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Vogue Knitting Stitchionary #6
Vogue® Knitting Stitchionary® Volume Six: Edgings: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue® Knitting Magazine
The sixth installment in the popular Stitchionary series provides a comprehensive collection of more than 200 edgings drawn from the Vogue Knitting archives, arranged in seven ribs, cables, texture, color, lace, embellished, and crotchet. With clear, concise instructions, charts, patterns, and over 150 gorgeous color photographs, Vogue® Knitting Stitchionary® Volume Edgings is an essential reference for every knitters library.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2011
88 people want to read
About the author
Vogue Knitting
109 books23 followersVogue Knitting is SoHo Publishing's flagship title. Launched over twenty-five years ago, VK has set the bar for knitting, working with the biggest and most talented names in fashion today, including Michael Kors and Anna Sui. Led by Editor Trisha Malcolm, VK is published quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 14, 2011
(Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Sixth and Spring to review on my blog.)
As the name suggests, this book is entirely focused on edgings, borders, and trims. The book starts out with a Foreword and then a short section called How to Use this Book. This section (which is the one I would have overlooked if I was just reading the book, instead of reviewing it) explains that stitches in each chapter are arranged in order of difficulty and also indicates which yarn and needle (or hook) sizes were used for each chapter.
The stitches are organized into seven chapters: Ribs, Texture, Cables, Lace, Color, Unusual, and Crochet. The book ends with Abbreviations, a key to the pattern abbreviation terms which includes a US/UK conversion chart for the crochet terminology; Yarn Overs, an illustrated guide to forming different types of yarn overs; and Glossary, which explains pattern essentials like "rep from *, end..." and "stockinette stitch." Like all Sixth and Spring books (at least, all the ones that I have seen), the book is beautifully presented with great colors and photography.
What I like about this book
Each stitch includes a large swatch which is clearly photographed. Each chapter uses one color of yarn for all of the swatches (except, obviously, the Color chapter), so there is a uniform appearance which makes comparison between similar stitches easier. The book's color palette is in the purple family (my favorite).
Almost all of the swatches include rows of stockinette stitch. This allows you to see how the edging impacts the knit fabric - does it lay flat, ruffle, pull together, fan out, etc. While this makes for a bit of an uneven appearance to the book (because the swatches don't look "neat" and squared), it is practically helpful when you are choosing the type of edging you'd like for your finished project.
When stitch symbols are used, the key appears on the same page as the pattern, so you don't need to flip to the back of the book.
The book is well organized (by stitch type, and then by difficulty level through each chapter), so it would be easy to find a stitch you like later.
The book is really lovely to look at - I found myself itching to pick up the needles and get started with edgings. In particular, the edgings in the Color, Cables, and Crochet chapters had me very excited.
The book is hardcover, which allows it to lay flat while you are knitting and reading.
The hardcover binding will make sure this book lasts through all of the abuse a good stitch guide will get.
What I don't like (or what's missing)
I guess I've been spoiled by the old school crochet stitch guides (e.g., the Harmony guides) which dominate my collection, so I've come to expect that a stitch guide will include some basic information for a newbie like illustrations of how to form basic stitches. This book doesn't have any of that, except for in the one page Yarn Overs section. So you should already know the basics (including basic crochet stitches) to get the most out of this book.
The patterns with special stitches can be a bit confusing in how they are presented on the page. The special stitches are explained at the beginning of each stitch pattern. Then the stitch pattern begins. When the stitch pattern is long, or when the swatch photograph is large, there is no vertical space between the description of the special stitches and the start of the pattern. This is the type of thing which often confuses people who are relatively inexperienced at pattern reading.
It isn't always clear from the description how the edging attaches to the rest of the piece. On some stitches, you will be instructed that "Sts for st st were picked up after edging was knit." The "default option" is presumably to
knit the edging after the pieces is finished, but that isn't actually indicated.
Similarly, there are no instructions in the Color chapter about how to work these combinations. It would be left up to the knitter to know how to make color changes.
There are many stitches which only use pattern abbreviation, without symbol charts. (Note that all of the stitches in the Cable and Lace chapters include symbol charts.)
Summary:
This book would be a wonderful addition to the library of any knitter who has already mastered the basics. A beautiful edging can really transform a project. While the book may seem limited because it only includes edgings, in reality the majority of these stitches could be used for a project as well. The book is well organized and lovely to look through. On the other hand, if you love symbol charts, you will wish there were more in the book. If you are a relative newbie, you may want to hold off on buying this until you feel more comfortable with pattern reading (or be prepared to jump onto YouTube or Ravelry with questions). I would give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars (and 5 stars if you are an experienced knitter who doesn't mind the lack of charts).
As the name suggests, this book is entirely focused on edgings, borders, and trims. The book starts out with a Foreword and then a short section called How to Use this Book. This section (which is the one I would have overlooked if I was just reading the book, instead of reviewing it) explains that stitches in each chapter are arranged in order of difficulty and also indicates which yarn and needle (or hook) sizes were used for each chapter.
The stitches are organized into seven chapters: Ribs, Texture, Cables, Lace, Color, Unusual, and Crochet. The book ends with Abbreviations, a key to the pattern abbreviation terms which includes a US/UK conversion chart for the crochet terminology; Yarn Overs, an illustrated guide to forming different types of yarn overs; and Glossary, which explains pattern essentials like "rep from *, end..." and "stockinette stitch." Like all Sixth and Spring books (at least, all the ones that I have seen), the book is beautifully presented with great colors and photography.
What I like about this book
Each stitch includes a large swatch which is clearly photographed. Each chapter uses one color of yarn for all of the swatches (except, obviously, the Color chapter), so there is a uniform appearance which makes comparison between similar stitches easier. The book's color palette is in the purple family (my favorite).
Almost all of the swatches include rows of stockinette stitch. This allows you to see how the edging impacts the knit fabric - does it lay flat, ruffle, pull together, fan out, etc. While this makes for a bit of an uneven appearance to the book (because the swatches don't look "neat" and squared), it is practically helpful when you are choosing the type of edging you'd like for your finished project.
When stitch symbols are used, the key appears on the same page as the pattern, so you don't need to flip to the back of the book.
The book is well organized (by stitch type, and then by difficulty level through each chapter), so it would be easy to find a stitch you like later.
The book is really lovely to look at - I found myself itching to pick up the needles and get started with edgings. In particular, the edgings in the Color, Cables, and Crochet chapters had me very excited.
The book is hardcover, which allows it to lay flat while you are knitting and reading.
The hardcover binding will make sure this book lasts through all of the abuse a good stitch guide will get.
What I don't like (or what's missing)
I guess I've been spoiled by the old school crochet stitch guides (e.g., the Harmony guides) which dominate my collection, so I've come to expect that a stitch guide will include some basic information for a newbie like illustrations of how to form basic stitches. This book doesn't have any of that, except for in the one page Yarn Overs section. So you should already know the basics (including basic crochet stitches) to get the most out of this book.
The patterns with special stitches can be a bit confusing in how they are presented on the page. The special stitches are explained at the beginning of each stitch pattern. Then the stitch pattern begins. When the stitch pattern is long, or when the swatch photograph is large, there is no vertical space between the description of the special stitches and the start of the pattern. This is the type of thing which often confuses people who are relatively inexperienced at pattern reading.
It isn't always clear from the description how the edging attaches to the rest of the piece. On some stitches, you will be instructed that "Sts for st st were picked up after edging was knit." The "default option" is presumably to
knit the edging after the pieces is finished, but that isn't actually indicated.
Similarly, there are no instructions in the Color chapter about how to work these combinations. It would be left up to the knitter to know how to make color changes.
There are many stitches which only use pattern abbreviation, without symbol charts. (Note that all of the stitches in the Cable and Lace chapters include symbol charts.)
Summary:
This book would be a wonderful addition to the library of any knitter who has already mastered the basics. A beautiful edging can really transform a project. While the book may seem limited because it only includes edgings, in reality the majority of these stitches could be used for a project as well. The book is well organized and lovely to look through. On the other hand, if you love symbol charts, you will wish there were more in the book. If you are a relative newbie, you may want to hold off on buying this until you feel more comfortable with pattern reading (or be prepared to jump onto YouTube or Ravelry with questions). I would give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars (and 5 stars if you are an experienced knitter who doesn't mind the lack of charts).
October 13, 2017
great book. now i want all the volumes. i REALLY need to learn how to crochet - some of my favorite edgings in there were crocheted. my favorite section in the knit area was lace. since one of the reasons i wanted this book in the first place is because i can't crochet and so often a lot of the edgings on items i want to knit call for crochet i was looking into potential lace alternatives that might give the same feel, and having a stitch count and some more intricate designs to turn to and mix up is quite handy. i'd never considered knotting attached icords for loops, for example. and the 'cabbage patch' and 'cockleshells' edgings (though the cockleshells is a bit wavy for my personal taste i'm really digging that trellis look) could easily pass for crochet edgings, but they're knit. this is definitely a wonderful reference book. i wish it had even more stuff in it, as of course there is so much more stuff out there, and i wish i had more space and money to get the rest of the vogue stitchionaries as this is definitely going to come in handy.
January 3, 2012
Awesome. Mandatory library selection.
Read
April 12, 2012Beautiful photography! The patterns are clear and the samples are large and easy to see.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews