Let’s start off with my book was bought used about nine years ago, so if it looks like it’s been dragged through hell and back that’s because it has.
Elizabeth Zimmerman is one of the most influential knitters in my life, and the one that really got me started on knitting from an idea instead of strictly a written pattern. Her thought processes might not be to everyone’s taste, but she’s always worth a read.
Start with this book’s dedication “To the unsure knitter, to the blind follower, and to all those who do not yet know that they can design their own knitting, this book is encouragingly dedicated.”
See why I went with Knitter’s Almanac after my last review? The premise of this book is pretty much what it says on the tin, it contains projects for each month of the year. The majority are sweaters, but there are is also a month for mittens and gloves (May, so it’s not cold and you don’t rush them and have cold fingers), socks, a famous baby jacket, and shawl patterns. The patterns were written from the 1970s (the first edition is from 1974), but classics that carry you through. I remember reading through it the first time and learning about charts, traveling stitches, and the importance of a gauge swatch and how to make that swatch into a practical hat all in the first chapter.
The book is written like a cross between a novel, a diary, and a knitting pattern book. It’s actually a good read even if you aren’t into her patterns.
She has a very natural writing style that makes you feel like you’re in her head, seeing her thought processes and intentions for each pattern organically. The patterns aren’t line-by-line and written in a very conversational style like she’s telling you exactly what she was thinking as she drafted each pattern. There are ‘pithy’ patterns at the end of each chapter that iron out the details of the project.
The only drawback and it’s one where you need to consider the time it was written is that she can come off a bit anti-feminist, such when she’s describing the idea of a circular shawl increased using pi and writes that women “have expunged such theories from their memory” but does say the theory has been expunged to make room for more important things.
I love how she describes her life and what was going on when she drafted each pattern (someday I’m going to get myself an Old Man and live in a converted schoolhouse, hold me to this).
Now tell me, who’s in the mood to knit an almanac? I know I’ve got mittens on the horizon. Or perhaps I’d better start on knitted borders and hats for June?