I am, unfortunately, a terminally slow reader. I am also one of those people when I start reading something I can not. put. it. down. These traits can have some adverse affects to, say, anything in my life that happens to need doing. So with the exception of any new Harry Potter book, (which I just commit myself to a 24+ hour no-sleep marathon) I tend to purchase more instructional type books. These I can pick up and read bits of randomly. It's much healthier this way.
So one of my recent acquisitions is this book, Knitter's Handbook - A Comprehensive Guide to the Principles and Techniques of Handknitting
This is a really valuable book as long as you know what it is and what it isn't. It is not a beginner Learn How to Knit book, a pattern book or a stitch dictionary. It is however a very good reference book on an impressive amount of areas. Three different short row techniques? Numerous cast-on and bind-offs with benefits and illustrations of each? I'm sold.
This thing is also indexed up the wazoo. It can sometimes be almost a bit much when nearly every other word is bolded but mostly it's a large help. Especially since I find different books tend to use different terminology for common things and I end up having to look up terms that are used in passing. As I said, there are a lot of topics covered, but not all are in great depth. For me this is fine, since when I find something I have more interest in I simply turn to the lovely internet and it has put me on the right track to find what I need. If you'd like more exhaustive descriptions all in one place I'd point you to finding this book - The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt at your local library (otherwise it's shelling out the $250+ to score a copy).
For $13 I'm damn happy with this handy reference though.
So one of my recent acquisitions is this book, Knitter's Handbook - A Comprehensive Guide to the Principles and Techniques of Handknitting
This is a really valuable book as long as you know what it is and what it isn't. It is not a beginner Learn How to Knit book, a pattern book or a stitch dictionary. It is however a very good reference book on an impressive amount of areas. Three different short row techniques? Numerous cast-on and bind-offs with benefits and illustrations of each? I'm sold.
This thing is also indexed up the wazoo. It can sometimes be almost a bit much when nearly every other word is bolded but mostly it's a large help. Especially since I find different books tend to use different terminology for common things and I end up having to look up terms that are used in passing. As I said, there are a lot of topics covered, but not all are in great depth. For me this is fine, since when I find something I have more interest in I simply turn to the lovely internet and it has put me on the right track to find what I need. If you'd like more exhaustive descriptions all in one place I'd point you to finding this book - The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt at your local library (otherwise it's shelling out the $250+ to score a copy).
For $13 I'm damn happy with this handy reference though.
I just got this book, too. It is hard to review... but I think it will be really useful. Being the legal research nerd that I am, I love all the cross-references!
Oh yeah, I love a bit of Montse Stanley. I find her tone a little off putting sometimes and that each technique needs several readings and some swatching but I@ve found it an incredible resource in the past. I'm lucky enough that my local library carries a copy.