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.

Review: Two Videos

Two great instructional videos from Interweave Press. Curious about Cables or Fair Isle knitting? You have to check these out!

Review: Stitch ‘n Bitch

This is one of the best-learn-to-knit books around. Great illustrations of what the stitches look like and what to do with them. Clear explanations that TELL you what to do with them. It covers all the basics and does it in a way that makes it easy to learn. If you’re a beginner, this book will answer almost all of your questions.

Review: Seven Things that Can Make or Break a Sweater

The object of this book is to focus on the seven, specific things that can make a huge difference to the quality of your sweater. They’re not mind-blowing things. No secret tricks that only the author knows. No Ninja mind-tricks that force your knitting to behave. They’re not even fancy or complicated things.

Review: Spinning in the Old Way

Almost every other spinning book I have tends to be broad in nature. They discuss everything from where the fiber comes from, to how it’s prepared, to the parts of a spinning wheel, to drafting, to finishing … everything. It’s all in there, like that old tomato sauce commercial.

This book (if you’ll forgive me for referring to the pair of them as if they were one and the same) is refreshing because it focuses on making yarn with one tool only–the high-whorl spindle.

Review: New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One

Suppose you wanted to take a fresh look at sock knitting, and come up with a new approach to a basic shape that has been around for centuries. The human foot hasn’t changed all that much, and knitting itself has been more or less consistent for a couple centuries now. So, barring new techniques like Magic Loop and short-row heels … how much “new” can there be?

Review: Living the Country Lifestyle for Dummies

A lot of knitters and spinners do. We cherish the thought of growing our own vegetables, canning our own preserves, and surrounding ourselves with homemade quilts and blankets lovingly made by our own hands. All while (naturally) we sit and knit as we gaze from the porch at our happy flock of sheep, listening to our chickens clucking to themselves.

Or maybe we just dream of such a lifestyle and want to read about it without having to live it. Or maybe we really do want to live it, but realize how much work is involved and don’t know where to start.

Well, this book is a good place.

Review: The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook

This is one of those kinds of books that almost makes you rethink everything you know about knitting.

It was written in 2002, at just about the time that sock knitting started becoming popular, and spinning hadn’t taken off. Seven years ago, most people who knit automatically headed to their local yarn shop or craft store to buy yarn–the concept of making their own was still new. (New to our generation, that is. Obviously, people have been spinning their own yarn for quite some time.)

Enter Lynne Vogel.