My authors' copy just arrived and I'm stoked. Ann Shayne (who I had the sheer delight of meeting recently and who hasn't actually seen the book yet, but comments on her blog as per my description, thusly dubs TSKS , "a heroic piece of figuring". She's right. This book is just that. Every pattern here is formatted so that you can knit it to your own dimensions with your own yarn, gauge, proportions. Really it is a guide to help you strike out on your own, to understand the workings of the sweater so that you can alter the myriad of more elaborate patterns available everywhere. Or just start knitting and figure it all out as you go. There is almost no math in this book...I mean knitting wouldn't be knitting without numbers...but for most of the projects, all you need is a cast on number and off you go!
I am amazed at the beauty of this book. Paulette Livers designed this as a labor of love. Content wise it has all the brass tacks of one of those really helpful but not so glamorous self published black and white spiral bound workbooks, but Paulette has brought it into 3-D color, pretty enough to flip through just cuz you want some eye candy. Ann Budd is the content wizard behind the scenes, who helped me turn my spiral shaped spiderweb of puzzlepieces into a simple understandable graphic whole. Joe Coca outdid himself, especially on this covershot...one of my favorite knitting shots of all time...Sandy's sweater too...yeeehaaa, Queen Millenium Enabler of all things Fibery.
I deliberately wrote this book for both spinners and non-spinners...as I believe that knitters are knitters whether they make or buy yarn. Although there is handspun yarn, handdyed yarn, commercial yarn, artisan yarn in here, directions for such are not. TSKS is all about what to do with the yarn once you have it. And there are so many cool books that will give you that kind of information, such as Dyeing to Knit, Color in Spinning, Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook......
