25 Bags to Knit: Beautiful Bags in Stylish Colors

Rating:
Summary: A stylish presentation of over twenty hand-knitted bags
Review: 25 Bags To Knit: Beautiful Bags In Stylish Colors is a stylish presentation of over twenty hand-knitted bags in a range of styles, shades and stitches includes a workshop section on basics of yarns, linings and techniques, color photos throughout, charts and plenty of tips for easy reproduction of patterns. Knitters who wish to make colorful, useful and varied bags receive all they need for fine reproductions, from materials lists and explanations of knitter's abbreviations to advice on gauge and needles. 25 Bags To Knit is a welcome and recommended addition to the dedicated needlecrafter's reference and project collection.


Rating:
Summary: 26 Boring Pouches to Knit
Review: Because this book is authored by a "Rowan consultant", I thought it was safe to buy sight unseen. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The book contains "patterns" for 26 bags consisting of two squares or rectangles sewn together. Mostly the patterns call for stripes, although some use bobbles, cables, sequins, beads, intarsia hearts, knitted flowers, or embroidered flowers as variations. The yarn color selections for the pouches are generally poor, and even the addition of metallic Rowan lurex yarn fails to add pizzazz.

Accompanying "how-to" material is pretty much unrelated to specific problems of knitted bags. For example, there appears to be nothing about linings.

If you want to knit bags, a much better selection would be PURSENALITIES by Eva Weichmann. Weichmann's book has patterns for handbags of varying shapes and sizes, including some that are felted.

Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: I have to agree with the other reviewers and say that this book was a big disappointment. While there are a couple of bags that are very cute most aren't all that original. While it is called 25 Bags to Knit and there are probably 25 bags in the book a few of them looked identical to me but in different colors. I did like how it was spiral bound to lay flat and some of the knitting tutorials were good (with good photos) but I wasn't all that inspired really by the bags themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Great Bag Book
Review: I just received this book for Christmas. Discouraged by the reviews that I read on line for this book, I checked it out at my local bookstore first. I think that it offers me a great variety of styles and designs from everyday bags to drawstring totes to evening bags. The examples given are made up in some great yarns and use a variety of interesting stitches. I'm a librarian as well as a knitter. I can hardly wait to get started!!

Rating:
Summary: what the...?
Review: This book has maybe 5 designs total. Then everything else is a variation of the same kind (different color, slightly different proportions, etc). The photos are great, but the contents are extrememly substandard.

Rating:
Summary: Sorry! Not something anybody needs.
Review: This one is going back to Amazon. If you can knit a patch, bind it, fold it in half, sew the sides together, and attach a handle, you don't need this book. That is the gist of almost every pattern. There is some beadwork in it also, but I can tell you how to do that right now for free. String the beads onto the yarn first, then knit. Push them forward, out of your way, as you go. When it's time to put one in, pull it into place. I think this book didn't need to be made. Certainly, it's not reflective of what this designer can do. I'm still in the market for a bags book.