Eleanor Van Zandt

A somewhat odd book, in that it welds togther conventional histories of past civilisations (Ancient Egypt, the Khmer, Zimbabwe, the Etruscans, and others) and the fictional civilations of Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria.

The first six chapters are written by Van Zandt, comprising the generally accepted academic view, which were added to the previously published second half of the book,written by Stemman, founder of the London UFO Research Organisation.

To be fair, the 'evidence' for the fictional show more civilisations is assessed rationally and is largely debunked, with just a lingering soupçon of "but what if?" to keep the believers on board. And, as these theosophical imaginings and archeological flights of fancy have inspired some of my favourite sci-fi, fantasy and sword-and-sorcery books, I can't altogether condemn them. show less

Excellent book! Illustrations of techniques are easy to follow and understand. Covers basic through Advanced techniques. Also includes stitch patterns in knit/purl, cables, lace, edging/embellishments! Complete, comprehensive and compact enough to keep in your knitting bag! (Which is exactly where this book's new home is!!)

Colour/Black & White: colour photographs and coloured line drawings of how-to

Target Audience: Beginner and advanced beginner

How to knit guide: most of the book

Classical

Comments: This book is one of the best reminder books I've seen. If someone has seen patterns elsewhere that they want to knit this is one of the best accompaniments I've seen. It starts off with the basics, knitting and purling and then introduces some basic stitches using these stitches. Then it advises on Project selection, show more with some more complicated stitches, then special textures, knitting in the round, colourwork, embellishments and special techniques.

Overall it offers a lot, it's not what a lot of people expect from a 101 book these days, having no patterns, but it's what I would term a 102 book, it's also the sort of book that you would have with your knitting in order to remind yourself occasionally of a certain technique. show less

This is a comprehensive book of knitting techniques. It covers the basics before moving on to textures mainly involving just knit or purl stitches. These have a photograph of a knitted square so that the reader can see what the pattern is supposed to look like. The some of the techniques are illustrations rather than photographs, and this can make it more difficult to follow along. The advantage is that the author isn’t limited to what can be captured in a photograph; however, the show more disadvantage is that the knitting is unlikely to look like it does in the illustration, making it harder to compare and find out where you’ve gone wrong.

More complex textures appear later in the book, as well as lace patterns and cables, medallions, turning a heel etc. etc. Since it is so comprehensive, some sections are covered in very few pages; for example, turning a heel is only two pages long, with six illustrations, which I think I would find difficult to follow, having never attempted socks before. The upside of covering so much is that there is an overview of what’s possible and I can then find specialised instructions for a particular technique if I need more information. show less