European Knitting, Advanced, by Craft College

     I really want to love this DVD, but I have to quibble a little.

     The best news first!  This has fabulous clear CLOSE-UP pictures of European knitting.  It is sometimes called German, continental, feeding yarn from the left, picking, and maybe some other names.  I love a craft how-to.  Pictures supplement any good knitting books, and help us remember what we saw at a class or knitting group.  The DVD runs through a few techniques including I-cord.  It also takes the viewer through making a felted bag.

     Craft College makes three DVDs of European knitting: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This DVD is termed advanced because the project is a bag.  The techniques are not especially advanced, for example I-cord.  The advanced video doesn't specifically teach how to cast on or to knit and purl, but the fabulous close-up pictures are plenty to learn from.  I presume the beginning DVD would be slow and detailed about how to knit and purl continental.

     The demonstrations are slow and repeat often.  I think someone who wants to change to European knitting could learn from this.  I definitely think European knitting by any name is more ergonomic.  Whether it's faster, that's up to the knitter.  It's fast for me.

    I had trouble finding the pattern!  That's my teeny quibble.  Eventually I found it by searching on my computer, as explained by the DVD, not that I read the instructions right away. Anyway, the pattern is too simple to be worth worrying about.  Advanced knitters won't have any trouble finding another suitable pattern for a felted bag.  There are plenty of patterns for felted bags.

     Overall, this DVD is wonderful.  Other knitters might find the bag pattern more quickly than me.