A Knitting Wrapsody: Innovative Designs to Wrap, Drape, and Tie [Paperback]

 

 

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When am I going to learn to read the whole sub-title of a book before buying it? The book might be called "WRAPsody" but it is about innovative designs to wrap, drape and tie. I expected wraps, and only just those, but the book also has skirts, a cardi-coat sort of outwear garment, an open cowl, a poncho type cape, and a poncho type cape that's described as a belted cape. I think some of the designs are a bit hard to describe because they are pretty unusual.

Kudos to Omdahl, it is a highly original book, with oodles of personal design ideas that have not been done to death elsewhere. Probably one of the most innovative knitting books to come out this year. Especially on a topic (wraps, shawls and the like) that's about to reach saturation. I'm not more generous with the stars for this review because I find that I do not like the way the design elements are assembled together in about 2/3 of the designs. I simply don't like Omdahl's taste for a lot of the pieces, nothing personal.

One of the things I have noticed and that disturbs me the most is that some of the pieces contain design elements that will probably cause some puckering in the fabric as soon as the blocking starts to relax. A few pieces (Serpentine shawl comes to mind) have sort of gathered stitches detail at the border, that don't lie flat and whose repetitions overlap even on the photo (where everything is pinned together and styled for the best effect, imagine what will happen when you have worn it more than an hour). Another piece has HUGE crochet-looking medallions in it (but they are actually knit), for a very whacky cut-out effect and I simply don't find this pretty. Summit, a rectangle with holes for armholes, would not be too unusual except it is made with knitted strips that almost look like they were crocheted and then linked together in a way described by the author, is very interesting, but again I'm not too crazy about the picot-y border.

Another bug-a-boo is that I don't expect a lot of sizes for shawls, but coats, cardis, and boleros, even deconstructed, should come in more than one size. The skirts come in two or three sizes. And even where there are sizes like for instance the cover design, the sizes are a bit hard to gauge, because they're given as 24-27 inches wide. So how would that fit a medium is the real question here. It would have been useful to indicate some sort of ease. Aside from that the book is very well edited, with pretty clear directions, instructions and a lot of illustrations that help how to achieve the more technically forward style elements. There is a DVD also included that I have not sampled, but with 60 minutes of content, it probably can't hurt things.

The technical help section of the book is very short and to the point, a very good thing if you ask me. It shows a bunch of specific techniques that are used in the book, along with the unusual "pick up and purl" that I had never seen before, and also illustrations on short-rows, mattress stitch and the like. It has clear drawing illustrations which help a lot understand how the techniques are achieved. Again, very good editing on this part.

Now why I'm sad to give this a mixed review is that nothing here has been done on the automatic pilot. Design and editing go above and beyond to make this a fun book. The design certainly takes risks and presents something original. Omdahl deserves to at least get this much recognition, because it's the opposite of a lazy book. There's a great deal of creativity in a design like flamenco skirt or the Summit american yak wrap design, even though I don't like them. There are also designs that I do like like the tree of life ruana, the infinity cardi-wrap, Tidal pool a truly unusually constructed lace shawl, or even the design on the cover. By all means, more fashion forward knitters than I might give this book the love it deserves.

Even though there is a DVD, I never did find help on it, despite many desperate attempts. I was warned right here in a review, but I loved those beautiful cables and I'd STILL be waiting for help from the publishers months later. I've knit the project once, it was all under my armpit and behind my neck! So undid it down to the 'oval' & did a different design. You need to know what short rows are to do the oval, and there are two kinds, without help from a sock knitter I could never have done it. This is asymmetrical, not my taste but I made it work with a rolled collar and sweetheart or lyre neckline and the big cables along the bottom edge, nothing like the pix. It was the most challenging project I've ever done, but thanks to a dear sock knitting friend who also puzzled over the instructions, I do have a unique wrap.

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