Jul 30th, 2007
Review: Knit 2 Together
When I heard that Tracey Ullman (yes, she who helped introduce the world to The Simpsons, years before it jumped the shark) had cowritten a knitting book, I thought it was a joke. “Now that knitting is trendy, the celebrities are jumping in with both feet,” I told myself. But when I spied the book on the shelf at my local library a couple of weeks ago and flipped through it, I realized it warranted a closer look and so brought it home.
Knit 2 Together is the joint project of Tracey Ullman (famous comedian) and Mel Clark (owner of a yarn shop in southern California). Its subtitle, Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun, is a good description: the book starts off with “how I started knitting and how I met the other person who wrote this book with me” tales by both authors, and little anecdotes are sprinkled throughout the book. They’re all nicely written, but Ullman’s are the funniest (naturally–after all, being funny is what she does for a living).
And the patterns are actually good. Well, many of them. (I’ve yet to encounter a “Yeah, I’d make every single thing in there” knitting book. Have any of you?) The “Saucy Apron,” for example, knit in CGH Soft Kid just seems like a bad idea. The “Linen Kilt” looks lovely in the photo…but that’s a lot of knitting on not-very-big needles (#5 and #4). (A quick Google search reveals that a few people have made this skirt and liked it–here’s one glimpse–so maybe it would be more fun than I thought…)
But there are several items in here that I will probably add to my “Future projects” list. The Rowena Cardigan, for example, is a long-sleeved, trim sweater with buttons down the front and a boatneck on top. And you can thread ribbons through the hem and cuffs to change the look. Two shrug-sweater thingies (Lacy Hug-Me-Tight and Pimlico Shrug) also caught my eye; they’re not unlike the Pinwheel Sweater I made in late spring, though they have a bit more shape to them.
The book goes back to the library tomorrow. My final assessment was “It’s well done, and there are some things in here I’d like to knit, but I really don’t want to pony up $27.50 for this thing.” And just a few minutes ago, while hunting down the Amazon link for this book, I found out that Amazon is selling it–in all its hardcover glory–for a mere $5.50. (Check it out.) Considering that individual patterns–when you can buy them that way–usually run about five bucks each, $5.50 makes this book a steal if there’s more than one thing in it that interests you.
Thanks for the review Marsha. I may go ahead and purchase. As I remember, I liked the book as well, but understand that I can’t actually own all knitting books. But at $5.50? I could own that one.
Hi,
In response to the Linen Kilt, I love the pattern. It was a lot of knitting, but well worth it. I made a change to the ribbing at the hip - to garter stitch rib because the plain ribbing was stretching out too much. I also had to do a little shaping from the hip to the waist for the same reason. It is a very attractive skirt, easy to wear and I’ve gotten many compliments on it.
Katie J: It’s funny, isn’t it, how “it’s only $5.50″ somehow trumps “there’s a limited number of space in my house.” At $5.50, that book can probably bend space to make a place for itself.
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Cam: Thanks for the tips! The more I think about it, the more I like the look of that skirt. When I’m ready to make one for myself, I’ll definitely check back in with you for suggestions.
The Witches Britches in this book are on my “to knit” list!
I’m not especially interested in knitting pants for myself, Pixie, but I’m very curious to see how yours turn out! Looks like a lot of knitting…but not too tricky, so maybe it’s ideal for those times when you want to knit without having to check a pattern or chart every row.