Sunday, March 18, 2007

Book Review: Sexy Little Knits

Book Review of

Sexy Little Knits: Chic Designs to Knit and Crochet

By Ashley Paige

(New York: Potter Craft, 2006)


Sexy knitting is making a come back. As Dr. Ruth said in the Winter 2007 issue of Knit.1…they weren’t called “sweater girls” for nothin’. Sexy Little Knits is only one of the newer books on the market that helps knitters maximize their sexy knitting potential.


One of the first things knitters will notice when flipping through the book is the great photography. There are multiple photos of each piece – and often with more than one model or with a different yarn. This is fantastic as it really helps knitters make an educated decision about whether or not a piece is something they might look good in or would actually wear.


The book is split up into three sections, swimwear, warm weather clothes, and things to wear at home. While most of the patterns are cute and/or sexy, they only provide directions for sizes 1-9. Aside from personal reasons why this makes me sad (I’m a smidge larger than a size 9), this seems to not be the greatest move on the publisher’s part as the average American woman is a size 14.


So say you are a young, size-nine-or-smaller knitter…will you still want this book? Well, maybe. If I were small enough to fit into these clothes, I’m not sure I’d want anyone other than my husband to see me wearing them. Unlike some approaches to sexy knitting that focus on being sexy without showing tons of skin, Paige’s approach seems to be, well, a bit more scandalous. With some minor alterations, I think this book may do better being marketed as a lingerie book since that’s what most of the items look like. Perhaps a better title for this book would be Skanky Little Knits or Sexy Little Knits for Teeny Tiny Bodies?


What about accuracy of the patterns? While I think most good reviewers of knitting books would knit an item or two from the book in order to properly review it, for reasons discussed above, this is impractical for me. When searching the internet, however, I did find quite a few women bemoaning the inaccuracies in the patterns. Even more frustrating for them is that there aren’t corrections available on Potter Craft’s website and several who have tried to contact Potter Craft haven’t been able to get any information from them. Hmmm.


The conclusion? If you are a size 1-9 knitter who either a) would like to make some scandalous knitwear to be enjoyed by a significant other or b) wants to look like a skank in public, and you don’t mind errors in patterns you pay for….this may be the book for you. If that’s not you, you may want to wait to check out some different titles.


Ratings (out of 10)

Knit-Worthy Patterns: 5

Average Degree of Difficulty of Patterns: 4 (advanced beginner / intermediate)

Use of Consumer Friendly Yarn: 3 (Many yarns were either not consumer friendly or information wasn’t available)

“Big Girl” friendly patterns: 1 (Ha!)

Overall Rating: 3

4 comments:

  1. LOL @ "Skanky little knits"

    ReplyDelete
  2. haha, wow... chillax woman.
    some of us are proud of our skin...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey...I'm not anti-skin. I'm anti paying for patterns with errors in them and not being able to knit things for average sized women who want to show some skin, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me happy! Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Book Review: Sexy Little Knits

Book Review of

Sexy Little Knits: Chic Designs to Knit and Crochet

By Ashley Paige

(New York: Potter Craft, 2006)


Sexy knitting is making a come back. As Dr. Ruth said in the Winter 2007 issue of Knit.1…they weren’t called “sweater girls” for nothin’. Sexy Little Knits is only one of the newer books on the market that helps knitters maximize their sexy knitting potential.


One of the first things knitters will notice when flipping through the book is the great photography. There are multiple photos of each piece – and often with more than one model or with a different yarn. This is fantastic as it really helps knitters make an educated decision about whether or not a piece is something they might look good in or would actually wear.


The book is split up into three sections, swimwear, warm weather clothes, and things to wear at home. While most of the patterns are cute and/or sexy, they only provide directions for sizes 1-9. Aside from personal reasons why this makes me sad (I’m a smidge larger than a size 9), this seems to not be the greatest move on the publisher’s part as the average American woman is a size 14.


So say you are a young, size-nine-or-smaller knitter…will you still want this book? Well, maybe. If I were small enough to fit into these clothes, I’m not sure I’d want anyone other than my husband to see me wearing them. Unlike some approaches to sexy knitting that focus on being sexy without showing tons of skin, Paige’s approach seems to be, well, a bit more scandalous. With some minor alterations, I think this book may do better being marketed as a lingerie book since that’s what most of the items look like. Perhaps a better title for this book would be Skanky Little Knits or Sexy Little Knits for Teeny Tiny Bodies?


What about accuracy of the patterns? While I think most good reviewers of knitting books would knit an item or two from the book in order to properly review it, for reasons discussed above, this is impractical for me. When searching the internet, however, I did find quite a few women bemoaning the inaccuracies in the patterns. Even more frustrating for them is that there aren’t corrections available on Potter Craft’s website and several who have tried to contact Potter Craft haven’t been able to get any information from them. Hmmm.


The conclusion? If you are a size 1-9 knitter who either a) would like to make some scandalous knitwear to be enjoyed by a significant other or b) wants to look like a skank in public, and you don’t mind errors in patterns you pay for….this may be the book for you. If that’s not you, you may want to wait to check out some different titles.


Ratings (out of 10)

Knit-Worthy Patterns: 5

Average Degree of Difficulty of Patterns: 4 (advanced beginner / intermediate)

Use of Consumer Friendly Yarn: 3 (Many yarns were either not consumer friendly or information wasn’t available)

“Big Girl” friendly patterns: 1 (Ha!)

Overall Rating: 3

4 comments:

  1. LOL @ "Skanky little knits"

    ReplyDelete
  2. haha, wow... chillax woman.
    some of us are proud of our skin...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey...I'm not anti-skin. I'm anti paying for patterns with errors in them and not being able to knit things for average sized women who want to show some skin, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me happy! Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

 
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