Book Idea! What Not to Knit

Yesterday, I was cruising through some knitting books online and I was thinking, “Is wearing a tent really that fashionable nowadays? The recipient is going to receive this sweater, swear how much he loves it, and then, at best, only wear it when the knitter is around. Most people will swim in a sweater like that.” That seemed to be the chorus of the song that I was singing, so much so that I started a blog entry that was going to be a rant about how very few sweater designers (for handknitters, at least) seem to take shape into account and what will actually look flattering on a real person rather than a stick figure model or with a pole strung through the sleeves.

Fortunately, I did not bother to save that blog entry (though I did have a line in there that I was quite proud of for the humor. It made me chuckle, so it was worth it for that, if nothing else.) But on the drive home from work, it came to me that maybe there should be book about how to alter sweaters and sweater patterns such that end product looks good and is something that someone actually wants to wear for a reason other than someone made it for them. What Not to Wear is actually a bad example of what I was thinking about, as what proportions and styles are appropriate for a particular body type wouldn’t be the main emphasis for the book. The book would be more like Shirtmaking: Developing the Skills of Fine Sewing by David Page Coffin (an excellent book that I read at the beginning of the year.)

Here is what I think the book should cover:

• Sweater proportion
• How to determine whether a sweater pattern needs adjustment
• How to alter a design for:
  • Waist
  • Chest
  • Armhole
  • Sleeve cap
  • Neck
• How to alter a sweater that is already completed
• How to design a sweater from scratch

Does anybody know if this has already been done, or if there is some expert that should be writing something like this? Because, if not, I just might do it.