It's time for another book review! This time it is one of the books I received for Christmas: Big Girl Knits by Jillian Moreno and Amy R. Singer. I asked for this book because I had seen some very nice looking stuff from it on Ravelry, and knew that I needed to check the book out for myself. 
Photo from Random House website.
Now, if you follow me on Twitter, you know that last week I tweeted that I had a knitting book bring a tear to my eye. It was this book! I know, I know, it sounds totally crazy, but as I read through the 25+ pages at the start of the book about shaping and how to make things look good on your body it just all made sense. I wondered where this book has been all my knitting life. There is so much info on measuring and how to adapt patterns for shaping to make them look good on your body.
After all the squeeing over the shaping and stuff, I finally took a look at the patterns. And, there are a lot of them! The pattern section includes Pullovers, Cardigans & Coats, Tanks & Shells, Bottoms, and Accessories. Some of my faves were the Lift & Separate Cardigan by Amy M. Swenson, Bombshell by Stefanie Japel, and Cherry Bomb by Joan McGowan-Michael. I know there is a Bombshell sweater in my near future. It's that awesome.
I also really really appreciated that there were a couple pages dedicated to making socks fit your feet and calves. While I don't personally have an issue with the usual socks knitting patterns fitting my feet (other than I always have to knit the foot for like a million inches due to my size 11 foot!), I know there are lots of plus size ladies who struggle with making well-fitted socks. Problem solved if you follow some of the tips in this book.
Overall, I think this is a great book. I truly mean it when I say that the book is worth it just for the measuring and shaping sections. The cute patterns really are the icing on the cake. I think all larger ladies could benefit from having this book.
