Knits Extraordinaire: 17 Season-Spanning Fashions

In this book, Russian-born knitwear designer Maikon offers 17 women's garments, from casual street wear to evening attire. Most of the projects are suitable for the beginning and intermediate knitter and should look good on a variety of body shapes, though the styles are skewed towards a younger, urban set. The instructions are cleanly and clearly laid out on the page and explained in standard knitting shorthand. The schematics are a bit skimpy, and more details would help the knitter achieve a better fit, but the photographs that accompany the projects are both attractive and informative. Indeed, one of the real beauties of this book is a wealth of up-close photographs that illustrate knitting techniques and stitches, step by step%E2%80%94a great boon for the novice knitter. Some of the designs really sing; it's hard to design a really good-looking knitted dress or a truly flattering knitted skirt, and Maikon has done both. There are some duds (should anyone really wear knitted shorts?), but the majority of the projects are stylish and alluring. Maikon has an instinctive understanding of how different yarns will drape, cling and shape the female body, instilling these designs%E2%80%94and the book%E2%80%94with a sense of lasting style. Photos. (Nov.)