Finishing Techniques For Hand Knitters

Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters by Sharon Brant shows how to get professional looking knitted sweaters, cardigans and jackets.

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Sharon Brant in her book, Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters: Give Your Knitting that Professional Look, covers knitting techniques to help take your knitting from looking homemade to handmade, a true item of quality.

She does this by first covering those things you need to do before you even get started knitting like selecting yarn, knitting a gauge swatch, and taking correct measurements. She even tells you how to calculate the amount of yarn you need for a project so that you don't run short before you complete it.

Then Sharon covers the basics you need to know for creating a great looking garment. She shows a couple of cast on methods and shows how to get even knitting. She also discusses shaping by using increasing, decreasing, and short rows.

The garment assembly chapter is probably the most important chapter in the book. If you don't get this right, all your knitting efforts are wasted. So Sharon covers techniques on sewing in yarn ends, blocking, adding pockets, grafting, picking up stitches, and adding bands to a cardigan.

Then she covers knitting buttonholes, adding zippers, and seaming the garment. Each of these areas is covered with clear step-by-step pictures and directions.

She even has a section on taking care of your garments which tells you how to hand wash and machine wash to avoid ruining them.

Other chapters in the book cover alteration to finished garmets which covers making changes to already knitted garments and embellishments which covers adding beads, fringe, sequins and pompoms.

The last chapter is a chapter of patterns that include a lace-edged pullover, a basic sweater, a lined jacket, a cardigan, a drawstring bag, and a cardigan with a zipper. Each use several of the techniques covered in the book.

Finishing Techniques for Hand Knitters by Sharon Brant is a good choice for your knitting library. It covers the important techniques needed to make you garments look great!