Many knitters hate sewing the pieces together. I have a friend who has five unfinished sweaters, all in separate bags with notations on needle sizes, etc., but that will probably never be sewn together (unless I do it for her) because she hates putting the pieces together. Piecing, the second to last task of sweater making, is indeed a tedious task, and for a beginning or even intermediate knitter, enormously complicated by inconsistent stitch size and tension inherent in the learning process. I bought this book because I, as an intermediate/advanced knitter, have only recently discovered the joys of one piece knitting, or knitting from the top down.

In top down knitting, if you don't know, the sweater begins at the collar or neckline, and is knit in the round and in one piece, to the bottom hem. This differs from traditional knitting, which starts at the bottom and goes up, and is done in pieces, front, back, sleeves for a pullover, and 2 fronts, back and sleeves for a cardigan. Pieced knitting requires extraordinary diligence to technique, counting of rows, and emphasizes the importance of each part fitting together into the larger piece perfectly. One row off on a sleeve cap, for example, and it is better to rip out a couple of hours of work, than to stitch the sleeve to the body. It will never look quite right.

Top down knitting avoids that problem. One starts with the top, knit a yoke, and then sets a few stitches aside for the sleeves (to be picked up later), and proceeds to the bottom hem. Very easy. The hardest part is making sure you've increased properly (every other row). Once that technique is mastered, one can focus on making stitches the same tension, and keeping everything ordered. It is much easier to knit yoke patterns from the top down, rather than in pieces, because all rows line up exactly spot on. So this style is much easier than traditional piecing, and somewhat easier than bottom up raglan knitting.

The book includes 24 sweater designs in 4 weights: bulky, chunky, heavy worsted, and DK. The designs are illustrated in color, and include a diagram showing measurements and a general shape of the garment. They are typical knitting instructions, with one size listed, and the others in parens, plus stitch repetitions patterns, yardage, accessories, etc. I've made two patterns, bloom and verena, both in the DK weight category, and there were no problems. As a full busted woman, I prefer to use DK, or at best a worsted weight, but clearly all these patterns will be convertible to those weight sizes, and I suspect I will make more, if not for myself, then for someone else.

Carron includes sections on sweater design, sizing, sweater elements, and some of the basic "issues" of top down stitching. The biggest one is mastering the "make one/knit one" stitch, in which the knitter makes a stitch into the back loop and another into the front loop of a stitch. This should make an increase, without any holes, providing for the gradual broadening from neckline down the shoulder to the bottom of the arm.

Another important section, collars, helps the knitter design his or her own sweater, or modify an existing pattern. She shows us how to make a polo collar, a mandarin collar, turtle collar, wrapped polo, and shawl collar, for example, and any of these can be used in any of the patterns, with adjustment for stitch size and yarn.

She also includes, at the end, a set of basic patterns pre-calculated for different stitch sizes. These give the knitter a pre-calculated set of instructions for any yarn, any gauge. There is also a section on fitting a pattern to suit your figure, working in short rows or adding darts. I prefer darts, if I can work them in, because I think they are easier in the top down approach (short rows work well in the bottom up approach). For those who aren't familiar with a short row, it is a row added into a sweater, in particular into the front of a woman's sweater, that allows for the extra length necessary in the front (the distance from shoulder to waist is different in the front than in the back, so a couple extra rows are usually needed to keep the sweater from lifting up in the front).

This book of seamless sweater patterns is suited for the advanced beginner to advanced knitter, although I suspect advanced knitters would find the patterns easy. However, even the best knitters usually want a pattern to follow, however generally, and Carron offers a variety of ideas about yarn mixing, colors, texture, and decorative elements.

Its list price is $24.95, but I paid less than that on Amazon.

Recommended: Yes