The Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges

Wow, just wow! Some of the reviews I read found this book irrelevant because they expected it to be full of patterns. I'm just the opposite. Fashions change often, so a book full of sweater patterns will quickly become dated IMHO. This book is FULL of techniques and charts allowing the knitter to adapt/tweak a pattern/stitches they like, but who prefer knitting top down and/or seamless. A paragraph on Page 15 succinctly says why this masterpiece of a book is so very useful: "With 15 sizes & 5 gauges provided for each of the four sweater STYLES in this book [seamless yoke, raglan, set-in sleeve, saddle shoulder], you have 300 sets of instructions. Still, that likely isn't enough. Chances are, you'll want to add a stitch or color pattern, adjust the length or shape of the body or sleeves, knit at a gauge other than one of the 5 specified, or include steeks to work a cardigan in the round. These modifications are easily made if you follow the guidelines that follow." I am an experienced knitter, but I am not at the level of a master knitter. I'm not skilled enough, until now with this book, to figure this stuff out. Mostly I knit socks and I just finished knitting 3 cowls, all done on circular needles. As I began browsing through this book, on Page 8, I saw the "Quick Tips for Circular Knitting" box. Since I knit all my socks two at a time on two circular needles (a wonderful technique in itself to ensure that the 2 socks are identical), this box had a sentence that rocked my knitting world!! "If you use circular needles with interchangeable tips, try putting the needle size needed to get gauge on the right-hand tip and a needle one size smaller on the left-hand tip. You will be knitting with the proper size needle, but the stitches will move more easily from the cable onto the smaller left-hand needle tip [as you prepare to continue knitting more stitches] as you work around." I recently had hand surgery and pinching is a painful movement right now, so it has been very uncomfortable to move stitches up onto the needle to begin working a new round of my socks. I put this tip from the book into immediate use. I pulled out my case of Chaio Goo interchangeable needles, put a 2.75mm needle tip on one end of a cable and a 2.25mm tip on the other end of the cable, pulled out my roll of barber cord, cut off a length of it, sticking one end of the cord on the new interchangeable needle configuration and the other end on the fixed circular needles I had been using for my socks and, voila!, in mere seconds I was breezing along more easily. Now, when I ready to continue on to a new round of knitting, it's so smooth pushing the sock stitches up onto the smaller needle, that it's no longer painful for my injured hand to knit it off of the smaller needle with the bigger needle. WOW! I never would have thought of doing that! Because of this book, I'm looking forward to starting a sweater. I highly recommend this book to both experienced and adventurous knitters, as well as to beginner knitters who, if they're brave enough to explore this book, will, with practice, become talented knitters. I wish I had discovered this book years ago!

Wow is my first response to Ann Budd's new book of top down sweater patterns. I own Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, so I was familiar with the amount and type of information in these guides but I was still impressed. Budd reviews four basic types of top down sweater construction Seamless Yoke, Raglan, Saddle Shoulder and Set-In Sleeve. Each style has several patterns made in this style and all of the patterns are attractive. The only possible criticism here is that there are no patterns for men or children, even though the book includes metrics for both children's and men's garments for each style. The book then includes proportions and metrics for each style of sweater in a range of sizes for men, women and children based on guage and stitches per inch. This makes things very easy for the prospective designer or knitter. Want to make a sweater out of those ten skeins that have been in your stash for years? Make a guage swatch and find your stitches per inch - the charts will then provide how many stitches to cast on and how, when and where to increase with a stitch count for every step in every guage in yarns from fingering weight to super bulky. Sweater proportions are also reviewed for each style and each size. How long are sleeves? How long is the body of the sweater? The neck hole? The armhole and arm skyce? It is all here for every size and every guage in every style. Nor are these metrics and proportions limited to just plain colors or styles. Lace and color work have been addressed not only in the patterns provided as part of this lovely book but in theory as well. And the possibilities of complex colorwork and lace from the top down are well explained, nor are they limited to traditional and modern fair isle; there is a zig-zag colorwork pattern in the saddle shoulder style that is a stand-out in terms of design and construction and the pattern should be carefully read by all knitters for the amazing learning opportunity involved. Overall Ann Budd's new book is a gem, a jewel a must have for knitters and designers. The information is comprehensive and well-organized and allows for the creativity of the individual knitter but fully supports those new to sweater construction. the charts are clear and well organized and the information is applicable and transferable to many other knitting problems and quandaries. A superior book and reference. Highly recommended.

Adorei o livro. As receitas são bem explicadas.

Great book, but I was very disappointed to see that it was missing part of what was in the description that also happened to be one of the chapters I was interested in using.

ottimo libro ricco di spiegazioni è in inglese ma non è un inglese troppo complicato per questo mi sento di consigliarlo anche a chi non parla così bene la lingua. il formato con copertina rigida è molto comodo in fase di utilizzo

I would like to return the book please very difficult to read and understand

Excelente libro! Muy claro y muy útil para las personas que nos gusta improvisar!