Suggested Books – Cont'd

Ms. Righetti writes this book in very clear English and provides very useful insights towards the art of sweater design.  She analyzes different body types and presents her methodology for addressing them.  This book clarifies how to take accurate body measurements, and how to tell whether or not a particular sweater style will look good on you (or your subject). How to use gauge in pattern design is clarified. I believe that Ms. Righetti's presentation on different fiber types and their characteristics when knit into finished garments is among the most useful features of this book.

Ms. Newton offers in her book a very comprehensive approach to designing knitwear.    This book is used at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and offers a great deal of insights into combining textures, and colors with various garment types.  There are insights into the commercial markets as well.

A book on draping for designing knitwear?  Extremely useful!  This book is the textbook used at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for draping classes.  Once the reader learns the techniques of draping, they can be applied to knitwear as well.  There is a section on working with knits, but the techniques are based on the general draping methods covered throughout the book.  This book would be very useful for machine knitters, as once having developed the knit fabric with the stitch pattern of your choice, you can cut it following patterns developed through draping, and speed up the garment creation process by using a linker, or by the much less expensive method of using a serger.

I had read Ms. Wynn’s book once before, and she offers an interesting approach to customizing knitwear to just about any body type based on “panels.”  The techniques presented in this book can be applied to both hand, and machine knitting.  I have not tried the techniques presented in this book for lack of time, but now that I have a knitting machine I am very tempted to go for it!

When it comes to lace knitting, I see two worlds:  “lace,” and “lace style.”  These are two different things, and I tend to be a purist, even though “lace style” garments can be appealing as well.  True “lace knitting” may seem intimidating to beginners, but the beauty of this Art lies in the fact that as long as a knitter maintains a consistent stitch tension as he or she knits, even a beginner can make beautiful – and truly unique – garments, particularly because each knitter has a different "hand."   The results are hard to gauge until the garment is blocked, but once this is done, you will always see the rather manipulated garment turn into something truly beautiful.  I am saying all of of this to make the point that this book is a classic, and it covers the world of true “lace” knitting. If you are a purist, you came to the right place.