Review: Jil Eaton’s Knitting School

The author writes in the introduction, “In times past there was always an older generation of very experienced knitters on hand to help the novices. As that is not always the case in our very busy and technologically-saturated world, this Knitting School collection is designed to teach you to knit or to encourage you to return to knitting and to help you refine your skills.”

Review: Knitting Lace

To put it simply, this book is a masterpiece, and that’s not a word I bandy about loosely. Recently reprinted by Schoolhouse Press, this is the story of Susanna Lewis’ classic recreation of a 19th century lace sampler for the Brooklyn Museum.

Review: Power Cables

There is a reason this woman has such a reputation for being an innovative thinker and knitter, and she proves it yet again with this remarkable book.

Review: Color Knitting the Easy Way

Here’s the first thing you need to know about this book–there are lots of books out there that examine color knitting, but this one focuses on color knitting using only ONE color at a time.

That’s right. Not intarsia. Not fair isle. Instead, this book is about adding color to your knitting with stripes and slip stitches.

Review: Knitting Brioche

Darn it, there’s just nothing wrong with this book.

Luckily for you, that means this book is fantastic and one you should run-not-walk to find if this is a technique that you are even remotely interested in. Because, trust me, you’re not going to find a better guide to brioche any time soon.

Still, it’s great books like these that make writing reviews so frustrating.

Review: Natural Dyeing

So many valuable nuggets of information are lost every day. (Did you know the first, best, true-red dye came from insects?) There are so many things my grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on knew to do but that have been forgotten by my generation, and this book is one way to claim some of them back again. With this book, if I had to, I could create my own green dye, or blue, or yellow, or red, without having to depend on anyone else to mix a batch of chemicals.

Review: Knitwear Design Workshop

If you’re interested sweater design, and want to understand everything, you need to look at this book. It’s amazing. I have other design books in my library, GOOD ones written by Maggie Righetti, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Ann Budd, Cheryl Brunette, Debbie Bliss, just to name a few … but this one stands on its own.

Review: Knitting Daily Seasons 3 & 4

Having just watched all eleven and a half hours, I can tell you without reservation that these DVDs are interesting, useful, and chock-full of great information. I don’t have access to these on television, so I hadn’t had a chance to see them before.

Well, they did not disappoint.

Review: Aran Sweater Design

I’ve practically lived and breathed this book for the last couple of weeks and finally realized I had to write a review of this book to tell you why.

I had decided to tear out an aran I knitted in 2006 and reuse the yarn, and I spent so much time looking for the right pattern when I decided that I should just design my own … and this was the book I immediately reached for.

Why? This book tells you simply everything you need to know to put together an Aran sweater.

Review: Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques

Entrelac. Stranded. Intarsia. Stripes. Two-sided. There are so many ways to play with color while you knit, but… there are so MANY ways to add different colors to your knitting. What’s a knitter to do?

Run, don’t walk, to find a copy of this book.