Book Review: Knits That Fit

Knits that Fit, published & edited by Potter Craft is, at first glance, a compilations of patterns, but once you start looking a little closer you'll notice the first chapter, where all the fit information is included.

Chapter 1 is a quick overview of body types, important body measurements, and common alteration points.  It goes over how to fit these alterations into a pattern to fit your body while keeping the rest of the pattern in tact.  The chapter also goes over sweater shapes, where different types of sweaters should fall on the body, how yarn choice plays into the finished product, and one very detailed example of pattern alteration.  Unfortunately, the one major fit technique this book is lacking is how to use bust darts.

There are 3 additional chapters with 24 patterns total.  These patterns are quite detailed with good schematics.  I think the combination of the first chapter with these patterns makes this a good beginning sweater knitter book.  I am drawn to this sweater particularly, I love the simplicity of it and the dart waist shaping.

For the most part, the sweaters are a basic shape with some embelishment to make them unique, though they do get more complicated towards the end of the book.  Some of the patterns at least have been published elsewhere but I'm not sure if all of them have been, the authors included are:  Berta Karapetyan, Annie Modesitt, Melissa Matthay,  Lily Chin, Sally Melville, Mary Weaver, and Caddy Melville Ledbetter.

This book could have been really fantastic if they had gone through the patterns and indicated where to alter intructions for better fit, a tips & tricks after each pattern or little asterisks through the pattern to note 'here is where you adjust X', but that isn't provided.

I don't think this is the only book you need to get things to fit you properly, as we've all seen, entire books can be written about how to choose the right yarn or altering a sweater to fit your body, but this is a good starter.

Comments

[trek]

What good is a book on customizing sweaters for body type if they don't show you where to do it?

[Jocelyn]

Thanks for this review - it hits on exactly what I'd want to know before getting a book like this. (And I totally agree with trek...)