Sasha Kagan

truly lovely!, 15 April 2011

This review is from: Sweater Book (Hardcover)
I've had this book 20+ years and still love the designs which are unique but quite complex involving a lot of intarsia knitting. Patterns such as the one of little Dutch people and windmills (I adapted this for my young son), a beautiful pansy jumper and a willow pattern waistcoat. Also a gorgeous cardi of raingirls with umbrellas & boots and other jumpers featuring seagulls, cats, scottie dogs, scarab beetles plus a show more selection in geometric design and two plain ones based on 1930 designs with clever shaping. My only disaster with this book was when I tried to knit myself a tam o shanter and it turned out too big and my father said it would make a good home for a hamster! show less

At first glance, this looks like Kaffee Fassett lite -- lots of intarsia, but not as many colours as KF. A closer look -- and WOW, this is some amazing intarsia, with brilliant use of specialty stitches for texture. You don't need four dozen colours when ten combine this brilliantly. There are a number of sweaters, jackets, and blankets that I would cast on tonight if I could only afford the wool. Perhaps I could make a cushion, or one of her hats!

But in the end, I can't afford the wool. Her show more effects, even for the cushion, depend heavily upon combining really outstanding yarns: tweed, silken tweed, cotton chenille, some discontinued. You can get kits for some of these designs online and, although they seem to be lacking the chenille and texture effects, and the prices range around $200, that's reasonable for-what-it-is, you do get all the colours, and this might be the way to go for those who can afford it. show less

Crochet inspirations is a solid book of basic stitch patterns for crochet, but I am not sure I would call it inspirational. A lot of the motifs are very doily-inspired and don't seem modern at all. There are 5-6 full patterns in the book, but none are all that impressive (though I was intrigued by the Squiggle Scarf). If you are looking for new stitches to use in designing your own crochet items, this could be useful.

This is a wonderful book. I completely disagree with the other reviewer who said it wasn't inspirational. I find it to be very inspirational and have done many new stitches for the first time after getting it. I don't find the patterns all that impressive, but they're a small section, and I didn't buy it for that. The diagrams and photos are excellent, and the book is well-organized.