Product Description

Color is the most personal element a knitter brings to her work. Vibrant colors combined in exciting patterns can make a project sing; dull colors or jarring combinations can just as easily break the same project. Yet even experienced knitters often feel uncertain about stepping outside safe but predictable color choices.

Noted knitwear designer and color connoisseur Kristin Nicholas encourages readers to conquer their color inhibitions, learn a little basic color theory, and create personally satisfying fiber palettes. Once awakened to the glories of color, knitters begin to see new possibilities in nature, at museums, in full-color books and magazines—everywhere that color makes a powerful statement. Any beautiful display can become the inspiration for an upcoming knitting project!

The fresh collection of 25 designs for hats, mittens, scarves, socks, and sweaters that Kristin has created for Kristin Knits showcases her extraordinary feel for color. Her distinctive palette, influenced by Indian and French provincial textiles, is recognizable in fi ve exciting designs for each type of garment. Whether using Kristin's favorite colors or applying exciting personal choices, knitters will be thrilled to create these projects.

Kristin's innovative stitch combinations are another hallmark of her fearless ways with knitted color. She adds stripes and checks to rib stitches, bobbles and fringe to edgings, and even embellishes entire projects with a few basic embroidery stitches. Welcome to a Technicolor world of knitting!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48143 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review

“Feeling playful? Kristin Nicholas sure is, and the proof is in the pudding. She fuses a vibrant palette with a dash of ethnic-design inspiration and more than a bit of merry embellishment – choose your garment and level of virtuosity.” Yarn Market News

“A Kristin Nicholas design is immediately recognizable – sweaters and accessories covered in bold, graphic patters that play with geometry, color, and texture all at once.  In her new book, Kristin Knits, Kristin presents twenty-seven designs that leap off the pages in a tumult of color and line.”

            -Interweave Knits, Holiday Gifts 2007

“Kristin…is in full bloom with her latest book, Kristin Knits, which explodes with her signature bold colorways.  Kristin Nicholas is multifaceted, bright-hued, on the move, and simple in her complexity – a true kaleidoscope of talents.”

            -Interweave Knits, Winter 2007 

“Kristin Nicholas was destined to knit.  As an expert craftswoman, Nicholas is primarily interested in combining the useful with the beautiful – the practical with the fanciful.”

            - The Best of Vogue Knitting:  25 Years of Articles, Techniques and Expert Advice, naming Kristin Nicholas a “Master Knitter of the 90’s”

“For those of us who tramp about in our monastic black skirts and boots, Kristin Knits is a joyous wakeup call. Fearlessly juxtaposing oranges, magentas, and periwinkles with bright greens, hennas, and pinks in crisp combinations, this master strands and intarsias her way through the color wheel.  Kevin Kennifick’s spectacular photos capture the energy of the outdoor scenes while still showing full stitch definition.  Nicholas lovers and newbies alike will flock to this new installment (twenty-seven designs in all), in which even the humble pompom becomes an exciting adventure in color.”

            - Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2008

Review
Knitters rejoice! Kristin Knits is full of delicious color, both knitted in and stitched on, put together as only Kristin can."
—Amy R. Singer, author of No Sheep for You

From the Back Cover
If you're confident with the needles, but still feel a little unsure about improvising with color, now you can learn to develop your personal fiber palette with Kristin Nicholas. She enthusiastically guides you through the process of harmonizing colors and textures to create knitted garments that are personal, contemporary, and stunningly beautiful.

Nicholas encourages every knitter to look all around—in a flower-filled park, at an art museum, in a child's picture book—for colors that please and inspire. Work those colors into your knitting with wide or narrow stripes, surprising bobbles and fingers, or basic embroidery stitches that lend playfulness to even the simplest patterns. Experiment with your wildest ideas. You can always unravel what doesn't work!

Play with your new color freedom with 27 Kristin Nicholas patterns, expressly designed to showcase color in combination. Make your knitting sing with the warm, vibrant colors for which Nicholas is famous, or take inspiration from her to find your own color language. Either way, the results will shine!

Customer Reviews

Love at first sight
KRISTIN KNITS will pop off the shelf at you and if you love colorful knits, it's bound to be love at first sight. More than just a book of patterns, it's a primer for designing with color. The 27 patterns are of simple construction but show you color techniques that can be incorporated in your own design. Fair isle techniques, embellishments and surface decorations are among the featured elements.

This is a bright book with spacious layout, organized by type of project: scarves and afghan, hats, socks, gloves and mittens, and sweaters. The photos are beautiful, the patterns presented clearly in a tabular format that looks very easy to follow. The sweaters are women's sizes.

Kristin Nicholas is most deservedly held in the highest regard in knitting circles. Some of my most satisfying projects were from her 1995 book Knitting The New Classics: 60 Exquisite Sweaters From The Studios Of Classic Elite, a book containing many complex construction and texture elements. That brings me to my only reservation about KRISTIN KNITS, and it is definitely a personal preference: while I always reach for the books with eye-popping color designs, it's the construction and texture of a project that hold my interest.

My plan is to knit some of the smaller projects in this book and see whether the great colors take my knitting in a new direction. At least I'll have some bright and beautiful gifts out of the exercise!

One of the best.
I am a knitting book collector and this book has found it's way into my top five!

Covers color selection and offers an amazing collection of patterns for lovers of color. To add to the patterns is the Nashua Knits Julia yarn which as another reviewer has noted can be easily substituted, but why? The blend is amazing and you can use it for every project in the book.

I plan on making one of everything in this book, and I have never said that about any other knitting book.

You can't go wrong with this one.

Fun patterns for scarfs,socks, & mittens
While the book's initial emphasis is on the author's use of color, the bulk of the book is actually patterns for wildly colored & patterned scarfs, socks, mittens and hats. Easy to read & understand instructions. Fun stuff!