Vintage Knits, 30 Knitting Designs from Rowan, softback, published by Search Press. ISBN 978-1-84448-558-1, price 14.99 from www.searchpress.com

Whilst this is an appealing book if you do not have the original first published by Rowan in 2004. Classic styles from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s are always in demand. However, although Kaffe Fassett gets top billing on the front cover, there is only one Fassett design. The majority of the 30 sweaters are patterns from Rowan’s studio designers – Kim Hargreaves and Louisa Harding, whom I always found adequate but very predictable. If you like enough of the sweaters, you’ll find this a very reasonable book, one that is nicely produced. One thing you can always say about Rowan is that the yarns, though rather pricey these days are easily obtainable.

Rowan Crochet Workshop, hardback, spiral-bound, published by Rowan. ISBN 978-1-906007-34-8, price 18.99 available from www.thegmcgroup.com

This book comes spiral bound, so pages lie flat, making it easy to use hands-free as you crochet. It is beautifully illustrated and presented with clear instructions. The type is bigger than usual and accompanies step-by-step photographs to guide you through the different stitches.

The book is arranged like a teaching course. One step at a time, with projects to test your new-found skills. I’m not too found of the projects personally, I find them a little boring. I liked the felted pots, very nice. I also thought the edgings were good. This book is not about innovation though, It is about the basics. It does include colour work and crochet in the round. You’ll find it useful if you have never crocheted before or if you need to learn how to shape a garment. This 192 page book is a good introduction to crochet.

Kaffe Fassett’s Country Garden Quilts, softback, published by Rowan. ISBN 978-1-9060-0742-3, price £17.95, available from www.thegmcgroup.com

This book brings you twenty designs from Rowan for patchwork and quilting from the hands of Kaffe himself and other designers. The designs for the book were all photographed at the late Christopher Lloyd’s garden, Dixter in Sussex. Lloyd was known for his bold use of colour in the garden. What hits you in the eye with this book, is the use of colour. The designs are fabulous and use Fassett’s materials. The reader and stitcher will have one big problem – that of choosing which design to make first. This really is a first class book with excellent design and anyone making these quilts will have lots of fun.

I just have one niggle- the photographs of the finished quilts are all at the beginning of the book and the instructions for making the quilts are all at the back. I would have preferred them to run side by side, so that you can see the finished result whilst you are making the quilt, without having to flip through the book. 

Fantabulous and glorious, masterful Fassett takes simple design and colour and makes it utterly mouthwatering.

Knitting Goes Large by Sharon Brant, softback, published by Rowan, price £16.99. ISBN 978-1-906007-43-0, available from www.thegmcgroup.com

Designed for size 16+, these knits are on the easy side. All in all it is perhaps the poorest of the Rowan books I have seen (I have not seen them all). There are several reasons for this: if you can knit, you probably are unlikely to need a knitting pattern to knit most of these. There are exceptions, but I don’t feel, overall, or should I say by and large, that the knits flatter the more voluptuous figure. 

This book is beautifully produced to the high standards one has come to expect from Rowan and utilises their popular yarns. The knits include cardigans, jackets, sweaters, tunics and tops as well as scarves, stoles and bags. A variety of stitches, styles and techniques such as cable and fair-isle are used in over 20 designs from various designers. With a generous 20cm (8″) ease of fit on some garments, these knits are very loose fit. They could, of course, provided you have the knitting skill, be adapted to smaller sizes if you wished. Instructions are clearly laid out with size charts. 

Dawn French was featured in a similar book some years ago, so this is not a new idea. The introduction includes a step-by-step guide to finding the right garment shape for you. Other useful information is given on ensuring a good fit. This does not quite press the right buttons for me but then I am a size 12 (just).