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What Would Madame Defarge Knit? #1
What Would Madame Defarge Knit?
What Would Madame Defarge Knit? is a delightful literary-inspired romp edited by CraftLit podcast creator Heather Ordover. With 21 patterns and a special kid-friendly project, too, this book is 200+ pages of patterns and accompanying essays based on classic characters from literature. An accompanying website contains additional content, such as video links, links to audio content, and more. "I love this book! A delight in literature, crafts, friendship, and creativity is channeled through original knitting patterns. It took me on a journey of sharing, joy, discovery, and whimsy that left me exhilarated. It's like CraftLit in a book!" - Julie Davis, Forgotten Classics podcast
- GenresKnittingCraftsNonfiction
202 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2011
2 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Heather Ordover
10 books123 followersWriter of books—What Would Madame Defarge Knit, What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit, Defarge Does Shakespeare, and Grounded: The Seven, book 1, teacher of things, and Caster of Pods (at Craftlit.com).
She lives, teaches, and writes in Eastern PA with her bemused husband, two goofy sons, sly cat, a few frogs, and many, many ka-honking geese.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 9, 2011
It's is a set of essays reflecting on classic literature.
It's a knitting pattern book.
Perhaps surprisingly, it functions beautifully as both.
It takes a special group of book-loving knitters to latch onto A Tale of Two Cities and ask, "Just what was Madame Defarge knitting? Is there a pattern? Let's make one!" What makes the book work ultimately is that editor and writer Heather Ordover pulls it all together and imbues it with the joy of curiosity, discovery, and whimsy.
Ordover is best known to book-loving knitters as the host of the CraftLit* podcast where literature and knitting gracefully combine. As much as I love the podcast, I would have thought it impossible to get it into a book. I would have been wrong.
The literature ranges from A Tale of Two Cities to The Wizard of Oz to Lysistrata to The Call of Cthulhu. The essays are thoughtful pieces divided into three groups: What I Did for Love, Song of the Sea, and Women of Valor. A variety of approaches contemplative, some are analytical, some humorous, and some are resigned to loving tentacles wherever they appear, but all mirror the same passion for story.
Is there such a thing as a book report done in knitting? The patterns which accompany each essay range from simple to complex and reflect the literature very well. Projects range from Hyde's Hooded Sweater to an Ancient Mariner Watch Cap to Not-So-Ruby Slippers to Madame Defarge's Stole (and thus we discover what Madame Defarge was knitting). If you don't knit, there are other crafts included. I especially liked the Mermaid's Lagoon shadow puppets which included the crocodile.
Food and drink are available also, albeit via links to the book's website. Tips are scattered throughout to help with such challenges as crisp stripes, cabling without a cable needle, and attaching LED neckbolts (a tip that everyone will be sure to appreciate).
It is not a perfect book but the problems are those that most readers probably will not mind as much as I do. Yes, my crochety side is emerging. As a design professional, I found the book layout a touch problematic but I won't harp on that since it was done by a small, independent press and I'm inclined to give them a pass and salute the effort that allows books like this to see the light of day. (I do mention it because ... I'm crochety!) As a knitter, however, I do wish there was better formatting of instructions. Glancing at other knitting books or even magazines would give a hint of how to help the eye catch lines of instruction without wasting space.
Another problem is that many items are found online rather than included in the book. This includes food and drink recipes, photographs, and some other features. To be fair, some readers love this, or so I have read on Ravelry. Others, like me, would prefer it all in one place. The reason for the on-line portions was to keep the book affordable. However, I would have preferred to pay more and have everything included in the book. I am not going to stop reading and look online. Just ain't gonna happen. Also, I think of what happens if my girls inherit this book and thirty years from now are paging through, looking for just how the back of that Jane Eyre shawl knits up. Will formats have changed, CraftLit no longer be with us (sob), and the times have moved on past when anyone would look online? (La, dear, how archaic!) The book is incomplete without all the trimmings in my opinion.
That said, those trimmings are just that ... extra bits. We can find recipes elsewhere and the charming wood cut illustrations do give some hint of how the overall piece should look. As to the other details, well that's where creativity will reign.
In other words, don't let my carping keep you from buying this wonderful book.
What Would Madame Defarge Knit gives us a wide variety of voices all mirroring the same love of literature, crafts, friendship, and creativity. It is an unlikely combination, but it works. You'll have a long reading list and a long knitting/crafts list to work from when you're done reading it. Highly recommended.
It's a knitting pattern book.
Perhaps surprisingly, it functions beautifully as both.
It takes a special group of book-loving knitters to latch onto A Tale of Two Cities and ask, "Just what was Madame Defarge knitting? Is there a pattern? Let's make one!" What makes the book work ultimately is that editor and writer Heather Ordover pulls it all together and imbues it with the joy of curiosity, discovery, and whimsy.
Ordover is best known to book-loving knitters as the host of the CraftLit* podcast where literature and knitting gracefully combine. As much as I love the podcast, I would have thought it impossible to get it into a book. I would have been wrong.
The literature ranges from A Tale of Two Cities to The Wizard of Oz to Lysistrata to The Call of Cthulhu. The essays are thoughtful pieces divided into three groups: What I Did for Love, Song of the Sea, and Women of Valor. A variety of approaches contemplative, some are analytical, some humorous, and some are resigned to loving tentacles wherever they appear, but all mirror the same passion for story.
Is there such a thing as a book report done in knitting? The patterns which accompany each essay range from simple to complex and reflect the literature very well. Projects range from Hyde's Hooded Sweater to an Ancient Mariner Watch Cap to Not-So-Ruby Slippers to Madame Defarge's Stole (and thus we discover what Madame Defarge was knitting). If you don't knit, there are other crafts included. I especially liked the Mermaid's Lagoon shadow puppets which included the crocodile.
Food and drink are available also, albeit via links to the book's website. Tips are scattered throughout to help with such challenges as crisp stripes, cabling without a cable needle, and attaching LED neckbolts (a tip that everyone will be sure to appreciate).
It is not a perfect book but the problems are those that most readers probably will not mind as much as I do. Yes, my crochety side is emerging. As a design professional, I found the book layout a touch problematic but I won't harp on that since it was done by a small, independent press and I'm inclined to give them a pass and salute the effort that allows books like this to see the light of day. (I do mention it because ... I'm crochety!) As a knitter, however, I do wish there was better formatting of instructions. Glancing at other knitting books or even magazines would give a hint of how to help the eye catch lines of instruction without wasting space.
Another problem is that many items are found online rather than included in the book. This includes food and drink recipes, photographs, and some other features. To be fair, some readers love this, or so I have read on Ravelry. Others, like me, would prefer it all in one place. The reason for the on-line portions was to keep the book affordable. However, I would have preferred to pay more and have everything included in the book. I am not going to stop reading and look online. Just ain't gonna happen. Also, I think of what happens if my girls inherit this book and thirty years from now are paging through, looking for just how the back of that Jane Eyre shawl knits up. Will formats have changed, CraftLit no longer be with us (sob), and the times have moved on past when anyone would look online? (La, dear, how archaic!) The book is incomplete without all the trimmings in my opinion.
That said, those trimmings are just that ... extra bits. We can find recipes elsewhere and the charming wood cut illustrations do give some hint of how the overall piece should look. As to the other details, well that's where creativity will reign.
In other words, don't let my carping keep you from buying this wonderful book.
What Would Madame Defarge Knit gives us a wide variety of voices all mirroring the same love of literature, crafts, friendship, and creativity. It is an unlikely combination, but it works. You'll have a long reading list and a long knitting/crafts list to work from when you're done reading it. Highly recommended.
September 30, 2011
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, because this is a book of knitting patterns inspired by classic literature. We have a cap for the Ancient Mariner, a mobius hood for the mad woman in the attic, and (knitting project of all knitting projects) Madame Defarge's revolutionary shroud, encoded with secret messages. To state the obvious, this is a seriously cool book of patterns -- one providing some much-needed inspiration for me to move beyond my namby pamby beginner knits toward the world of knitting charts, lace, cables, and secret codes.
WWMDFK is more than a collection of knitting patterns, though. It's also a book of essays, as knitters contemplate the role of loneliness in Frankenstein, the binary opposition of good and evil in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the revolutionary-inspired blood-lust of Madame Defarge herself. Lest you assume essays appearing in a book of knitting patterns are probably for casual readers only, please note that the book's first appendix is a concordance cross-referencing Jane Eyre's need for a shawl with important turning points in the novel.
So this book is for the bookish, to help feed our text-inspired fiber-lust. The best of times, yes.
WWMDFK is more than a collection of knitting patterns, though. It's also a book of essays, as knitters contemplate the role of loneliness in Frankenstein, the binary opposition of good and evil in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the revolutionary-inspired blood-lust of Madame Defarge herself. Lest you assume essays appearing in a book of knitting patterns are probably for casual readers only, please note that the book's first appendix is a concordance cross-referencing Jane Eyre's need for a shawl with important turning points in the novel.
So this book is for the bookish, to help feed our text-inspired fiber-lust. The best of times, yes.
June 11, 2011
What a great book! Beautiful patterns, fun text, and web extras to boot! It's exactly the high quality I expected from a project put together by Heather Ordover.
Speaking of which, my copy was autographed by Heather Ordover, at the Printers Row Lit Fest, Chicago, 6/05/11. Thank you, Loopy Yarns!
Speaking of which, my copy was autographed by Heather Ordover, at the Printers Row Lit Fest, Chicago, 6/05/11. Thank you, Loopy Yarns!
October 6, 2011
I love this book. What a great idea, knitting and crochet patterns inspired by famous characters from literature. I love that the designers have given a background to the story and the character they were inspired by.
Warning, you will come away with not only a 'to knit' list but a 'to read' list as well but fear not, you can always search out www.craftlit.com and listen to the book whilst you knit :-)
Warning, you will come away with not only a 'to knit' list but a 'to read' list as well but fear not, you can always search out www.craftlit.com and listen to the book whilst you knit :-)
October 25, 2019
The only thing that left this as 4 stars was the lack of photos, which meant cross-referencing with Ravelry to see the patterns clearly. I would have been there anyway though, as many of the patterns found their way onto my queue!
October 20, 2011
A staggering work of genius. Whoda thunk it?
July 12, 2011
This collection is very different from just about every other knitting and crochet book that's been published.
Where to begin? It is full of awesome and there are good things found within and beyond the slender volume. I know that I'm going to leave out something important.
Heather is the host of CraftLit, a podcast of 200 episodes and counting that draws upon her combined loves and experiences of crafting and teaching literature.
Cooperative Press is the brainchild of Shannon Okey. An objective of Cooperative Press is to make sure that the designer contributors to a pattern collection are compensated fairly without taking away what the knitter* needs to successfully create their own interpretations of the designs.
To that end WWMDfK has opted to go an original route -- in the pages you will not see colour photos of models displaying the patterns but the beautiful line drawings of Jen Minnis which illustrate how each garment, or object look. By lowering printing costs and taking the experience beyond the pages of the book, you get to experience the essays, the patterns, the recipes on a more vibrant level.
This is where the book shines without forcing you just to Ravelry (which is awesome in its own right but the topic of another discussion). It takes advantage of many of the modern multi-media options available to us today through this awesome thing, the internet.
For example, if you go to the book website you gain colour photos, additional resources and links for everything from how to make a picot bind-off to gluten-free shortbread. Additionally if there's a a large lace chart or much more additional information that would make a whole book by itself, you can check out the WWMDfK links.
If you have a copy of the ebook and an internet-enabled device you are reading it with, then the links are live and you can view all of this from within your book. Well, not totally, as applications will probably launch to view the links, but how often have you looked at an index in a book and wanted to touch the page number and magic! you are there? That's what this experience is like.
Also, non-knitters do not dispair, beyond the inspiring essays, this is a craft book and not just one of knitting. Inside the covers (digital or print) you will find other crafty goodness inside.
I have a few small quibbles about layout of the book and some aspects of the website, however, these are all things that I personally would do differently and they are nothing to keep me from using the book or buying additional titles from Cooperative Press. The concept that Heather and Shannon have realized rocks my world.
Two things I will point out are that when you get your electronic copy of the book, please know that this does not (currently) include the additional charts listed on the website. You still need to visit the WWMDfK book website and download them. Wait! Don't get up in arms. While it is somewhat easy to save as and magically poof you have an ebook that can be emailed to someone, to add in all the additional charts and distribute that enhanced copy which is full of more than the print, or to send/allow for download all the additional charts is not that easy.
Second, the text of the pages can be dense (like this review) and while there are headings to direct you to parts of the pattern (for example, cuff; unlike this post) they are not bolded or emphasized in any great manner. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of life.
* yes I am using the term knitter in the broad sense of those who knit, crochet, embroider, make things by hand.
Disclaimer: I assist Heather with the technical aspects of many, but not all of her websites and am compensated in handknit socks. I purchased my copies of the book.
This review appeared first appeared on my site Penguin Girl.
Where to begin? It is full of awesome and there are good things found within and beyond the slender volume. I know that I'm going to leave out something important.
Heather is the host of CraftLit, a podcast of 200 episodes and counting that draws upon her combined loves and experiences of crafting and teaching literature.
Cooperative Press is the brainchild of Shannon Okey. An objective of Cooperative Press is to make sure that the designer contributors to a pattern collection are compensated fairly without taking away what the knitter* needs to successfully create their own interpretations of the designs.
To that end WWMDfK has opted to go an original route -- in the pages you will not see colour photos of models displaying the patterns but the beautiful line drawings of Jen Minnis which illustrate how each garment, or object look. By lowering printing costs and taking the experience beyond the pages of the book, you get to experience the essays, the patterns, the recipes on a more vibrant level.
This is where the book shines without forcing you just to Ravelry (which is awesome in its own right but the topic of another discussion). It takes advantage of many of the modern multi-media options available to us today through this awesome thing, the internet.
For example, if you go to the book website you gain colour photos, additional resources and links for everything from how to make a picot bind-off to gluten-free shortbread. Additionally if there's a a large lace chart or much more additional information that would make a whole book by itself, you can check out the WWMDfK links.
If you have a copy of the ebook and an internet-enabled device you are reading it with, then the links are live and you can view all of this from within your book. Well, not totally, as applications will probably launch to view the links, but how often have you looked at an index in a book and wanted to touch the page number and magic! you are there? That's what this experience is like.
Also, non-knitters do not dispair, beyond the inspiring essays, this is a craft book and not just one of knitting. Inside the covers (digital or print) you will find other crafty goodness inside.
I have a few small quibbles about layout of the book and some aspects of the website, however, these are all things that I personally would do differently and they are nothing to keep me from using the book or buying additional titles from Cooperative Press. The concept that Heather and Shannon have realized rocks my world.
Two things I will point out are that when you get your electronic copy of the book, please know that this does not (currently) include the additional charts listed on the website. You still need to visit the WWMDfK book website and download them. Wait! Don't get up in arms. While it is somewhat easy to save as and magically poof you have an ebook that can be emailed to someone, to add in all the additional charts and distribute that enhanced copy which is full of more than the print, or to send/allow for download all the additional charts is not that easy.
Second, the text of the pages can be dense (like this review) and while there are headings to direct you to parts of the pattern (for example, cuff; unlike this post) they are not bolded or emphasized in any great manner. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of life.
* yes I am using the term knitter in the broad sense of those who knit, crochet, embroider, make things by hand.
Disclaimer: I assist Heather with the technical aspects of many, but not all of her websites and am compensated in handknit socks. I purchased my copies of the book.
This review appeared first appeared on my site Penguin Girl.
June 5, 2013
This is book of essays about classical literature that make you want to read more.
And it is a book of knitting patterns that make you want to knit more.
How to combine those? Well, stick a book in your ear - listen to audiobooks, or to CraftLit, and knit along with the story!
You can make Jane Eyre's ubiquitous shawl (in a suitable discreet grey or maybe a bolder colour), a shawlette to cover up the bite marks on Mina Harker's neck, a great white scarf for Captain Ahab, or ...
The print version has line drawings of the projects, no glossy colour photos - and the digital version links to Ravelry and all the project photos in there. That way you get pictures of several projects for a pattern, not only the 'official' one. Brilliant.
So, the answer to the question in the title is: All The Things!
And it is a book of knitting patterns that make you want to knit more.
How to combine those? Well, stick a book in your ear - listen to audiobooks, or to CraftLit, and knit along with the story!
You can make Jane Eyre's ubiquitous shawl (in a suitable discreet grey or maybe a bolder colour), a shawlette to cover up the bite marks on Mina Harker's neck, a great white scarf for Captain Ahab, or ...
The print version has line drawings of the projects, no glossy colour photos - and the digital version links to Ravelry and all the project photos in there. That way you get pictures of several projects for a pattern, not only the 'official' one. Brilliant.
So, the answer to the question in the title is: All The Things!
November 20, 2011
Ok, seriously cool. This is a multi-media book!
The essays and patterns in the book were interesting and fun - and the web-site that accompanies the book offers additional links; recipes, project photos, and more info about the designers. Quite spiffy!
I read through all the essays and pondered the patterns (I also fav'd the ones I'm most likely to knit on Raverlry). I have start-itis soooooo bad right now. But I MUST work on x-mas gifts...
I enjoyed the essays presenting the designer's perspective and inspiration for the patterns. Some of the books/stories were new to me or something I hadn't read in decades.
Yep, this has also affected my book start-itus as well.
{Happy Sigh!} The very best sort of enabling. I like it!
The essays and patterns in the book were interesting and fun - and the web-site that accompanies the book offers additional links; recipes, project photos, and more info about the designers. Quite spiffy!
I read through all the essays and pondered the patterns (I also fav'd the ones I'm most likely to knit on Raverlry). I have start-itis soooooo bad right now. But I MUST work on x-mas gifts...
I enjoyed the essays presenting the designer's perspective and inspiration for the patterns. Some of the books/stories were new to me or something I hadn't read in decades.
Yep, this has also affected my book start-itus as well.
{Happy Sigh!} The very best sort of enabling. I like it!
December 29, 2011
I love Craftlit, and was thrilled to get this companion piece. I was slightly disappointed to find that there are no project photographs here, but like the way it is integrated into the website. This might be one book where the digital version would really make a lot of sense.
The essays are really good, if short. There is a good range of pattern difficulty, but not sure how many of them I will actually make...
The essays are really good, if short. There is a good range of pattern difficulty, but not sure how many of them I will actually make...
December 13, 2011
i think i'd've been more into this book if it had pictures of the patterns but i understand why they had to save them for the companion website. i'd've been also more into it if i was more of a classics reader, which i'm not. there's supposedly a volume 2 in the works so maybe it will focus on some more modern lit?
August 23, 2011
A great interactive knitting book which teaches more then just knitting... dabbles in everything from dyeing ({ahem} my part in the work) to recipes!
October 22, 2011
I can't wait to create all the designs in the book!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews