This book has many good points to it. The authors have been generous with their excellent photos, which let you get a close look at what they're illustrating. The explanations make sense, and the breadth of the book is impressive, with something new for almost any reader of any experience level.

I don't think this would be a good book for a beginning knitter, though, or at least not a beginner's only book. The authors swing back and forth between writing for beginners and writing for knitters with some experience, and there's no clear division between the two. For instance, the first three chapters describe yarns, needles, and how to read patterns. Chapter 4 begins with the knit stitch and the purl stitch, but by the end of the chapter, the authors have covered twisted stitches, slipped stitches, cabling, and fixing mistakes, including picking up dropped stitches. But casting on, which you need to do before anything in Chapter 4, isn't introduced until Chapter 5. Nor would I consider the patterns suitable for beginners. The sweaters (one of which is an Aran with all sorts of lovely cables on it) are each presented in only one size, so that you can learn how to resize a pattern—hardly beginning material! Other patterns include a lace scarf, double-knit mittens, and socks done in stranded (Fair Isle) knitting. Perhaps intermediate to advanced knitters will get the most immediate practical use out of the book, while beginning knitters can look to it as inspiration for what they'll eventually be able to accomplish. ( )