Nancy J. Thomas (1)

If buying for the patterns, they're good (but only if you're knitting for a woman), and despite the clever names, they have no relationship to traditional tweed-producing regions. For example, the "Kilt Knitting Bag" is simply a striped bag - nothing kilt-like about it, except her assertion "The shades of green, grey, purple, and orange tweed reminded me of Ireland and Scotland." It could have as easily be called the "Wine region knitting bag" or the "Pistachio Ice Cream bag." Some designs do include cables, yet another is based on a kilim motif.

The introductory chapters, however, are truly horrible. Mostly they discuss tweed fabric, which bears little relationship to tweed yarns (despite her assertion). The defining characteristic of what is today called tweed yarn, the addition of nips of colors, is barely mentioned. The information on wool, spinning terminology, etc. are often misleading, and sometimes quite wrong. In her Introduction, Thomas says "Chapter 2 explores the process of making tweed yarns. I consider this the most important chapter in the book; it is your yarn tutorial." But that is the is the worst chapter. If you want to understand yarn, consult another work. If you want to know how the modern novelty yarns became termed 'tweeds' keep looking. If you merely want to see some interesting designs utilizing these yarns, then the book may be of interest.… (més)