Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ribwarmer is one of her signature designs - for good reason. It is classic in its looks and delightful in its knitting. What was practically unknown until very recently is that Elizabeth also designed a more "dressy" version, the Butterfly Jacket which was published only one time in a 1956 McCall's Needlework magazine. So that it does not go back into near oblivion, this DVD contains instructions and demonstrations for the classic Ribwarmer, sized for 36" chest (adult) and 24" chest (child) (consider Fleece Artist Aran Alpaca), the Butterfly Jacket in two yarn weights sized for 36" (try Fleece Artist Organic Wool) and 42" (Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Aran) chest, and Meg Swansen's Knee Length Ribwarmer sized for 53" around the hips and 38" around the chest (Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester DK would be lovely), with instructions for creating a narrower hip measurement if desired. Altogether great fun!

Demonstrated Techniques include:

• Invisble Cast On
• Increasing
• Short Rows
• Garter-stitch Weaving
• After-Thought Pockets
• EZ's Applied I-Cord
• 3-Needle-I-Cord Cast Off
• Reversible Phoney Seams
• Sport-jacket Vent

Meg's Shawl Collared Vest looks great on both men and women, and is lots and lots of fun to knit, too. Full written instructions are included for chest sizes 40", 44" and 48", and Meg's demonstrated techniques make it all come together so very nicely. The Shawl Collared Vest is knitted completely in the round, steeking all the way, and then cut. We suggest our Fleece Artist Big Blue (Bulky Blue Face Leicester Wool) for spectacular results.

Demonstrated techniques include:

• K1b, P1 rib
• Increasing
• Cable with or without a cable-needle
• Kangaroo Pouches
• Steeks
• V-neck Shaping
• Knitting-Back-Backwards
• Machine-Stitched Steeks
• I-Cord Cast Off
• 3-Needle I-Cord Cast Off
• Shawl Collar Shaping
• Reversible Phoney Seams
• I-Cord Tab Buttonholes

Intarsia knitting, despite its undeserved poor reputation, can in fact be enjoyable and yield wonderful results. On this disc Lucy demonstrates the preparation for serene knitting, tackling the first few rows, reading charts, tangle reduction and resolution. Learn how to maximize the number of ends that may be knitted in and to make the best use of those tails which do require darning. Also included are a number of cool rescue techniques.

Contents:

Introduction to Intarsia

• Wrapping your head around intarsia!
• What is intarsia knitting?
• Comparison with a stranded fabric
• Stranded fabric examples
• Intarsia fabric example
• Why bother with all these bits of yarn?

Chart Preparations

• Regular v. one-row holes
• Looking at types of charts
• Preparing your chart
• Simplifying your chart
• Making a shade card
• To count stitches or not?
• Easy or tricky?

Yarn and Tool Preparation

• Yarn palette preparation
• Butterflies or bobbins?
• Measured lengths
• Useful tools
• Choosing needles
• Gauge considerations

The First Few Rows . . .

• Reading your chart
• Weaving in tails on the horizontal
• Weaving the tails up and down or over & over?
• Reading the chrt from the purl side
• Linking yarns

Onwards . . .

• How the yarns link arms
• The missing link
• Living with and resolving tangles
• Darning hints - when is hole not a hole
• Joining a new piece of yarn
• Diagonal slopes
• Shallow diagonal slopes
• Horizontal colour change
• Balance theory

Reading WS Rows

• Inverting the chart
• Working from right needle to the left
• Emergency yarn join
• Using marker yarns for reference

Transformation Tips

• Naturally occurring holes
• Ends near edges
• Vertical yarn joins
• Neatening a short-tail vertical yarn join
• Un-simplifying

Rescue Techniques

• Unpicking row by row
• Unpicking a single section
• Laddering back
• Duplicate stitch
• Surgical replacement

Now that you enjoy intarsia, here are some sophisticated skills to help you tackle special situations: long horizontal colour jumps without breaking the yarn or having to think ahead, as well as a selection of slick tricks to make life easier. Explore textured stitches within color blocks, sculpted shapes and how to analyze patterns to see what lies ahead.

Contents:

Sophisticated Skills

• Introduction to long horizontal color jumps
• Long horizontal color jumps - yarn ahead and behind
• Why not think ahead?
• Starting a yarn with a single stitch
• Why bother with intarsia?
• Single stitch lines

Sneaky Tricks

• Outlining - using two ends of one piece of yarn
• Neatening an outline from a point
• Two-row stripes
• Exploiting variegated yarns
• Chequerboards adn the double-tail weave
• Big and little stitches on vertical joins
• Comparison of double-tail weave methods
• Housebricks
• Swapping yarns at the top of a shape
• Using yarns double
• Problem points
• The alpha darn

Mixing Your Stitches

• Mixing your stitches
• Garter stitch
• Reverse stocking stitch
• Mixing reverse and stocking stitches

Pattern Analysis

• A simple star?
• Planning yarn routes
• Cute = dangerous!
• Two legged shapes
• Intarsia or stranded?
• Jagged shapes

Fancy Variations

• Sculpted intarsia examples
• Sculpted intarsia technique
• Mixing stranded with intarsia
• Intarsia sections behind a background yarn - comparison
• We all roll over and one falls out
• Howard's technique

Sublime finishing details for the connoisseur. Expert shoulder shapings and various joins, setting-in fitted sleeve heads with ease. Experience the exquisite joys of double bands: knitting up the stitches (right first time every time), equalizing the two sides, adding shaping to the corners of the bands, reversing for the inner layer and how these principles may be applied to neck and armband situations.

Contents:

Ship Shape Shoulders

• Short rows by Japanese and wrapped methods
• Grafting over a bound-off edge
• Three-needle bind-off for garter stitch
• Short rows within intarsia
• Afterthought shoulder shaping
• Examples of afterthought shoulders
  
  

Fitted Sleeve Heads

• Setting in a fitted sleeve head - example
• Phoney knitting
• Crossing the shoulder line
• Other uses of phoney knitting

Double Stocking Stitch Bands

• Why use double bands?
• Knit-up ratios
• Equalizing the numbers
• Knit-up ratios for garter stitch
• Sampling the bands
• Knitting-up the bands
• Equalizing the two sides
• What's special about the corner stitches
• Looking at the corner stitches
• Working a right-side row and RSI
• The second right-side row
• The third right-side row
• Turning rows
• Reversing the shaping and K2t
• Matching the second side
• Buttonhole placement
• Bind-off details
• Finishing the band - catch stitching
• Finishing the band - grafting
• Working a right-side row and LSI
• Reversing the shaping ans ssk
• Closing the lower band edge
• Reading your chart

Neck and Armbands

• Neckband Diagram and Sample
• Remedy for a missing stitch
• Neck with fully fashioned shapings
• Armhole modifications

Antje Gillingham has extended the use of two circular needles to include knitting both socks at a time. I have to say, it is much easier to use her method for two-at-a-time knitting than it is to use my method. With her method, the socks both share both needles and you move seamlessly from one to the next and around and back. With my method, each sock had (notice the past tense!) it's own pair of needles and I worked one sock and then the next, untangling the yarn as I switched. Antje has changed all that for me and she can do so for you, too.

Her lovely book is filled with clearly photographed instructions, charming sock designs and lots and lots of useful information, including yarn and size conversion tables. There's even instructions for translating dpn instructions to her two-socks/two-circulars method. Anyone who wants a better method to knit two socks at a time will find it in Knitting Circles Around Socks.

Just when we all thought that everything that could be said about scarf knitting had been said, along comes Lynne Barr to show us just how many delights were yet to be discovered. While Lynne does offer the beginner some a few places to "get the hang of knitting," overwhelmingly, her designs beckon us to reach beyond the basics and apply one technique after another in new and delicious ways. Her exploration of form, line, and fashionable wear-ability are everything any knitter could ask for. Scarf knitting is no longer passé - it's time to advance to the cutting edge alongside Lynne Barr.

Knitters, it's time to break out the champagne (being careful not to spill any on your knitting, of course)! Woolly Thoughts is back in print!!!

Woolly Thoughts is a book that knitters (at least on the North American side of the pond) began hearing about in earnest at just about the same moment that it became unavailable. Now, frustration turns to joy as we can all feast at the table of Pat and Steve's endlessly creative method of modular knitting, a method that offers a bullet proof fitting technique alongside open-ended, scintillating creativity of design.

How do they do this? Well, they are both mathematics teachers, amazing in their ability to make everything clear and fun. Right from the start, they forge a pathway to knitting heaven by having you take out whatever yarn you like, your choice of needles, and a small calculator. What happens next is a guided tour through a mosaic of shapes and colors -- all of them easy, all of them fascinating and beautiful. With Pat and Steve at your side, you can truly forget about conventional knitting patterns and follow your imagination whereever it leads you.

Happily and heavily illustrated throughout, with a section of color plates showcasing some of Pat's creations, Woolly Thoughts brings you everything you need for a lifetime of joyous knitting.

This recently released DVD set brings to life one of my very favorite knitting books - Elizabeth's Knitting Around. In it, you'll see demonstrated all the innovative designs that have made this book so beloved -- the bonus, of course, that in so doing, you'll also be able to spend 6 hours of knitting time with Elizabeth and Meg, and (if you're old enough, like me) relive some of the "good old days" of knitting history. To say that Knitting Around with Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen is a treat is to barely touch the surface of what watching each "garment episode" offers: I found that questions I had carried for years about how, exactly, to do a particular technique were answered, my trepedations put to rest and my creativity was inspired and renewed.

Needless to say, I hope you'll treat yourself to this long visit with Elizabeth and Meg - and that you'll find all I found and more.*

A partial list of its vast contents:

• The Moccasin Sock
• Fair Isle Yoke Sweater
• Knitted Dickies
• Knitted Moebius
• Bog Jacket
• Pie Are Square Shawl
• Norwegian Pullover
• Mittful of Mittens
• Aran Coat
• Elizabeth's "Digressions"

*Please note that all necessary charts and written instructions are to be found in the accompanying book, Knitting Around (below).

There is so much to love about Meg's Lace DVD, that it strikes me as a bit presumptuous to begin with what I like best, but I'm going to do it nonetheless.

What I like best about Knitting Lace with Meg Swansen is that in her very first project (she knits three with us), she starts right out with a technique that is considered "advanced." She explains it clearly, demonstrates it superbly, and somewhere in there you realize that this "advanced" technique is not all that hard to do. In fact, you reason to yourself, if this is deep water in lace knitting, you've got nothing at all to worry about, as none of it is above the knees.

Which is a wonderful gift, because in that one beginning garment Meg shows all knitters everywhere that while lace knitting differs from sweaters and blankets, it is really within the reach of any knitter.

And so, on she goes, and we go with her. Together with Meg, we knit a beautiful lace stole, a Faroese scarf and finally, on to the piece-de-resistance, Meg's delicious Mañanita. The mañanita is a lace poncho which, while retaining all the elegant grace of any lace shawl, is also fuss-free when it comes to wearing. Just toss it on over your head and, presto!, all dressed up. It is a true gem.

There are many things you'll learn during this lacey journey with Meg, among them:

• Cast-on techniques that work wonders in lace knitting
• How to turn a doily into a stunning shawl
• Faroese shaping (and why we all love it)
• Decreasing and Increasing techniques to keep your lace singing
• A demonstration of the difference between knit lace and knitted lace, and why you should consider which you want
• much more
  

Lace knitters everywhere will want this dvd on their shelves - as a reference it is unbeatable!

Meg pulls out all the stops in this DVD. It wasn't until I watched it that I truly comprehended just how deeply and well Meg Swansen understands the craft of knitting. To say that her knowledge of garment construction (when, where and how to use which construction) and of the myriad techniques of knitting itself is vast is truly an understatement.

You'll discover the hidden mysteries of the Russian Prime color pattern (so named because it employs only the numbers 1, 3 and 5 in it's patterning) which are such that they will open the doors to any and all color patterns that follow. You'll also see how to determine where to stop a pattern for best visual effect, how to incorporated a sizing element in a 60-stitch pattern repeat, and all manner of shaping and finishing tricks. Truly, Meg's guided tour of knitting the Russian Prime sweater is like an initiation into the mysteries of the inner temple of knitting: You'll emerge with a renewed and enlightened understanding of so many things.

Among these mysteries, you'll find:

• Long Tail Casting on
• "Casting-On Casting-Off"
• side panels (and why to love them)
• increasing in pattern
• steeks at armholes & neck
• knitting up in pattern
• I-Cord shoulder
• top of sleeve decreasing (and why you might want to use it)
• corrugated rib
• Applied I-Cord and Joyce Williams' wonderful ways with it

Phenomenal! Vickie Square has given us a banquet of garment design, a veritable feast of knitting. Each and every design is based upon traditional Japanese Kimonos from different periods of history - and each and every one of them will make any wearer look beautiful. Really!

She begins with a bit of discussion of what a kimono is -- at its base, it is an over-garment that is constructed from "loom widths"* of cloth. This means that all the pieces are rectangular and standard, which in turn means that this style is perfect for adapting to knit fabric. Vickie gives us all the information we need to create our own kimonos, too -- something that I'm sure many, many of us will be inspired to do.

Then, she presents 18 drop-dead gorgeous designs that will set your heart aflame. In fact, each of them is so captivating that the real problem will be figuring out where to start. With each design, she gives its place in Japanese history, which proves to be a fascinating discourse on how social history affects fashion in oh-so-many ways.

Finally, I want to especially commend her for her very elegant use of stitch patterns to evoke the original fabrics used for each kimono style. I so very much appreciate her sensitivity and good taste in this regard -- not to mention her knowledge of the vast arrary of stitch patterns from which she chose her "just right" palette for these jackets.

Knit Kimono is one of the best knitting fashion books ever published. Don't miss it - it is a must have for any knitter's shelf.

*[Note: for more about "loom widths," see Cut My Cote by Dorothy Burnham of the Textile Department, Royal Ontario Museum. You'll discover that most of the world's best-looking garments have been made using loom-width construction and pre-date the Renaissance-era introduction non-rectangular garment construction. It is a great little book and well worth the effort of tracking it down.]

What a fabulous discovery Meg and Joyce made! They were called upon to review the instructions for kits to replicate Elsa Schiaparelli's fascinating sweater designs, featuring large, full-body patterns. "Intarsia," they said to each other. "Oh, well, I suppose someone has to do it," they privately thought. That is, until they took a close look at the instructions and discovered that there was no Intarsia anywhere in these garments. Instead, a method of trapping is used so that two colors are carried throughout the garment. What's more, the unused color is supposed to pop out a bit behind the foreground color, creating an extremely pleasing "tweedy" look.

The name of this new/old technique is Armenian Knitting, also the title of this wonderful book. It is not known precisely how it arose, but it was used by Armenian women living living in Paris as refuges of the 1915 genocide. They were employed by Elsa Schiaparelli, a cutting edge fashion designer of the 1930s and 1940s who hired them to knit her unique designs using their unique techniques. At the time of printing Armenian Knitting, there are no other known original examples of this style of knitting outside Schiaparelli's work.

I should add how very much I want to be able to share the photos of sweaters, vests and jackets with you -- the designs Meg and Joyce have created are nothing short of stunning. I didn't expect to be as excited about them as I am, that's for sure. In fact, I am beyond excited -- my fingers are fidgeting in impatience, so badly do I want to knit some of them.

Armenian Knitting is a joy - a new classic of a nearly-lost art.

Guernsey or Gansey, no matter what you call it, they are favorite sweaters to make and treasured sweaters to wear and pass along to the next generation. Meg Swansen invites us along on one of her "knitting vacations" along the gloriously beautiful Oregon Coast (near Coos Bay, I believe, judging from the scenery).

In addition to walking us through the basics of Guernsey construction, history and yarn, Meg takes us along many a side road, into realms of little known techniques, some clever, some simply brilliant. The result is a Guernsey to love and inspiration to carry you on to your next dozen!

Some of the things you'll learn are:

• Channel Island cast-on: a variation of long-tail cast-on that results in a charming picot edge along the bottom of the sweater
• Split lower garter stitch welt
• Indian Corn stitch (one of the most difficult to find documented! [though easy to accomplish])
• gussets - and the value of purl stitches
• texture patterns and some of their unique behavior
• garter-stitch weaving
• knitting-up around armholes
• decreasing to cuffs
• EZ's Sewn Cast Off