Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Knitting Stitch Bible
Over 250 Traditional and Contemporary Stitches with Easy-to-Follow Charts

by Maria Parry-Jones

     

Here is another entry in Search Press’ popular Bible series; this time a useful encyclopaedia of all the stitches you will probably ever need to know if you knit. There are over 250 in here, complete with patterns, so you can have a go at increasing your knitting knowledge immediately.

The book starts off by informing the reader that it is aimed at all knitters, from beginners to advanced. Then follows that useful section most of this publisher’s books tend to have, showing you how to use the book. This includes how to read charts, not the traditional way of showing knitting patterns in the UK, and therefore very necessary. Add in some other knitting know-how such as how to read a ball band, estimating yardage and needle sizing to go with several pictures showing what the various patterns are going to look like; and off you go with the patterns. I would hesitate to recommend this useful book for the total beginner as it does not actually teach you how to knit and contains no diagrams or photos showing the basics. However, for anybody who does know even some basic stitches it is a good way of learning as many more as you want; and I particularly like the short swatches you can make to achieve this quickly and simply. These are grouped into families of stitches, such as knit and purl (the first section), rib, cable, intarsia, Fair Isle etc so it is easy to find what you want and then expand on it—so useful if designing anything yourself. Again, if you don’t know even the basics about any of these styles of knitting you will need to go learn this elsewhere, but there are plenty of books on doing that and only one book quite like this. Add in a back section on chart symbols and abbreviations and you have a book to grow into over a knitting lifetime.

The Book

Search Press
September 2009
Spiral Bound Hardback
1844484874 / 9781844484874
How-To Books / Yarncraft
More at Amazon.com US || UK
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2009
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© 2009 MyShelf.com