Knitting Goes Large - a book review

With my brand new spiffy library card, I've been checking out some old and new books that are all new to me.

Right now in my hot little hands, I have a copy of Knitting Goes Large.

I really wanted to love Knitting Goes Large. I was kind of looking forward to it. I have Martin Storey and Sharon Brant's "Classic Knits for Real Women" and I like that book fine. Its simple shapes and good designs made it a book I could work with.

Knitting goes Large is not a book I can love easily. It claims to go Large, but the starting size in the book is a 38 inch bust and the top size in it is a 48 inch bust. According to the book, even the 'most generously sized women will find something that will suit their figure by type.' Huh?

48 inch busts are pretty normal. 42 and 44 inch busts are not even remotely unusual for very average sized women.

Are you meaning mature woman rather than large? A lot of mature women, women who are mid life, need just a little more space across the shoulder and around the bust than the young 20 somethings. Not large, just mature sized.

Generously sized? If you want generously sized, come to me, I am generously sized. If you are aiming it at 'large' and mean to have these fit generously sized women you are going to have to begin where you leave off.

As I went through the book, I noticed something else. The fit of the many of the sweaters on the models is strikingly odd. There is one sweater, the Split Neck Tunic; nice sweater, but honestly, it looks like it is going to fall right off the models shoulders. Taking a closer look at the design measurements, the top size is for a 48 inch bust, but the finished garment measurement is 60.5 inches at the bust. The sweater is designed with a foot of ease? At the bust? Are you sure?

Did you really want women to constantly be hiking the shoulders up on their clothes. Did you mean for us to feel swamped by the fabric? Is falling out of our clothing now the fashion?

Why didn't I get that memo?

There are others. I could go on.

It isn't that the designs are bad. Indeed the designs are really really good. The green Twisted Rib sweater would be stunning if it fit the model. That blue Split Neck Tunic would look wonderful if it weren't 4 sizes too large for the model. Perfect for Saturday afternoons. I really really like the Cabled Tunic. There is a little Kim Hargreaves vest that is gorgeous, a little white camisole that every woman on the planet would find a home for in her wardrobe, the swing jackets, divine. I can't find fault with any of the designs. They are stunning, lovely, simple (well except for the big collars. I'm not a big collar person. Maybe on really tall women.)

These designs would fill the planet with women knitting if they could only figure out what size to knit. All I can say for certain is that you weren't aiming it at the very young and the very slender. As for the rest? Too many questions.

It breaks my heart not to be happy with this book. I like the design work that went into it, but the fit, the ease, the oddities leave me with too many unanswered questions to spend good money on it.

In my ratings, I have to give it a single crochet. Get it from the library, and knit with caution.