Jean Leinhauser (1933–2011)

Although my knitting skill, as far as stitch variety, is intermediate to advanced, I am an unambitious knitter. I wanted to finally knit something that wasn't a square, or a rectangle - such as scarves, dish towels, etc. I purchased this book from an online store, so I did not realize that the sweaters detailed in this book were essentially rectangles with sleeves. I did knit one of the sweater styles, but I only wore it a couple of times. Boxy rectangles, and my body shape, do not play well show more together.

I do recommend this book, but only for very, very, very beginning knitters. Those who have not yet filled their homes with knitted squares and rectangles.

Lion Brand Yarns are the only yarns featured in this book. show less

This book is great if you have straight hair. Curly-haired people need not apply. The patterns are pretty cute, though--most of them, anyway--and it's a great book to have if for some reason you are losing your hair and need to find creative ways to both work through your anxiety and cover up the loss of your crowning glory. For those of you going through this, my deepest sympathy as I went through it too in 2006. It *will* grow back--just don't expect it to be the same. Good luck!

This book is great if you have straight hair. Curly-haired people need not apply. The patterns are pretty cute, though--most of them, anyway--and it's a great book to have if for some reason you are losing your hair and need to find creative ways to both work through your anxiety and cover up the loss of your crowning glory. For those of you going through this, my deepest sympathy as I went through it too in 2006. It *will* grow back--just don't expect it to be the same. Good luck!

BOTTOM LINE: This large, thick, hard-cover book is a decent compendium of all sorts of patterns, nicely illustrated and with clear instructions, but for my personal taste was "nothing special".

Patterns include scarves, gloves, ponchos, wraps/shawls, all kinds of sweaters, a couple of bags, and a lot of kids clothes and baby things, along with several knitted washcloths, doily patterns and a couple of afghans. So there's pretty much a little something for everybody.

Overall this would seem to show more be a good book to keep for "the basics" in your knitting library, since none of the skills required are much more than "intermediate" and although there are a couple of fisherman-like designs included, they aren't all that complex and are carefully worked out in the instructions. Most of the designs are quite basic, using mainly stockinette and ribbing, seed stitches and in a couple of instances, cables, but they are fairly easy cable designs and are thoroughly explained in the text.

Except for a bit of fair-isle-type color work there are no charts, which for me is always a big plus, and the colorwork/stranded knitting elements are minimal. But not only are most of the patterns in this book rather bland in design and execution, there were two Pet Peeves of mine that showed up again in yet another comparatively modern knitting pattern book:

Firstly, the sizings are quite small and limited in range, with the designs for women starting at 32" and often extending only up to 38", with a couple of designs up to 42", which they consider to be "extra-large".

Secondly the use of "fun fur!!" is fairly prominent, which is always a turn-off for me - while the occasional accessory might do nicely with a bit of trim of that sort, an entire sweater or scarf or hat simply looks tacky, at least in my estimation, particularly when worked up on large needles, as a couple of designs are here (and the colors they use in those instances are simply appalling). And, no, I don't like eyelash yarns much either, although there are none represented here, thankfully.

Not a bad book, and might be useful for you IF you are a size 42" or less, and if you don't want something startlingly new (this is from 2006) and would like to have a nice big book around with many sorts of patterns to dip into time after time. It's pretty much unusuable for me since even though there were a couple of sweaters I actually liked, the sizes offered were simply far, far too small. And nearly all the patterns are a bit bulky/boxy for my taste as well, but your mileage may differ. show less