I didn’t get much time to knit during the Thanksgiving holiday but did manage a trip to The Weaving Works to pick up the winter issue of Spin-Off magazine. While there, I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of the new edition of Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. I wasn’t expecting to see a copy of this book for a couple of months. Amazon shows a February 2004 release date.

This afternoon I flipped through the book and briefly skimmed through each section. On first glance, it looks like a good reference for knitting a variety of traditional sweaters. The first half is filled with the obligatory chapters on yarn, equipment, methods and techniques and then launches into a discussion of various sweater shapes based on the percentage system. The last half of the book classifies traditional sweaters by technique; color stranding, intarsia, texture geometric patterning and crochet-enhanced knits, with each technique demonstrated via traditional sweaters from several countries.

I have one initial criticism about this book. Where are the photographs? All the sweaters and techniques are illustrated with line drawings by the author. While line drawings are fine for showing techniques, the sweaters would be more inspiring if shown on models in photographs.