Books

I lusted after this book for weeks on end before I took the plunge. Maggie Jackson's designs are mind-bending in many good ways. The photos of Ireland are delicious, yet there's just enough over-the-top giddiness about celebrating it all that it ends up being silly. There are photos of the caterer for the project. Maybe I've just become dour in my middle age. It has the Xenakis touch, always lush, and perhaps it's he who makes sure that there's a bit of the behind the cameras scene brought into the work itself.

Anyway, the way that Maggie puts together fabrics and embellishments is worth study. I simply adore the way that she creates many textures within a fabric, using stitches and attached thingies. Between the various slits, holes and attached thingies there are endlessly attractive pieces. There are also some things I consider just plain weird, but I like weird. Especially because so much knitted design is the same, with very fearful people who don't seem to be able to think of much outside what's already been done a million times. Yay, Maggie! The book goes through various colorways so that each chapter has its own color theme. I enjoyed savoring the effects of each color and how the various types of yarn that Maggie produces look in the various colors. There's a good variety of garments too, so it's not just sweaters and more sweaters. I also like the way she uses diagrammatic illustrations. For some reason, I always get a boost in understanding the garment construction when I see these diagrams. Maybe it's from my sewing background. They complement the photographs and really give a great sense of her design thinking.

Here's the full citation: Maggie's Ireland: Designer Knits on Location
by Maggie Jackson, April 2004 Wyrick & Company ISBN:1-893762-18-1 Hardcover (Trade Cloth)168p $37.95

I was wandering around in a nearby knit shop in the Berkshires very early this past spring, Colorful Stitches, and found a MaggiKnits kit, on sale for $285.00. It had been marked down from $400.00