What a fun book! When I saw the title about colorwork, I thought the focus would be stranded knitting, but instead this book offers a progression from simple stripes to mosaic to stranded (in the round and flat) with steaks, to entrelac, intarsia, and modular and double knitting. In addition, the introduction offers a brief introduction to color theory to help you choose colors that work together. Plus included in each of the original (and really cute!) pattern is tips about weaving in ends and finishing your project. I’m looking forward to making the Monochrome Mitts and the Chunky Hat. And the Chevron Blanket. I’m so happy to have this beautiful book in my library.

This books provides a great tour of techniques for making colorful knits. It is perfect for the knitter who has mastered basic knitting and is ready to move on to more advanced skills. Each chapter introduces a different method, and a newer knitter can use it to decide which new avenue to pursue, or try each one for a trip-around-the-world of the craft.

Thank you F+W Media and NetGalley for the review copy. This is an excellent collection of 16 projects covering the basics of knitting, color choices, and chart reading. It starts with simple stripes and moves through a variety of techniques including stranded colorwork, intarsia, double knitting, etc. The pictures are helpful, and both English and Continental styles are addressed.

Beginners Guide to Colowork Knitting
by Ella Austin

If you’ve already mastered your two basic stitches, you are ready to build on it. With this book you will learn more about yarns, needle sizes and chart reading. More tools will be needed for these projects. As you work your way through the projects you will learn new techniques with color changes and new stitches. You will find many beautiful photos to help detail stitches making it easier to follow. Included are many fun projects from shawls and socks to blankets and pillows.

I recommend this book if you’re looking to gain more experience in Knitting.
My first project I Look forward to do is the socks!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#Netgalley

I wasn't super impressed with this book, but I am also someone who doesn't see how stockinette stripes count as colorwork.

Very nice collection of patterns and tutorials for a variety of colorwork knits. Will definitely purchase for myself when it comes out!

This book is a must for beginner knitters. Great instructions. Great illustrations. Would be a welcome addition to the library of an experienced knitter also. One of the best color work books i have read. Will be a part of my knitting library for sure.

Project based learning is generally effective, where instead of learning many disjointed details, we learn how to put them together. These 16 projects are beautifully illustrated, they have good instructions. This book is a good reference resource for beginners, and those who knit well but not on a daily basis, because there are good interesting techniques mentioned there. The colorwork is extensive, you will not be disappointed!

Liz's four rules for a knock-out knitting book:

1. Don't skimp on the pictures! Take them outside, for starters, and do it somewhere gorgeous and simple.

2. Feel with your eyes. Make sure the textures come to life. I want to feel gossamer laces between my fingers, caress the delightfully full and smooth touch of silk and the sturdy crunch of wool simply by looking.

3. Balance the pictures with a well composed layout. Keep it simple (my eyes aren't as young as they used to be.) Guide me with a grand font, keep me turning the pages, and reassure me nothing has been left out.

4. Make sure it's something I'd trash that wooden bowl thing on the coffee table for. If I'd leave it in the centre of the table for everyone who came through my door to see because I want them all to know about it, you've put together something special.

5. (I know, right!) Make me want to put confidence in my craft and pick up "real yarn" to realize everything the book has inspired in me.

Ella Austin's Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting earns points for me in all four (five) categories. I found it an indispensable resource on basic colour theory. I usually find a variegated that I a) like, and b) has a matching solid. The book gives an easy to understand why when it comes to mixing colours and tones to come up with a balanced and beautiful palette.

I also look for a knitting book that will enhance the skills and resources I already have; one which will fit in to my way of doing things without forcing me to re-write anything. I was able to enhance my understanding of steeking and double-knit with an online video, then jump back to the book to help reinforce my understanding.

A great addition to anyone's knitting library. The pictures are beautiful and the patterns are easy to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my review copy.

This book explains all the techniques of colorwork knitting AND has 16 wonderful patterns. There are very clear directions with lots of diagrams showing the work process. Each of the projects has one or more tutorials on how to do a particular technique needed for the project. Many of the projects are relatively small (washcloths, hats, mug cozy, cowl, mitts) so that you can complete it in a short time while trying out a new technique. There are clear directions for cast on, cast off, Kitchener stitch, increasing and decreasing stitches, double knitting, intarsia, pom poms, tassels, etcetera, making it a very useful reference book in addition to the great patterns.

I thank F&W Media and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book to write an honest review.

Very well written and thought out book. The patterns are put together well and up to date. The colors are vibrant and very appealing.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ella Austin and Sewandso Publications for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

At first glance there didn’t seem to be too much to this book. I have read quite a few books on colour knitting as of late and most have been disappointing. The patterns in this book were okay, some were things I liked and would want to knit, but there didn’t seem to be enough ones I liked to warrant buying the whole book. But as I started to read through I realized that Austin has done an incredible job as far as giving thorough explanations and explicit diagrams. Every detail including finishing techniques, combining different colours, creating beautiful colour patterns and intricate colour techniques are explained in such an easy and clear manner even things I already knew how to do seemed clearer and made more sense to me. The diagrams are also unique in that they show exactly what she is talking about. I’m not sure if it is just more steps or a different way of showing them, but again, even things I have been doing seemed easier to understand.

Even though there are some patterns I might not be interested in, I think I would make every pattern in the book because Austin has a step by step plan of increasing your colour work skills. Each pattern adds one more skill and I think it is worth the practice. There is an opening section describing colour, how they work together, which ones are warm or cool, different hues, etc. and to be honest, I only understood some of it. The easier concepts I understood but it got too technical or complicated for me. If I were planning my own colour work project from scratch, I would have to go back and use it as a reference to see if they worked together properly. I don’t really feel confident on that part. However, because Austin has explained how the colours work in each project, I would be more comfortable starting with colour substitutions for the patterns. She does an excellent job of combining theory with practice with lots of tutorials. There is also the prerequisite chapters on needles, stitches, reading charts and anything else that you would need in order to make any of her patterns.

I have always shied away from colour projects but I think with this book I would feel comfortable adding this technique to my knitting.

Most knitting books start by explaining the basic's of knitting: the different needle sizes and yarn weights, etc. This book started with color work and how to best chose the right color yarn for your knitting before then going into the basic's of knitting. I didn't get a chance to actually knit any of the patterns, but they seemed nicely laid out and even explained how to change colors.

Without a doubt this is the best knitting book I have ever read. This is the book I wish I'd been given along with my first set of needles. I have been knitting many different types of colourwork for years and I still learned so much from this book. It is for beginners in that the techniques are clearly explained and pictured and easy to follow. However it also covers seriously advanced things that have previously sent me running and screaming from a pattern - steeking! The patterns are lovely and perfect for trying all these new techniques. I honestly feel I can accomplish anything with this book at my side and I need a hard copy as soon as possible.

Wow! This is a fabulous book, full of colour, knitting techniques and projects. There are 22 projects, starting with very simple and quick colour work knitted items, each highlights techniques and method of knitting to get a professional finish.
Although this is a beginners book, the result achieved are ones that an advanced knitter would be proud of. Well illustrated with good explanation and plenty of photographs and drawings.
Firstly there are the simple items using stripes, then slipped stitched, stranded colour work, to a little more difficult intarsia to double knitting, modular and finally entrelac, all are covered in this wonderful book.
If you are a beginner or advanced knitter, love colour and want to extend your skills this is definitely a book to buy.

I loved the way this book begins by giving an explanation of colours before it even starts on the knitting. The instructions and techniques are clear, easy to understand and the pictures really illustrate what you should be aiming to achieve. I’m really looking forward to taking my knitting up a level with this wonderful book.

The Beginner’s Guide To Colorwork by Ella Austin

Okay, I'll admit it. Even though I've been knitting for over 30 years, I still find colorwork intimidating. Not simple stitches or patterns using stripes or slipped stitches but the more complex types of colorwork. Multiple strand techniques and entrelac are something that I admire, but I've never felt quite comfortable doing. So I couldn't quite resist this book.

The book is structured into 22 tutorials and 16 colorwork projects. As you would imagine, things start off simply with a simple striped scarf and a chevron blanket. The author details with good photography how to change colors and how to weave in your ends on different types of stitches in the early tutorials. She moves on from stripes to slip stitches to stranded colorwork, ending with more complex techniques like intarsia and entrelac. Projects are varied: hats, socks, mitts, mug cozies, buntings, scarves, bags, washcloths, shawls, and even a cushion. As you might imagine from the list of project types, while this might be a beginner's guide to working with color, it is not a book for knitting novices. The complexity socks and mitts with thumbs--as well as scary techniques like steeking--require more than a beginner's skill in knitting. I would say that you need to be at least an intermediate level to get the most out of this book. Of course, even beginners will be helped to learn the basics of colorwork and perhaps will be inspired to continue knitting so they will one day be able to do some of the more complex projects in this book.

The tutorials are scattered throughout the entire text, and there is also general information in the front about choosing colors, yarn, tools, and reading charts and in the back about getting started, basic stitches, and basic and advanced techniques. There is also a section at the beginning that discusses the concepts involved in color like saturation and hue.

There are a couple of things I found strange about the book. While the title uses American English for the spelling of colorwork, throughout the book itself colorwork and other words use British English spellings; I’m a copyeditor, so I say: pick a style, and be consistent. More odd is that the tutorials for a given project come after the project, not before. To me, it makes more sense to put the tutorial in front of the project that requires that information. I do think that the book would be better organized if the tutorials came before the relevant project, especially for projects using the more difficult techniques like steeking, intarsia, and the first forays into stranded colorwork.

All in all, though, I found this to be a work that would encourage timid colorwork knitters like me to grab their needles and forge ahead into new techniques … and possibilities.

I liked most of this book, the instructions are clear although you have to go to the back of the book for abbreviation definitions, they're not included in the knitting patterns, except for s1wyif and s1wyib which are explained in the pattern. I also found the entrelac knitting to be totally confusing. Most of the book has me encouraged to try more colorwork in my knitting. #BeginnersGuideToColorworkKnitting #NetGalley

This book will be a great addition to your craft library. It is beautifully illustrated with simple directions for a wide variety of projects that involve colorwork knitting. There are 16 projects with various skill levels. From socks to hats to sweaters you'll find something that will appeal to you even if you know only basic knitting. It gives very good instructions for chart reading, important for colorwork projects. Ella Austin gives the reader the confidence to start a colorwork project. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting by Ella Austin brings together 16 projects and techniques to learn to knit with color. The author designs patterns for magazines and yarn companies from her home in Devon, UK. The book contains knitting patterns for a scarf, blanket, socks, cushion, washcloths, bag, mitts, shawl, hats, mug cozy, tassel bunting, cowl and a wrap. Especially important for a knitter new to colorwork is the choice of colors: by hue, value and saturation. Also important for colorworking is the ability to read charts. The author covers both subjects as well as reviews basic and advanced knitting techniques. The book contains numerous photos detailing charts, techniques and finished items. This is a great introductory tool for anyone attempting to venture into colorwork. Thank you to F + W Media and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.