The Knitted Alphabet: How to Knit Letters from A to Z
*Starred Review* Pure graphic designers might quarrel with Haxell and Hazell’s descriptions-classification of alphabets. But knitters and sewers will welcome this extremely detailed, comprehensive, and creative look at personalizing thread-based projects. The authors take painstaking care to ensure that the 26 alphabets, a few sets of numbers, and pages of dingbats-plus (think punctuation marks and symbols used for emoticons) are not only charted; at least a handful are also produced on swatches, with a paragraph or so explaining techniques and possible hiccups, especially for novices. Though the actual alphabet patterns are more than a bit quirky—after all, how can you label five different decades as retro?—the swatches and 10 projects will boost use. It’s hard to resist a pristinely white baby blanket with a name and birth date, or a pair of wrist cuffs emblazoned with emoticons. At the end, the authors explain and illustrate more elaborate techniques, from beading to stranding, and conclude with a list of abbreviations and yarns. This inspired book is first class. --Barbara Jacobs