Finishing School – A Master Class for Knitters, from Deborah Newton

This book will have you going from “OMG I HATE TO FINISH MY PROJECTS” to “I heart finishing!”

Finishing School a masterclass for knitters.

From patterns, to workshops, to tutorials to cheat sheets, Deborah Newton has done it all, and she’scompiled it into the gorgeous, oversized, hard cover book!

For example, on page 11, Deborah says, “Good finishing starts at the beginning when I consider all aspects of a design: yarn, fabric, seaming, edgings and all the little details necessary for a functional and good looking project.” And she shows you it all. So, it would seem, this isn’t just a book about finishing, but about starting as well. And all the little nuances in between.

Did you knit something that now doesn’t really fit all that well? This book may be able to help, including “rarely see tips for correcting garments with an unsatisfactory fit.”

What a goldmine! The patterns include a wide scope of detail work. Colorwork, lace and cables, pockets and zippers, cowl and flap collars, short row shaping, asymetrical designs, and more embellishments.

The only thing that would make this book worth more in your library would be a spiral binding, but that’s totally doable too!

Definitely a gotta have! And you can get it from Sixth and Spring Books

Next Pattern:

As I write this, it’s probably time to start thinking about winter knitting if you haven’t already. And it’s definitely time to think about gift knitting if you have any of that you plan to do for the holidays.

The Dreamy Waves Scarf from Knit Picks, designed by Stacey Winklepleck, would be a great project to go in either category.

It uses two different multicolored yarns and a simple repeating wave pattern to make a project that looks a lot more complicated and dramatic than it is. The gradient look happens naturally just by switching which yarn you’re knitting with.

This pattern uses worsted weight yarn so it’s a pretty quick project even though a scarf is large and this one is pretty wide. It measures 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) wide and 63 inches or 120 cm long. Of course you can make it longer or shorter as you like. As written it takes one ball of each color so it’s a pretty economical project, too.

It’s rated for intermediate knitters but if you know how to do various increases and decreases you’ll be all set. The pattern uses knit 2 together, make 1 left and right, centered double decrease and slip slip knit. All of the stitches are explained in a glossary in the pattern so even if you haven’t done all of them it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The pattern also includes tons of options for different colorways in yarn that Knit Picks sells, so you can see how different combinations knit up before you buy the yarn. That’s such a great idea!

Of course if you already have two multicolored yarns with long color runs on hand, you can absolutely use them, too. It might also be fun, but would give you a totally different look, to use a solid color and a bunch of scraps or one multicolored yarn to see how the different colors play together. So many options!

You can grab this free pattern and check out all the color options at Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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Next Pattern:

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