Romantic Style: Knits And Crochet to Wear or Display (ISBN 1564777154)

Dreamy Stuff For Mostly Knitters:
I bought this book for the dressing gown pattern. I will never make it, because it drags on the ground, and will be full of dog hair the minute I put it on. But, I can dream, can't I? The title almost scared me off, because I have bought knitting and crochet books that have had more crochet than knitting. This one seems to be the other way around, so I should warn crocheters. Knitters may love it, though. There are quite a few patterns of varying difficulty, and the yarns called for are mostly Rowan. The designer incorporates beads and into several of the patterns that would otherwise be very plain, making easy to knit desings look special. I would say, for the price, this is a very good book.

Romantic Style: Knits and Crochet to Wear or Display:
Every pattern in this book is stunning. I am an experienced crochet/knitter, and I can honestly say I have never seen such beautiful patterns. I normally stick to lace shawls, but the dressing gown project is perfect. A little bit of easy to do, combined with some 'keep your eyes on the lace edging', make it very enjoyable. The experienced knitter will love this, but their are many intermediate projects also. I would not recommend this book for the beginner.

Rather period, and only for a certain figure type:
These are great patterns if you are very thin and look like the "flappers" of the 1920's. For the most part they are very "period" (think Victoria magazine) and would not be something most of us would wear out somewhere. The dressing gown is nice, but why would you put that much money and effort into something that's going to get dirty and rather quickly ratty-looking as soon as it catches on something (which is why I don't knit socks, but that's just me)? The shrug would be one exception, and made in a different yarn might make a nice beach cover-up. But most will have to adjust the pattern for size. Several things that were annoying: The aforementioned lack of size ranges Pictures from certain angles only, and some repetitive at that; few close-ups of stitch patterns. Could have put the pattern repeat in (for ex. multiple of 3 plus 2), so that you can use the stitch patterns for other projects--this can often make the book more attractive as a purchase to knitters who aren't models. Instead of the empty space and extra pictures, would rather have had written instructions for the lace patterns as well as the charts--not everyone likes charts. The diagrams of the finished garments were confusing and did not have all of the measurements they needed. Check this out of the library before buying.

My favorite rowan knitting book:
Absolutely gorgeous patterns and everything is included, from sweaters to handbags, socks, afghans, jewelry, more! and my favorite, very romantic dressing robes.

Beautiful photography:
I thought the pictures were beautiful in this book, but they didn't really show as much detail of the actual knitting as I would like. I don't think there is much in here that I'll actually knit, but I'd still recommend it for the inspiration.