Book review: Disillusionment
When I first saw Folk Hats: 32 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World, by Vicki Square, in a yarn catalog, I was very intrigued by the bird-topped hat on the cover I mean, look at it--it's a hat with a blue bird perched on top of it. How cool is that?
This book immediately made its way onto my to-get list. Never mind the fact that I had no idea what the rest of the patterns were like. The book had a hat with a blue bird on top of it. That's all I needed to know.
Then last spring I happened upon another book in Square's Folk Knitting series, Folk Bags: 30 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World, at my local library and brought it home with me. While paging through it, I quickly realized that Square's patterns, though very well written and beautifully thought out, were not the kind of knitting I wanted to do. A few of the bags looked like something I might use, but most of them were, well, a bit too "artsy." They look like knitted adaptations of stuff one might find in an ethnological museum--which is probably what Square intended. But when I knit, I want to create stuff that I (or someone else, if it's a gift) will actually use, not something that's mostly decorative.
So when I finally got my hands on Folk Hats at the library, I was worried that I might be disappointed with it in the same way I was disappointed with Folk Bags. Sigh. And I was.
Most of the hats in this collection are based on hats from different cultures in the world, and these look like knit versions of hats that are often made of materials such as cloth, felt, leather; some of the hats in this book are merely "inspired" by different cultures, and these look like strange creatures. (I'm sorry, but a knitted baseball cap is just wrong. And a knitted samurai kabuto looks silly.) Many of the hats are quite beautiful and look like great fun to create, especially the ones with stunning colorwork or elaborate trims. But most of them don't look particularly wearable--that is, I just can't imagine people actually going out in public with most of these concoctions on their heads.
As for the hat with the blue bird on the top...well, this piece inspired by the headgear worn by the Yoruba of Nigera is still my favorite pattern in the book. Would I knit it? Maybe. Would I wear it? Maybe. Would I buy a book for it? With a limited budget for yarn and book acquisitions--and limited time in which to knit the nine million projects on my to-do list--probably not.
This book immediately made its way onto my to-get list. Never mind the fact that I had no idea what the rest of the patterns were like. The book had a hat with a blue bird on top of it. That's all I needed to know.
Then last spring I happened upon another book in Square's Folk Knitting series, Folk Bags: 30 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World, at my local library and brought it home with me. While paging through it, I quickly realized that Square's patterns, though very well written and beautifully thought out, were not the kind of knitting I wanted to do. A few of the bags looked like something I might use, but most of them were, well, a bit too "artsy." They look like knitted adaptations of stuff one might find in an ethnological museum--which is probably what Square intended. But when I knit, I want to create stuff that I (or someone else, if it's a gift) will actually use, not something that's mostly decorative.
So when I finally got my hands on Folk Hats at the library, I was worried that I might be disappointed with it in the same way I was disappointed with Folk Bags. Sigh. And I was.
Most of the hats in this collection are based on hats from different cultures in the world, and these look like knit versions of hats that are often made of materials such as cloth, felt, leather; some of the hats in this book are merely "inspired" by different cultures, and these look like strange creatures. (I'm sorry, but a knitted baseball cap is just wrong. And a knitted samurai kabuto looks silly.) Many of the hats are quite beautiful and look like great fun to create, especially the ones with stunning colorwork or elaborate trims. But most of them don't look particularly wearable--that is, I just can't imagine people actually going out in public with most of these concoctions on their heads.
As for the hat with the blue bird on the top...well, this piece inspired by the headgear worn by the Yoruba of Nigera is still my favorite pattern in the book. Would I knit it? Maybe. Would I wear it? Maybe. Would I buy a book for it? With a limited budget for yarn and book acquisitions--and limited time in which to knit the nine million projects on my to-do list--probably not.
1 Comments:
It's always sad when you go in wanting to like it, but you just can't.
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