Ethnic Knitting Discovery and Exploration

 

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Do you ever get tired of blindly following patterns? Ever wish you could design your own sweaters from scratch? Ever want to learn about knitting techniques from around the world? If you’ve answered “Yes!” to any of these questions, then Ethnic Knitting Discovery & Ethnic Knitting Exploration are for you.

Choose from three different styles of worksheets-quick notes, a visual plan, or detailed guidelines:

1) For adventurous and advanced knitters, I have a schematic where you can fill in your measurements and stitch counts as you go.

2) For those who want more details, I have a spreadsheet to help you do all of the calculations you’ll need for your project.

3) For those who have never designed a sweater, or who want a little more hand-holding, I have step-by-step instructions for working up each project (with your numbers).

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Introduction

Chapter 1 : Sweater Shapes – Raglan, Yoke, & Saddle-shoulder Refining the shoulder area • Pullover or cardigan—you choose • Sizing guidelines • Getting gauge • The sample sweaters

Chapter 2 : A Few Basics Knitting needles, and some tricks for using them • Yarn • Increases and decreases • Sewing seams • Short-row shaping • Centering patterns • Abbreviations and symbols

Chapter 3 : Lithuania Striped ribbing • Working with two or three colors

Project 1: Fingerless Gloves Project 2: Raglan Pullover with Border Pattern Project 3: Raglan Pullover with Multiple Patterns

Chapter 4 : Iceland Knitting with unspun lopi yarn • Fitting patterns on a yoke

Project 4: Capelet Project 5: Pullover with Horizontal Bands on Yoke Project 6: Cardigan with Horizontal Bands

Chapter 5 : Ireland Left-crossing cable • Right-crossing cable • Counting rows between cable crossings • Making bobbles • Chart symbols used in cable patterns • Becoming comfortable with cables • Special notes about Aran-style sweater design • Knitting a cable swatch

Project 7: Poncho Projects 8 & 9: Aran Pullovers with Saddle Shoulders

Chapter 6 : Cardigans In the round with a cut center-front opening • Body knitted back and forth in one piece • Knitted back and forth (flat) in several pieces (especially for Arans) 

Here’s what you’ll find inside the book:

 

Ethnic Knitting Discovery visits the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and the Andes in a whirlwind tour of traditional knitting techniques.  At each stop, you’ll learn a bit about the region’s knitting history, and the key techniques that make the craft unique.

You can practice these new skills on one of the small introductory projects (a scarf, cape, bag, or headband) before embarking on one of the drop-shoulder pullover designs, which you can personalize for infinite possibilities. Rather than giving you a pattern to follow, Ethnic Knitting Discovery gives you a recipe to tailor to yourself—or a deserving recipient—using whatever yarn has caught your fancy, in whatever size you want.

Each project is presented for beginning, intermediate, and experienced knitters.  Whether you’ve recently taken up knitting and want to stretch your skills, or you’ve knitted for years and want something interesting and different, you’re sure to find plenty to keep you busy!

Please note that these are photos from both books Ethnic knitting discovery & exploration.
We carefully review each book to make sure that the information presented is correct. However, sometimes something sneaks past us and makes it into a book. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Below you’ll find corrections for this book presented in a .JPG & Text. The corrections are generally highlighted in yellow or shown in bold type. Corrections are made to books before they are reprinted, so your copy may already contain some or all of these corrections.

Errata (first printing only) Ethnic Knitting Discovery

Page 105, Ethnic Kitting Discover – correction to upper illustration.

Page 120, Ethnic Kitting Discover – correction to second full paragraph.

Listen to author Donna Druchunas give you an introductions to Ethnic Knitting Discovery & Exploration.

Traditional knitting techniques and stories from Norway.(PDF)

Recipe for Designing your own headband.(PDF)

 

Praise for Ethnic Knitting Exploration & Discovery

This book is more about creating knitted articles in the structure of Aran, Icelandic or Lithuanian garments, which have a particular construction. Using this book and a stitch dictionary, you can create ethnic garments using sweater plans in the book.

For the designer and do-it-yourself knitter who doesn’t want to rely on packaged patterns, this is a real boon. If you are not an advanced knitter, there are mini-projects to understand the construction idea, such as a capelet that goes over the shoulders in two color knitting. This capelet is nice by itself, but it teaches you the idea of round yokes as in Icelandic knitting. The Aran knit project shows you how to construct the drop shoulder sleeve or to do a raglan.

There are a number of motifs charted but mainly this book is about construction and it is a blueprint for making your own designs. Therefore, a good stitch dictionary will be a great adjunct to “Ethnic Knitting Exploration” and there are many to choose from, such as Barbara Walker Treasury and 440 More Stitches. There are many more including ones specific to Aran and Nordic patterns as well as Baltic (Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian.) – Amazon Reader