If you're involved in knitting and you haven't heard of Ysolda Teague, I'm going to assume you've been hiding under a rock for the last few years. If that is the case, let me give you a brief round-up. Ysolda's made a name for herself by mostly self-publishing her patterns, including 2 books - Whimsical Little Knits 1 & 2 and now she's launching her third book, the frankly brilliant Little Red in the City, a reference book on everything you need to know to make sweaters fit you (and seven gorgeous patterns to practice your new skills on).

The premise of the book is that standard sizing rarely fits the knitter properly and by the time you've committed the time to knit the whole thing, you're hardly going to rip it all out and start again to make the adjustments to suit you.

The first part of the book 'Tools for Successful Sweaters' starts with yarn selection - the characteristics of certain fibres, what they're best suited to and what difference worsted vs woollen spinning makes. Then Ysolda looks at the step we're all really tempted to skip when we want to start a new project - swatching, measuring and choosing the right size. I know what you're thinking - "I'm a 40” bust, how hard can choosing a size be?" but the photos perfectly illustrate why knitting the size that's right for your bust may be disastrous if you body is proportionally smaller. You may end up with something which fits perfectly over the fullest part of the bust but looks like a tent everywhere else, so the next part is about how to overcome that. How to do the calculations which will lead to a flattering fit. There's even a section about blocking.

In the second part, 'Techniques', there are detailed tutorials on useful techniques which you may not have used before, like the tubular and crochet cast-ons, different short row methods and one-row buttonholes. (Bear in mind that this book is not designed for absolute beginners, so a certain level of knitting experience is presumed).

Then we move onto the patterns - Angostura (a v-neck tank top with shaping provided by cables), Chickadee (scoop-neck cardigan with a colourwork bird pattern yoke), Cria (cardigan with a garter stitch yoke and two sleeve options), Laika (lace cardigan with a hood), Lauriel (long-sleeved cardigan with a leaf motif neckline), Melia ('Little Red' had to have a cape-inspired design and this is it) and Skelf (reverse stocking stitch, worked inside-out to avoid all that purling, with a tree and ivy theme).

If you're a lazy knitter who likes to just pick a pattern and knit it, this book probably isn't for you, but if you care about whether or not the thing you've spent months knitting is actually going to fit you, then this is the perfect reference.

PS: Big thanks to Ysolda for sending my copy out by Special Delivery to try to get it to me before I went on holiday. :)