Vogue knitting: a review

There are essentially two types of knitters (or if you prefer two ways any knitter can choose to knit): the creative knitter and the pattern knitter.

The pattern knitter:

• follows patterns to the letter, 
• uses swatches in order to "get gauge", that is, to choose the needles to use in order to obtain the gauge that is recommended in the pattern, and hence the correct size of the knitted object.

The creative knitter:

• prefers to create his/her own patterns, 
• may use written patterns to get inspired or learn, but won't follow them to the letter, 
• will use swatches in order to obtain gauge and be able to calculate how many stitches to work in order to obtain the desired size. 

For the pattern knitter, pattern books and leaflets, together with the Internet, are enough. There is no need to buy a reference book because when a new technique shows up on a pattern, all the pattern knitter needs to do is to google it or look it up on YouTube in order to find a good how-to.

On the other hand, for the creative knitter a good reference book is a must, because the creative knitter needs to know what techniques exist in advance. Otherwise he/she won't be able to know what techniques are available to obtain the desired effect, or even that that particular effect exists at all.

"Vogue knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book" by the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine is considered by many as the best reference book available. I bought it because I definitely am of the creative knitter type and, after learning the basics, I felt the need to learn more in order to be able to develop my ideas for projects.

I must admit that, unlike most other people who write rave reviews of this book, I've regretted buying it. Here is my detailed explanation of why.

The pros:

• It includes many of the main techniques you will need to use when knitting
• Most techniques are very well illustrated with either drawings or photographs, that are truly helpful because human beings learn much better by seeing than by reading a long list of instructions. This is undoubtedly the reason so many people love this book.

The cons:

• So many illustrations occupy a lot of space, they also are a challenge when it comes to formatting the page. Therefore the editors had to make some very hard choices, this implies:
• Only the "main" techniques are presented and a lot is necessarily left out. "Main" here, of course, means the techniques deemed as essential by the editors themselves.
• Explanations are very, very brief, some times even incomplete. In practice this means that most times that I've tried to learn something from it, I was unable to and had to look up that technique at another source (usually YouTube, but I've also found other books where the explanations, despite being less well illustrated, were at least clearly explained and easy to follow).
• However briefly, the book does explains the how's, but it often leaves out the why's. In some cases the latter is just the information I need. If I want to do something and there are different techniques, why use one or the other? What are the differences between them? What are their pros and cons?
• I've found some mistakes, for example, one time the written instructions said the opposite to what was drawn in the illustration, leaving me to guess which one was correct. Other times the instructions were so confusing that I thought they were wrong, until I learned the correct way from somewhere else and later realized that the instructions were correct, just badly phrased.
• Unfortunately, despite the problem of space, the editors chose to waste the last 20 pages of the book with some patterns taken from the Vogue Knitting Magazine, undoubtedly as a mean of advertisement, instead of using them to make the book a bit more complete.

Overall I'd say, the book is complete enough for most purposes, in the sense that most knitters will never need to use any technique that is not explained here, but... it is the third and fifth items on my list of cons that makes me truly regret having bought it. I find it frustrating that, after finding the technique I'm looking for, I end up wasting time first trying to understand the instructions on the book, then having to look it up elsewhere.

Recently I've decided to buy another reference book to replace this one. I've bought "The Principles of Knitting" by June Hemmons Hiatt, which I've already mentioned in my previous post. So far I'm very happy with it. However, I'd like to use it for a little longer, before I review it.