Favorite Knitting Books

Knitting
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Thought this topic would be a good place for folks to recommend their favorite knitting books. I will start with 2:
A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G Walker. This is a mainly a stitch dictionary and is amazing. If you are a fan of Barbara’s, you might want to take a look at https://thewalkertreasury.wordpress.com/ whose mission is: [h=2]About the Project[/h] [h=3]Calling All Volunteers[/h]
Every knitter knows that Barbara Walker’s Treasuries are indispensable. We use them constantly for designing, for help with a difficult pattern, and for pure inspiration. Sometimes, though, the mostly black-and-white and small pictures keep us from seeing the full potential of a pattern. That’s where the Walker Treasury Project comes in.

We are gathering high-quality, color photos of all the patterns in all the Treasury books (including Mosaic Knitting) and putting them on the internet as a visual aide to this wonderful collection. Help your fellow knitters by choosing a pattern from a particular book, working up a nice big swatch in a light-colored yarn, and posting it to our blog. We can help you label and categorize everything. Also, keep in mind that we’re not posting the pattern, just the picture!

Another book which I just found out about today is from one of our OU Members ilexedits. It is called Stitch by Bloody Stitch: Knitting Charts Explained and is available as a free download on her websitehttp://hollybriscoe.com/first-edition-announced/.
If you are a lace knitter you might also want to visit this new thread in Knitting https://vb.ourunraveled.com/forum/knitting/19772-lace-knitting-for-all

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I love Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen, and I have a good many of their books. I’ve been known to put their Knitting Glossary DVD in and hit “play all.” It’s like knit night with two of the world’s best knitters.

Before I found EZ and Meg, I used Maggie Righetti’s two knitting books (Knitting in Plain English and Sweater Design in Plain English) quite successfully. In fact, I pulled the latter out as the basis for my most recently completed sweater, the first in my “sweater adventures” of hopefully four very different sweaters. You can find a complete series of blog posts on the first sweater at my website starting with http://hollybriscoe.com/sweater-adventures/ or with the tag “CotLin U-Neck.” The second sweater’s initial set of posts will be up shortly, which you can find with the tag “CotLin Circular Yoke” or its first post via the category “Series’ First Posts.”

I have all four of Barbara’s books, and they are terrific. She’s amazing. (Did I hear correctly that there’s a fifth book in the series?)

I bought the new edition of Principles of Knitting, just to have as a reference. I haven’t looked at it much, though.

For specific techniques, I love Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting and both of Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Knits books (though I’m not much enamored with their charting symbols and always redraw them with my own knitting font).

I also love Ann Feitelson’s Art of Fair Isle Knitting (from which I made two projects, Brae Cardigan and Hillhead Slipover, project pages for both linked at http://hollybriscoe.com/project-page/).

And whenever I need a good laugh, I reach for Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)!!! I giggle too much, though, to read them in bed anymore, as I shake Mr. Edits half to death. :eek:

(Thanks for the plug, @rollinge !)

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My ‘craft room’ is over-run with much-loved knitting books, collected over many years. Some of my favorites include, but are not limited to: Latvian Dreams by Joyce Williams, Andrea Wong’s Portuguese Style of Knitting, Knitting Tips and Trade Secrets, Reversible Two-Color Knitting by Jane F. Neighbors, Notes on Double Knitting by Beverley Royce, Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book, Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns, and Barbara Walker’s first two Treasuries of Knitting Patterns

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My favorite two knitting books are both by Ann Budd: Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns and Knitter’s Handy Book of Topdown Sweaters. The first one is my go-to for hats, mittens, gloves, socks, etc. where I’m making my own pattern. It also has patterns for seamed garments. So between that one and the second book I’m pretty well covered.

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What a great thread!

EZ is my all time favorite. I was never a successful knitter until I picked up Knitting Without Tears.

I have so many knitting books - they are like puppies - how do you pick a favorite?

I was glad to read that I’m not the only one who owns Principles of Knitting and has barely looked at it. I should make myself read a page a night just to see what’s in it. And I’m adding the EZ DVD to my Christmas wish list.

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When the knitting bug hit me a few years ago, my daughter gave me The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe and it has been quite the handy resource. It is a small reference book which has taught me much by answering my questions when they popped up.

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I just wrote a review of Maggie Righetti’s Knitting in Plain English for my tech editing class. I really liked it and learned a few new things about knitting that I did not know before.