane Mucklestone clearly has about knitting in colour! It’s really contagious and shines through in this book. It also includes some more techniques for swatching and holding your yarn that aren’t in Starmore’s book, so if you’re looking for that, it’s here. There’s also clear and concise information about colour dominance, ideas for what you can do with your swatches and how to select appropriate yarn. There is also clear information regarding steeking, though if you want further details about that I do recommend Alice Starmore’s book, which introduced steeking to the mainstream knitting world, and even gave it a name.As a person that doesn’t feel very confident about choosing colours, Mucklestone gives some fantastic resources and advice for tackling this. Her colour choices in the motifs are wild at times, but thoroughly inspiring. The motifs are large and very visible, which for me is more useful than the smaller sized motifs in Starmore’s book. It really helps to be able to see what they look like knitted up as well as graphed, and every motif in this book has both. The photography is very clear, so you won’t be squinting your eyes at it and hoping for the best!I consider this book to be a resource I’ll be returning to time and time again. It’s just full of joy for knitting, as well as being such a fantastic book to look through and feel inspired by. In many ways this book is more beginner friendly than Starmore’s, but I think it’s best to use them in concert with each other if you want to really get into this style of knitting. Mucklestone assumes you have advanced beginner to intermediate knowledge of the basics of knitting. If you can knit, purl, read your knitting, have a handle on your tension, cast on and cast off, there’s no reason why you can’t give it a go.