From Jennifer Hansen, Knitting Like Crazy

This week I took a look at Easy Cable Knits for All Seasons by Andra Knight-Bowman. As with most knitting books it starts out with the usual basic guidelines on how to do basic knitting techniques. Always good when you need a little refresher! The book then goes straight into the patterns, which are rated at beginner, intermediate and experienced. I always like when patterns have these ratings. I always worry about a super beginning knitter trying something too hard for her first project and then giving up on knitting all together. In this book I felt the ratings were accurate for each pattern.

There were lots of things I really like about this book. First off, I like that most of the garments have sizes that are for larger women. Most of the patterns go up to a 2X (which was usually 52 or 54" bust). As a larger lady, I like having the math done for me, rather than trying to have to do it myself. So, I was very happy to see that in this book.

I also really liked that several of the patterns give you options for sleeves. You have the option to make something as a tank/vest or add short or long sleeves. Again, something you can work out yourself depending on your style, but it's nice to see the book doing it for you. And, I liked that the patterns that contained those options contained photos of the garment knit in the different ways.

There were a couple patterns in particular that I liked. The "Scarf & Hat in the Round" and "Vest & a Twist" are both designs I could see myself knitting. The majority of the patterns in this book are what I describe as classic. So, if you are one that likes some of the newer, super-trendy knitting patterns, I would not recommend this book. But, if you love some nice basic cable patterns on classic sweater designs then I would say this book is for you.