The Art of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces
by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne
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Book Summary Information
Author: Francoise Tellier-LoumagneTranslator: Sandy Black
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-06
ISBN: 0500285578
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Book Reviews of The Art of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces
Book Review: Informative Machine Knitting Resource, but VERY Hard-To-Use
Summary: 4 Stars
I have checked this out of the library so many times that I am finally buying it. The first time I looked at this book, I was in awe from the photography and variety of stitches, but couldn't make sense of much of it because I only knew hand-knitting. Subsequently I have decided to explore machine knitting as well, and now the book is so much more contentful to me. If you are a hand knitter, you would get more out of one of the other stitch dictionaries out there.
In spite of great content, the presentation is so difficult that if there were a clear version of this book out there, done, say, in the style of Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns (Knitting), I would give this one only two stars for being so obfuscatory. However since there is little out there that covers this territory, this book is a valuable resource in spite of its poor presentation.
The good: This is a stitch dictionary with a large number of examples, but it is so artistically done that it looks like a thick coffee table book of natural and fabric texture art. Also, since the decline of machine knitting in the 90s, there are very few books about machine knitting techniques, and this is one of the few that is in print today. The first time I puzzled over it as a hand knitter, it helped expand my mind as to what can be done with those strands of yarn.
The bad -- this book is VERY hard to use:
- It is confusingly organized. Captions of swatches, and charts when available, are usually many pages away from the textile swatch photos. Thus, when I look at it, I spend much time flipping the pages backward and forward trying to find the information that goes along with the swatch I am interested in.
- The swatches are numbered, but the color of the ink of the numbers is usually very similar to the color of the swatch so that it is hard to see what the number is (usually I find a swatch where the contrast is better and then count forward or backward to figure out what the number of the swatch I am interested in is). Page numbers have the very same problem.
- It is printed on very heavy thick paper, so it is a big heavy book that is not friendly to the hands or the backpack. It makes it much harder to use and flip through than all the other stitch dictionaries that i have. I would love if all these swatches and their captions were presented more straightforwardly, like most other stitch dictionaries.
- Awful artsy graphic design that fights the hopeful user's ability to read it: small often light-weight print, often in dark gray (instead of black), often printed on a textile photo background. It has lots of unused graphic layout space that could have been beneficially used to contain larger, higher-contrast text, that could be read with ease. It is like whoever did the art direction on the book didn't actually expect anyone to try to read it, and that aspect of it feels hostile to me, the hopeful reader.
Still, for the machine knitter, the amount of technique rivals Hand-Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters, which explains technique much more clearly, but doesn't have the collection of inspirational swatches.
Summary of The Art of Knitting: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces
A unique, visually inspiring, all-color survey of knitted textile designs and patterns.Françoise Tellier-Loumagne has taught textile and knit design in France for more than thirty years. Drawing on her experience as teacher and practitioner, she has assembled a creative and inventive overview of stitches and fabrics, both hand-knitted and machine-made, presenting hundreds of sumptuous ways of working with yarn, from silk thread to Shetland wool. Other books propose patterns to copy; this book uses basic patterns as points of departure, opening up endless possibilities for sophisticated knitting designs.
The book is organized by fabric types: simple knits, jacquards, fine jersey knits, interlock, open-work, and many others. It covers hand knitting, domestic machine knitting, and industrial knitting, explaining the relevant techniques and notation for each.
The author encourages the reader to be innovative and to experiment with the various techniques, drawing inspiration from the natural world and one's personal surroundings: pebbles on the sand, autumn leaves, snow sparkling in the sun, weeds and grasses bending in the wind. Every type of stitch that she describes is accompanied by enlarged photos of the textiles, detailed diagrams, and written instructions. The yarns used here are highly textural and attractive, which further encourages experimentation with yarn combinations and knitting techniques.
The book will appeal to domestic knitters, professional knit designers, textile designers, and students, and will be a source of inspiration to anyone working with or interested in knitted textiles. Over 600 color illustrations and hundreds of diagrams.
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