Review: Romantic Hand Knits

You've probably already come across reviews of this book in blogland, maybe at Claudia's blog or at Wendy's or [Jen]La's or, well, there have been lots. (Thanks, Random House/Potter Craft for sending out so many copies to the bloggers!) Romantic Hand Knits, by Annie Modesitt, is a beautifully designed hardcover with 26 patterns and loads of pretty pictures. It's also a bit of a niche-knitting book. These are ultra-feminine garments -- mainly tops, skirts, and dresses -- with lots of lacy details, ruffles, and figure-conscious shapes.

In the book's introduction, Annie explains her take on "romance": rather than being all sexy lingerie and rose petals in the bathtub, she writes, romance is "about dreams. It's an idealized vision of something ..., a belief that a certain type of perfection is possible within our imperfect lives." This notion guided my reading of the book, in that -- for me -- these designs aren't for knitting. They're for dreaming. That is, I'm not going to make anything in this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading each scene-setting pattern blurb (e.g., "you'll swear you've drifted into a Dorothy Sayers novel in 1930s London when wearing this vintage-styled shirtwaist dress"). The thing is, if I were to knit, say, the Bishop's Wife dress (which I quite like), and if I were then to put it on and go out for the day, I might feel like a Dorothy Sayers character for a few minutes until I realized I wasn't standing in an English garden with a wispy hairdo, but rather that I was sitting on the bus with a big backpack and feeling oddly inappropriate in my lovely long sport-weight dress. This doesn't mean it's not a good dress. It just means that I'm more of a realist than a romantic, and that this book has more value for me as a pretty picture book -- "an idealized vision of something" -- than as a practical collection of patterns.

Figure 1: The Bishop's Wife

As for the actual mechanics of the patterns, it's nice to see a wide range of sizes: the West Side Story skirt, for example, can be made to fit a 22-inch (!) waist, a 48-inch waist, and four sizes in between; the Notorious top can be made for a 25.5-inch (!!) bust and a 56-inch bust alike. The photos are generally good at showing the garments, and many patterns show more than one view. When we get to accessories toward the end of the book, though, photos are somewhat lacking: Vertigo is described in the text as a "long scarf," for instance, but in the single photo it appears to be some kind of shallow wrappy-tube. Too bad, because there are probably a lot more knitters willing to knit lace gloves or a scarf than will commit to, say, a full-length skirt.

Figure 2: Vertigo

I've had some excellent luck this week, winning a couple of blog draws, so I'm going to pay it forward. Would you like my copy of Romantic Hand Knits? Leave a comment, and on Monday night I'll randomly choose a winner. Meanwhile, have a good weekend!