What I read: Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman & Mel Clarke
I was sitting in my local bookshop the other day, looking at craft books, and I came across Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clarke. Well, really, it is by Mel Clarke, with commentary by Tracey Ullman, which is fine. Clarke has some great patterns in this book, that look hard but probably aren’t and that is where Ullman comes in. She has been knitting for 3 years under Clarke’s tutelage at a yarn shop in Santa Monica, CA, and has stories of making all sorts of mistakes that she asked Clarke to help her fix. Ullman and Clarke seem like sort of an odd couple: Tracey’s writing is big and boisterous and excited and Clarke seems more reserved and steady — the difference in their personalities is noticeable even in the pictures. But it saves the book from being like other celebrity knitting books, full of patterns few people would actually wear. Ullman is sort of there to be like “If I can make this, anyone can make this,” and also to make sure that patterns she really wants to see get put in — like skirts, which Ullman says there aren’t enough of in knitting books, and I agree. Like all knitting books, there were some patterns I liked and some I thought were horrible ideas.
But my favorite, favorite thing in the book, that I absolutely can’t wait to make (I know, I have a lot of other projects going on) is the Gym Slip Dress and the knicker-style shorts that go with it. I don’t know what hellish New Zealand educational institution Clarke was in where she was forced to wear an uglier version of this, but I am grateful that it inspired this knitting pattern. I hope it was therapeutic for her as well. I definitely want it to be my next big project, even though I am going to have to buy a ton of yarn for it.
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