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4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, but hardly the "best" of Lopi., May 5 2003
By A Customer
This book is wonderful, but it hardly deserves the appellation "best". The editors, in my opinion, made some very odd choices about what to include (and, conversely, to exclude.) I understand that they were aiming for variety: a mix of cardigans and pullovers, traditional and modern styles, classic neutrals and cheerful, bright colors. There are a few challenging patterns in the collection (Sigridur, with its many three-color rows, comes to mind) but generally the editors have made an obvious effort to keep the book beginning-knitter-friendly.There are quite a few beautiful, distinctive Lopi patterns which would have satisfied all of the above criteria, but for some reason these were left out of the book in favor of a bunch of clunky, uninspired designs. Perhaps the prettier sweaters were perceived as more difficult to knit, and omitted for fear of alienating the novice knitter. If you can get your hands on a copy of Lopi Vol. 22, you'll see what I mean. Vol. 22, packed with gorgeous designs, comes much closer to representing "the best of Lopi" than this book does. One further criticism: this book is a compilation of previously published patterns, some of which were published quite a few years ago. XRX should really have re-photographed ALL the sweaters in the book, not just a select few. Many of the pictures in this book are really very silly, with their early-1960's hair and makeup, massive shirt collars, and bizarre color sense. These quibbles aside, there are several real gems in the book. The Annika cardigan is just beautiful, as are the Laela rose-patterned pullover, the Klara fairisle sweater, and the Sonja and Snorri arans (which look just wonderful in a tweedy shade of Lopi.) Many of the children's patterns, however, are nicer than the adult sweaters! Fortunately, they are not difficult to resize.
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