Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop

I have been knitting for 20+ years, and had heard about EZ's books, but considered myself "beyond" them. Finally I bought this one on a whim, and have since purchased all her others. This book is the answer to the question, "How do I make knitting easy?" Forget the rigid patterns--this book explores knitting as it was probably taught for generations: Learn the CONCEPTS and the details will follow. I think this book is worth the money just for the baby "surprise" sweater pattern alone (a legendary baby sweater knit in one garter stitch piece with only 2 seams). When I learned to knit, it was SERIOUSLY not "hip," so I learned to design projects because I didn't have access to patterns. Now with books being written about how to make garter stitch scarves, I thank my lucky stars I learned when I did. This book will teach you to be an empowered knitter who does not need books and patterns to knit. If you are just learning, I cannot encourage you enough to buy this book & learn the fundamentals of knitting & designing--you can always buy the "fun" books, but you will be so much happier if you know how to alter & edit patterns to fit your taste & style. If you are a veteran knitter, it's still worthwhile. The percentage system for designing sweaters is wonderful! EZ's writing style is personable & funny--how could you not love a knitting book where the author admits that she hates to purl & sew seams???? The pictures are in black & white, but I think they still convey the ideas.

I am an experienced knitter and I was surprised by how much I learned from this little book. I always followed patterns for better or worse. This book gives you patterns but it also gives you formulas so that you can take a pattern and convert it depending on the weight of your yarn or even use the formulas, ratios really, to create your own patterns. I learned two handed knitting for aryan designs and more. The sweater I used following this book's formulas was a design I adapted from somewhere else and it is the best fitting sweater I ever made. There is much more too. Elizabeth's great comments and opinions that are funny and often thoughtful. For example I never thought about wool as a renewable resourse as opposed to knitting with a petroleum product.

If you want just patterns that tell you exactly what to do stitch by stitch, this isn't the book for you. If you want to everything necessary to learning how to design your own garments, along with a generous helping of commentary and lots of fodder for your imagination to spin off and invent your own "knitting workshop," then GET THIS BOOK. The seven separate sleeve shapings and how they can be done on a circular needle alone are worth five times what you're going to pay. The garter stitch chapter doubles that to ten.Seriously -- get Barbara Walker's stitch collections, a fair isle chart book or two, and this. You literally do not need anything else to be knitting sweaters that you yourself designed for the rest of your life. Then, when people ask you what pattern you used, you can smile subtly and say, "Oh none, I just made it up." You and Elizabeth Zimmerman. :-)

I am a huge Elizabeth Zimmerman fan, and I love this book. The baby garter stitch surprise jacket is an icon of knitting. Everyone who saw the first one I made went completely gaga over it. I was embarrassed at a baby shower when I gave one and everyone went nuts over it. One caveat: EZ gives the pattern in a 7st/in guage, which makes a VERY tiny sweater. I would recommend going up some needle sizes.I like the directions for the seamless shoulder shapings in this book better than the directions given in "Knitting Without Tears" because there are more of them, the pictures are front and back, and I feel the directions are more clear. Of any of EZ's books, this is the one with the most projects I want to make. I love it, and I frequently refer to it for techniques I want to use in my own projects.

There are 4 great books by EZ (Knitting without Tears, Knitting Almanac, Knitting Workshop and Knitting Around.) This one has the famous "surprise" sweater which looks like a rumpled bathmat and magically transforms, with a few deft flips and a bit of legerdemain, into the cutest baby sweater you ever saw. It can be modified to make an adult jacket, too.It also has plenty more useful and adaptable patterns--sweaters, hats, you name it. And since the patterns are adaptable to many kinds of wool, this is one knitting book that won't seem dated five or ten years from now. The book was written to go with a video series. Some of the videos are still available from the publisher. The book, however, stands alone as a great knitting classic, and one that I reach for all the time when I need to make a gift.