Product Description

Millions of thoroughly modern knitters, including a growing number under the age of thirty-five, will applaud the fresh interpretations featured in Simple Knits with a Twist, Erika Knight's latest collection of creative designs. By matching classic stitches with other craft techniques and incorporating innovative materials like fine wire, beads, and recycled plastic with conventional yarns, Knight takes knitting beyond its traditional boundaries into new, inspired realms. Easy yet inventive, her projects bring a hip, artsy edge to items once deemed homespun. The twenty projects-which include wire napkin rings, an Aran armchair cover, a patchwork throw, and a beaded silk scarf-teach knitters how to add such creative skills as felting, patchwork, and beading to their repertoires. Each project is featured in a full-page color photo and in close-up how-to shots. For beginners with contemporary tastes and accomplished knitters interested in expanding their range, Simple Knits with a Twist presents a world of possibilities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #350732 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Knight’s brand of knitting and purling only vaguely resembles the art form practiced by millions of grandmothers. Although she uses needles, in her projects yarn is a variable; it’s often replaced by such diverse materials as ribbon, wire, strips of plastic and gauze. And the patterns that do use yarn go way beyond the usual patchwork scarves and lumpy sweaters. The 20 patterns here range from simple to truly byzantine. Beginners might try their hand at the Woven Woolen Rug, which employs remnants of yarn and calls for a basic stockinette stitch. The Aran Armchair Cover, on the other hand, will probably intimidate newcomers, as it requires knowledge of the reverse stockinette stitch, seed stitch, raspberry stitch, twisted stitch, diamond panel and fat cable. To her credit, Knight (Simple Crochet; Simple Knits for Little Cherubs; etc.) does explain techniques up front and uses color photographs to demonstrate steps. If nothing else, her book will encourage knitters to think beyond hats and mittens, and consider using knitting techniques to create wall hangings, dog coats, wire bowls, napkin rings or boudoir slippers.
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About the Author
ERIKA KNIGHT is the author of Simple Crochet, Simple Knits for Little Cherubs, Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, and Comforts of Home. In addition to writing books, she works as a fashion and design consultant. She lives in Brighton, England.

Customer Reviews

great for creative knitters
I consult this book more than follow the patterns - and I have really enjoyed it. If you like to knit, and to use patterns as a departure rather than a construction manual, this is a fine book to look into. I should add that I'm neither novice nor really experienced but an accessory knitter who enjoys trying new things. And as far as knitting plastic bags goes, that's an old practice as well as a great way to recycle and the bags are surprisingly strong. Mine have lasted far longer than they took to knit!

A Curiosity
In general, I don't think anyone should review a knitting book without having made some of the projects in it, but for this book I am making an exception. If you want to knit a shopping bag with strips of old plastic bags (I think it would wear out in less time than it took to cut all the bags into little strips, never mind the actual knitting) or napkin rings with wire, this book will inspire you to do it. I won't say it will tell you how, because the patterns are more of a concept than a specific pattern. An experienced knitter could follow them -- but an experienced knitter could also do those things without a pattern. And the knitter who is feeling a bit jaded, bored with merely making sweaters out of yarn, and ready to do something exotic may find a starting point here.
But is it practical to have a white Aran slipcover for a chair? Could you let anyone sit on it after you had made it? And that was my favorite pattern in the book. Would a beanbag chair of knitting and denim hold its shape? Would you wear a pre-laddered sweater? Could a pink poodle-shaped wine bottle remain amusing for more than a day or two? I truly don't think these are patterns to be made and used, as much as they are exercises in how to push the knitting envelope.
It is a very attractive book. If you think of it as a conceptual art exhibit, you might enjoy it. But the projects are extreme and, I would think, impractical.

You can knit with anything...
I first saw this book when a co-worker and fellow knitter showed it to me. She was ecstatic about a pattern for slippers that required only regular satin ribbon, of the sort she had about the house for wrapping presents. We'd both been feeling more than a little bit of sticker shock on the prices of quality yarn in our favorite knitting salon, and this book seemed like the perfect remedy. Because it reminds you that you can literally knit with anything, and so when you've exhausted your stash of yarn, and you can't afford the $200 cashmere sweater project you've been eyeing, you can pick up this book with loads of patterns and make a knit shopping bag with the cheap plastic shopping bags in your pantry that you've been waiting to take to the recycler. I've not tried any of the patterns yet, but they look clear enough and that's the only reason why I gave the book four stars instead of five.