I received Stefanie Japel‘s new book, Fitted Knits: Twenty-Five Designs for the Fashionable Knitter, in the mail today (an Amazon.com preorder), and I’m very impressed with it. I ordered it because I generally like Stefanie’s sweater designs — though her aesthetic is sometimes too funky for me — and I wanted to add a book to my collection that had some specific instructions about shaping patterns to fit.

Fitted Knits is beautifully designed and laid out, and the number of patterns (twenty-five) seems generous. There’s a lot of lovely knitting to look at here, and a nice variety of pretty, wearable garments. I saw several things that I would be happy to add to my wardrobe, and there are interesting ideas behind some of the patterns that don’t quite suit me.

Here are a few of my favorites. You can click to get a better view, but these are quickie pictures, so don’t expect much by way of quality.

Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan Drop-Stitch Lace Tank Airy Wrap-Around Lace Sweater Saturday-in-the-Park Perfect Dress

Four projects from Fitted Knits: The Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan, the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank, the Airy Wrap-Around Lace Sweater, and the Saturday-in-the-Park Perfect Dress

I was a little disappointed only in my hope of finding extensive instructions about fitting. Don’t get me wrong: Stefanie describes how to modify her patterns, provides great schematics, and breaks her instructions up into yoke, body, and peplum (where it applies) so that you can see where to modify. All of this is great. Because she knits all of her garments in one piece from the top down, however, there are no instructions here that would be helpful in designing or modifying garments knit in pieces from the bottom up. This is not really a criticism of Stefanie’s book, of course; it just means I’ll have to keep looking for the reference I’m lacking. Her “reference library” at the back of the book provides some good leads.

The patterns in Fitted Knits cover a range from easy to more complicated, from quick knits to more intricate ones, and from inexpensive to pricey yarn. There’s also an excellent variety of color in the book (and some smart patterns that use variegated yarns). I suspect there’s something for everyone here. I’m certainly pleased to have added Fitted Knits to my collection.