Category: Books

I decided to do a post about my favorite knitting books.  Part 1 will be about my current two favorite books; who knows if I’ll ever get to Part 2 or beyond.

June Hiatt’s Principles of Knitting is one of them.  At 571 pages, this is at one extreme of the knitting book spectrum.  You can find just about anything in here, and if you want to know nearly all the ways to do a particular knitting task, this is the book for you.  Unfortunately it is out of print, though there are frequent rumors on the knit lists that it is going through a re-write.  It is not casual reading, but more of an exhaustive (exhausting?) reference work.  If you have friends who refuse to take your knitting seriously, this book on your coffee table might just impress them.  I do love this book, even though Ms. Hiatt can be very opinionated when it comes to the best way to do something.

If money is no object, you can buy this on Ebay or other online sellers at exorbitant prices.  Or check your library.  If you decide to spring for it, look at a copy first.  She illustrates her work with line drawings rather than photos.  I actually find this helpful; I’m not distracted by the color and texture of the yarn used and can focus on the technique illustrated.  Others just don’t like this and work better with actual photos.

At the other exteme is Nancie Wiseman’s The Knitter’s Book Of Finishing Techniques.  This is short and sweet, at 128 pages.  The title is somewhat misleading.  This is much more than a book about buttonholes and hems.  She discusses selvedges, seams, picking up stitches, grafting, casting on, and binding off, as well as other techniques.  I use this book all the time; it has a permanent place in my knitting bag.  It has a spiral binding so it opens flat in front of you while you are working, and the photos and instructions are clear and direct.

If I could only have one knitting book, and money was no object, I would get the Hiatt encyclopedia.  If I could only have one book, and only had $16, I would buy the Wiseman book.

Well of course you all know I don’t have just one knitting book.  I would post a picture of the knitting book library, if it weren’t so danged embarrassing.  And I would have to collect them from all corners of the house for the photo shoot; there is that, as well.  That’s too close to housecleaning for me.

“1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your journal with these instructions.”

“HDL cholesterol levels appear to be a particularly important risk factor for IHD in women.”
from Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 15th Edition; Braunwald, et al.

Boy, do I need to get a life.  No wonder I have no problems with insomnia, with that as my bedtime reading.  One paragraph, I’m out.  I need a good trashy novel.

I actually cheated a bit on this one.  My closest “book” is “No Ordinary Time”, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  However it’s an audio book, and I could not figure out what page 23 and sentence five would be.  I received an Ipod for Christmas this past year, and have discovered the joys of “reading” and knitting at the same time.

I’ve done more knitting on the same things.  I also think I might have found the perfect yarn for a bucket hat, but I’m just not posting any more pictures till I swatch it up to see.  It’s more of a DK weight than a worsted, so I’ll have to do a little fiddling with the pattern.

There were a couple of comments to my previous post about the “front porch” culture, and why we have so much trouble making connections in our own neighborhoods.  I think many of us turn to blogging for this reason.  Since we became civilized and moved our family activities to the back yard instead of the front porch, it is not unusual to live in a community for years and not know one’s neighbors.    Heck, there might be knitters right next door.  Maybe I’ll drag the hammock out to the front driveway for the summer.  At the very least it would entertain the locals.