Many thanks to Netgalley, F&W Media and the dietary Kerry Bogert for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and idependent of receiving an advanced copy.


Working with colour can be one of the more challenging things when knitting. Especially today when you have so many options besides just switching yarn colours. There are beautiful ombre, speckled, gradient, variegated and handprinted yarns that it can be difficult to know how to handle each case. You want to showcase the colours at its best and avoid things like pooling. Sometimes a written pattern will take these things into account, however, what if you want to substitute a yarn, or change up the colours. If you are new to colour knitting, or don’t have much experience, I don’t think Gradient Style is the place to start. They also include 8 patterns to get you started.

Although it touches on some important things to think about, this book is not very comprehensive when it comes to explaining colour, and how these different kinds of yarn work when knitting them up. It has a colour wheel and talks about contrasting and. Complimentary colours but really doesn’t go into much detail. Really, any of the techniques or ideas that it talks about, it doesn’t do a great job at a thorough explanation. I hoped that maybe in the patterns they would give some examples of how to switch up the colours, or if you wanted to substitute yarns, but it didn’t do that either. Most of the patterns are using yarns that have colour built into them already, so you aren’t even learning how to use colour there either. I don’t need a shawl pattern that simply uses a variegated blue yarn and wow! I’m colour knitting! No, I don’t think so.

So if you looking for something comprehensive, or simply looking for something to give you inspiration, you might want to look elsewhere. This is pretty basic, without giving you the basics. If I can’t learn something new, then I want to be wowed by the patterns and they are okay, but nothing special. Overall, I was disappointed.

I just love this book! As a knitter, dyer, weaver it’s an informative and inspiring read. Photography is wonderful, crisp and fresh.

Knitting patterns are included so grab your gradients and go. You may find colours together that previously wouldn’t have crossed your mind to work together. Colour wheels and examples of many yarns will probably cause you to go online instantly and peruse for your next project.

Be warned, there are several reasons to buy this beautiful book. As a reference aid, as a way to learn more about colours, gradients, ombré etc. as a pattern book or just because it’s so colourful.

Perfect for anyone who loves yarn and colour.

Gradients are all the rage in knitting these days, and this book contains 19 lovely patterns that help you to expand your gradient wardrobe, as well as brief tutorial on how to form your own gradients in patterns.

The patterns are about evenly broken up into shawls/scarves/cowls, pullovers, and other accessories, and each uses a different method of fading from one yarn or color to the next. Most of the yarns recommended are long color repeats (think Freia Handpaints) or mini skein sets, but the methods for getting the most out of these vary widely, from simple stripes, to slip stitches and colorwork, to intarsia. There’s plenty of variety in experience levels throughout the patterns as well allowing the technique to be accessible to all ranges of knitters.

The brief tutorial on how to make your own gradient, which focuses mainly on choosing the right color range of yarns and demonstrating a few methods of striping to create a nice fade, wasn’t really to comprehensive. They chose 5 colors to demonstrate a nice gradient that plays and grows off of speckles contained in the previous yarn, but never did they show all 5 colors striped together! Exach example used 4 or fewer of the example colors and they all had points that looked too abrupt in their color change. While I understand this was to show a successful and not so successful fade in one swatch, it just didn’t seem to be a cohesive lesson in making your own fade.

Other than that, it’s a fun book of patterns, with lots of bright colors and patterns used to catch your eye. Even if you don’t knit the exact pattern given, the methods used for blending colors are certainly worth a look through.

I loved the cover of this book, i think that would have got me to pick the book up, I could see the technique working well on shawls and blankets, I did try out a two-toned shawl/scarf and after some careful study, i was able to work out how to work the pattern and it looked pretty. However, you can buy yarn that is already dyed to create the same effects. As for the patterns, they were somewhat outdated, but you could use the same technique on your favourite pattern. I would knit Ombre eyelet shawl, which is the one that i tried on a smaller scale.
There is a great introduction and an interesting explanation about how to use a colour wheel and which tones would work best together. At the end of the book, the stitches are explained, with drawings.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com and the publisher Interweave/F.W.

A beautifully photographed and illustrated book with clear, concise instructions. Perfect for the intermediate and advanced knitter, might be a bit daunting for the inexperienced.

I may never knit an item in a solid color again!!