Knitting Essentials Vol 1 and 2
Lucy Neatby (Tradewind Knits), DVD
'Be kind to your stitches—keep them happy and they'll be good to you.' Lucy Neatby's sincere advice shows how deeply concerned she is with the welfare of both knitters and knitted stitches, and by the end of her two DVDs you too will know without a doubt what makes stitches happy and what makes them grumpy.
These DVDs (each a little over two hours long) are presented and narrated by Lucy in her pleasant, friendly voice. All the stitches and tips are clearly explained and filmed from 'the knitter's eye view'. This makes learning complex techniques like provisional cast ons and grafting much easier to grasp.
After discussing stitch mount, 'stitch abuse' and stitch construction, she covers the basics, such as standard cast ons and offs, knitting in the round, mattress stitch (which she calls 'staggering drunkenly from bar to bar') and the three-needle cast off. In order to turn us into master knitters, Lucy goes on to explain such things as an ingenious 'modified' cast-off method, a three-needle cast off for colourwork, shaping using different needle sizes, slanting increases, left-hand yarn manipulation, fixing mistakes, three kinds of double decrease and the spit splice, which was handled very elegantly. And that's just Vol 1.
Vol 2 repeats some of the information but also covers provisional cast on, how to make your cast-on edge look like a cast-off edge, working steeks, cutting your knitting and grafting. She even has a method for grafting socks for all those who hate doing kitchener stitch and a neat way of tidying the edges of cut knitting. This list doesn't include all the extra tips and tricks she offers along the way in a helpful, kind manner. You can watch the DVDs all the way through, or in bits—they are helpfully divided into chapters for different kinds of techniques. I paused the DVDs a few times to try her ideas for myself.
Both DVDs include Lucy's 'garment gallery': a display of her creations and a few brief tips on how they were made. A section called 'Small Print', containing a glossary and a biography, is aptly named—the words were very hard to read.
If the summer heat is too much for you and your knitting gets sweaty, watch someone else knit instead (and revel in the snowy scenes at the beginning of each DVD). Lucy is inspiring and amusing, and everyone can learn something from her. These are definitely worth investing in, especially for guild and group libraries.
—Sarah Golder