Book Review: A Treasury of Rowan Knits

(Reclaimed from Associated Content.)

Book Title: A Treasury of Rowan Knits

Author (editor): Stephen Sheard

Publisher: Martingale & Company (www.martingale-pub.com)

Date: 2002

ISBN: 1-56477-436-8

Pages: 285, with index

Illustrations: many full-color photos

Quote: “The consumers of the world...were willing to pay hundreds of pounds or dollars to own and wear a unique and individual garment.”

Just buying the yarn to knit some of the sweaters, as photographed for this book, would cost a hundred dollars, or ar hundred pounds, or more The Rowan brand is not applied to cheap yarns.

(The yarns shown in the book probably are not available now. To see what is available, visit https://knitrowan.com/ .)

However, you’ll probably like at least some of the 80 sweaters in this pattern book, and you don’t actually have to use Rowan yarns. In fact, some of the designs will be more unique and wonderful if you use your own stash.

In pattern books, the Rowan label has often been applied to basic sweater shapes, knitted in lightweight yarns, made distinctive by knitting in or embroidering on elaborate multicolor designs (pictures, geometric shapes, or combinations of both). However, “the Rowan look” does not really dominate this book in the way it did some of the magazines and collections from which these patterns were collected. These are the most distinctive designs for which customers wanted reprints.

There are sweaters with “the Rowan look” in this book, for those who want them. Other sweaters range from deceptively simple styles (if you use cheaper yarn to knit the almost unshaped, all-plain-knitting, drapey vest, it may curl up instead of draping) to outrageously complex (there’s a one-color pictorial design, inspired by tree bark, in which no two rows of plain-and-purl textured stitches are alike). Most of the sweaters are medium-weight and are knitted in one color. There are a few “fashion” shapes, but most of the styles are classics that peoiple will continue to want during all the years it will take to knit all the must-knit designs in this book.

(Tip: If you do use Rowan, or other expensive natural-fibre yarns, to knit an ecceentric design from this book, and it suits the wearer’s figure and complexion, don’t worry that it had been in and out of fashion years before the book was printed. It will look rich, preppy, arty, and Green forever.)

Some multicolor designs by Kaffe Fassett and friends do require at least an adventurous approach to yarn collecting. You will need twenty to fifty shades of lightweight yarn that harmonize. Materials don’t have to match exactly, since you use such small scraps of yarn that the sweater won’t be ruined if they react differently to washing and wear, but they do need to be durable, good-quality material—no rayon. These are the swearters that will look even more distinctive if you tap your own stash rather than trying to copy what Fassett, Kim Hargreaves, or Fiona McTague did, but building that stash will take time or money or both. But if you’re a knitter, that will be fun.

Other designs in this book are solid enough that you could knit them in the cheapest off-brand dime-store yarn, and they’d still look terrrific. I personally don’t like the mauve color in which the very first pattern, the baby sweater by Kim Hargreaves, was knitted. So I gave the design the acid tesrt by knitting it up in some deservingly obscure cheap acrylic yarn that came in a normal shade of pink. It looked good, and lasted about as long as the child needed it,.

There’s a lot of room for experiments in between off-brand dime-store yarn and Rowan yarn. I knitted the second pattern in this book, “Sid,” for one of my nephews, in Sirdar Denim, a nice mid-priced cotton-wool mix that doesn’t shrink as badly as Rowan Denim. The cost was about $25 for the four-year-old’s size. This pattern is written for the whole family in sizes up to a 50” chest, and you could knit the large man’s size in pure U.S. cotton (if you’re shopping in the U.S.) for about $25.

Some of these patterns just beg to be used with yarns knitters buy because we like the knitters who spin them; Manos del Uruguay, Philosopher’s Wool, Peace Fleece, or your favorite local hand spinner’s products.

If there’s ever been a knitting pattern book that was worth $40, this is it.

I have just one complaint about A Treasury of Rowan Knits. Maybe it’s a philosophical complaint. In theory we should judge patterns by the photo of the knitting, whether it’s displayed on a movie star or on a headless dummy. In practice...we don’t. Patterns photographed on professional models tend to sell better than patterns photographed on store employees. Instead of thinking, “That sweater looks good on that old lady with the light glaring on the lines in her bifocals; I could knit it for my cousin,” we think, “Why did they use a model with bifocals?” and don’t even notice the sweater.

It has to be a deliberate statement, “The Rowan Yarn Company can get away with anything,” that allowed so many visual distractions to sneak into this book. I’ve paged through my copy with people who wanted sweaters knitted for them, and they’ve been distracted from even looking at the patterns. “Why couldn’t that girl push the stray hairs out of her face?” There’s a woman sprawled across the front of a car as if it were fortunately moving very slowly when it hit her, a man and small boy glowering across the page at each other, a woman clutching her stomach and looking sick, a child obviously yelling “No!”, several girls with twigs and leaves in their long dishevelled hair, and lots of baggy eyes, chin stubble, and bare navels. Attractive models are photographed in remarkably unflattering ways.

For photographers, this book is an excellent example of how not to photograph hand-knitted sweaters. For knitters, I recommend not letting the goofball photography distract you. I’ve made only a few of the 80 sweaters in 20 years, but the patterns I tested were accurate and the designs were excellent.