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Book Look: Michelle Hunter’s Building series

About a year or two ago, I was introduced to the lovely and talented Michelle Hunter, also known as “Knit Purl Hunter.” You may have seen Michelle’s designs in Knitter’s Magazine, on her own website or Ravelry. (I’m really excited that Michelle agreed to do a pattern for my next book — I only wish I could show you a photo or two because it’s gorgeous!) Michelle works closely with the fine people at Skacel, and you may have met her at a trade show like TNNA or during one of her many teaching gigs.

Today we’re taking a look at Michelle’s Building series. It’s a great idea: a booklet containing a series of small projects designed to help knitters improve their skills. Each project introduces one skill and provides a thorough explanation of the skill; you’ll also get links to videos on Michelle’s website that illustrate specific skills. Better yet, each project consists of a single afghan square or row. You can work your way through each square or panel, then seam them together, and in the end, you’ll have increased your knitting knowledge exponentially, and have a spiffy new afghan or throw.

The first book in the series is called “Building Blocks.” It begins with the foundation stitches, knit and purl, and then introduces knitters to charts, yarnovers and bobbles, decreases, cables and mock cables, twisted stitches, slipped stitches, the M1 increase and more.

BuildingBlocks01

The second book in the series, Building In Color, introduces all sorts of techniques for creating colorwork patterns:  intarsia, slipped stitches, brioche/knit one below, two-color cables, and more. The projects in this case also combine to form an afghan, but this time in horizontal panels rather than blocks.

BuildinginColor01

There are so many thoughtful touches:  photographs of the stitches knit in alternate colorways, tips and hints sprinkled throughout, help in translating a specific technique to chart form, and of course the links to video instruction.  There’s even a “Teacher’s Guide” to give LYS owners or those who want to use the book as the basis for classes help in breaking it all down for students.

I love when authors and designers are able to provide technical instruction that will help their readers and students become more confident knitters. When knitters improve their technical skills, it makes them happier knitters — they’re less frustrated, their projects look fabulous and they come back for more — and that is a great benefit to the industry. So if you’re looking for a way to improve your knitting while working at your own pace, this is a great series to check out. You can find a list of shops that sell the book here, or if you’re a shopowner, you can order copies from Skacel.

 

 

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