THE DAILY CHUM

A Fine Fleece
Lisa Lloyd
Pottercraft, roughly $20 at Amazon

Oh, guys.

It’s really hard for me to even have this book on my desk right now to review it. Seriously. I got it about a month ago, when it first came out, thinking that it was going to be another one of those books that I flip through, pick a couple of patterns I like, and put it on the shelf to patiently wait for me to get through the queue to flip through again.

Not so. Soooo not so.

Lisa Lloyd’s done something completely unusual with this book. It’s a spinning book. It’s a book about using your handspun to make stuff. Like, BIG stuff — sweaters and stuff. It has great information about different wools and the nature of usable handspun. It assumes, I think, that you know the very basics of making yarn out of piles of fluff, but because of that assumption, there’s a lot of really good beyond-the-basics type info that’s really great to see in a book. And then you get to the patterns.

Oh. My. Goodness. The patterns.

While there are some basics in here, the majority of the patterns are intricate, wearable, GORGEOUS sweaters. If you listen to the podcast, you know that I’m not all that big on the whole cable-knitting thing. I can do it, and I’m even okay at it, but it’s not my favorite kind of knitting. Slows me down too much and frustrates me. But for these patterns? I WOULD GIVE ALL THAT UP. So what if a sweater takes me a year if it’s this pretty?

The sizing is ample and wide. So whether you’re a petite little thing like Carin or a linebacker like myself, there is sizing that will fit you on most projects. That *alone* makes me kind of love this book. But she goes one better:

All the patterns, despite this being a spinning book, are given in both handspun weight and yardage requirements….AND in a commercial equivelent.

That’s right. You can use this book and enjoy those sweaters and scarves and socks and such…whether you spin or not. Squee!

All the patterns have pictures (artsy, pretty ones, no less) in both the handspun AND the commercial-spun varieties. It boggles the mind how much I love this feature.

I’ve said to people (when asked, and sometimes just randomly when not asked, which makes for some interesting looks at the grocery store) that, honestly…with very few exceptions, I could get rid of every other knitting book on the shelf and have enough to do with this book to keep me busy for a long, long time. Not that I’m planning on doing that anytime soon, but it IS sitting on my desk, distracting me from the sock du jour, and poking me to find some undyed BFL to spin up and knit. And for someone who usually doesn’t knit with her own handspun, considering it more of an FO all in itself when it’s spun up…that’s saying something.

You’ll love this book if you’re into cable knitting. You’ll love this book if you’re into spinning. You’ll love it if you like gorgeous photography of knitting, or if you just love knowing how wool works.

It’s sooo worth the purchase price.

p.s. There’s also images of some of the sweaters at the author’s website, across the top — take a look!

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