The Best Of Rowan: Fifty Designer Patterns

This is a beautiful book, however, it's mainly for advanced knitters. Most of the patterns have complicated colorwork requiring many, many colors (which is exactly why they're so beautiful). Only a few are textured, very very few are simple. Also, mostly they call for yarns that I don't believe Rowan makes any more. If you're comfortable with substitution, that's fine, but I wonder how difficult it would be with a pattern involving 25 colors. Also, almost all the patterns call for wool yarn and are cold-weather sweaters. i.e. almost no cotton or lighter sweaters. Many of the women's patterns are flowery and girly (which I consider a drawback as it's not my taste). I liked the men's sweaters better. Also don't get it if you're looking for children's patterns (there were only 2 or 3, mostly for girls). But I'm glad I got the book, as there are several sweaters that are simply gorgeous, and perhaps one day I'll be brave enough to attempt one. Although I got the book... at a [local] store - if I'd paid full price I might have been disappointed (I consider myself an intermediate knitter right now and haven't really done much color knitting yet.)

This is a lovely book unless, like me, you have many of the recent magazines. Rowan has rekindled my interest in knitting, and this book will have the same effect on you. Remember however, if you have several of the more recent Rowan magazines, there is nothing new here for you.

This book was a true inspiration to me as a beginner. I am inspired to better my skills to do justice to some of the more complex patterns. My only problem with this book was the lack of directions for larger sizes. Most of the patterns gave directions only for sizes up to medium. Unfortunately I am not good enough yet to adapt patterns for smaller sizes to fit my L/XL body.

I set this book aside for several months, since at first I was disappointed. A number of the sweaters showcased are from very recent Rowan magazines, and I was hoping for sweaters from the older,out of print, magazines. Also many of them weren't appealing to me at all. But I picked up the book again and found a few that I now want to make. The book contains a good variety for a knitter who does not already own Rowan magazine issues, and as is typical with Rowan, the sweaters are not simple to create. Rowan yarns are not a must to knit these either -- I am using a Cascade 220 for the first design in the book, a cabled pullover sweater, and I am altering the design to make it more "American". The photographs are nice, although again they are repeats from the Rowan Magazines. I have looked at out of print issues of Rowan magazines, however, and there were other sweaters that I would have considered "best of" and am sorry not to see included here. At least half of the sweaters in this book I would never consider making, but I believe the book is worth owning for those few that are really beautiful and that I don't already own. The best thing Rowan can do for knitters, though, is to bring back into print all the vintage Rowan magazines so those of us who just discovered Rowan in the last few years can now have all those wonderful older designs without paying phenomenal prices for used issues of the out-of-print magazines (some sell for $700!).

THIS BOOK IS PACKED FULL WITH 50 BEAUTIFUL COLOURFUL SWEATERS. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR A BEGINNER, AS MOST OF THE PATTERNS ARE QUITE CHALLENGING. THE ONLY THING I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THE LACK OF MEASUREMENTS(ESPECIALLY FINISHED) SO AS TO KNOW WHICH SIZE TO MAKE.