All Threads

REALLY NICE BOOKS TO HAVE:

 KNITTING AND CROCHET

How to Knit – Debbie Bliss

This is very good for the new knitter, but also for the more experienced knitter. The chapters are like workshops.  There are workshops for beginners, simple but effective stitches, aran, colour, lace, entrelac, decorative details and ends with design and finishing workshops. Very much an all in one book and handy to have.

The Handknitter’s Handbook – Montse Stanley

Very handy handbook. Everything you want to know about knitting, you should find in this book. It is not eye candy as far as colour photos go, but all your basics that you know and do not know are in here.

Knit handmade style

A basic hand knit book with some nice patterns. There is a very valuable section on dying your yarn with jelly. Easy and effective and fun to do.

Crochet with wire – Nancy Wiseman

Something unusual to try and to be pleasantly surprised at how easy and strange it is to work with wire while expecting the feel of wool with every stitch!

Knitting with wire – Nancy Wiseman

Something unusual to try and to be pleasantly surprised at how easy and strange it is to work with wire while expecting the feel of wool with every stitch!

Crocheted Socks – Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood

Fun and I never thought one could crochet socks!

Socks Socks Socks – XRX Books

Wide variety and really nice socks from various contributing knitters. The book starts with a section on how to construct a basic sock – very clear.

The Ultimate Sock Book – Vogue Knitting

Very good to have. There is a detailed chapter on the techniques of the basic sock – Top-Down, also the Toe-Up sock, working in the round, short rows, picking up stitches and ending the sock. There is a chapter on the anatomy of the sock with very clear drawings. There is a chapter on designing socks and one on stitch patterns for socks. There is also a chapter on the history of socks and one on the various traditions in the world.

Simply Socks – Anna Zilboorg

Eye-candy to me. The combination of patterning and colours make that you just want to page through again and again. For some reason I struggled a long time to master this kind of knitting. I adjusted a couple of methods and now it is great fun to knit. One must remember to knit more stitches or use thicker needles to accommodate for the stranded knitting that does not give much stretch.

Cool Socks Warm Feet – Lucy Neatby

This book gives a variety of sizes for each pattern. She also explains clearly on how to work out what size to knit for your foot size. Only self patterning yarns are used, which is very nice for a sock beginner as one can focus on how to do this sock knitting and get the hang of it. She also has different styles which one does not get in other books. Probably the best book to start with and to keep.

Folk socks – Nancy Bush

This is like a story book on socks. First the history, then the back ground of a country and the added sock pattern. She covers Great Britain and European countries.

Folk Knitting in Estonia – Nancy Bush

This also reads like a story book with history and then patterns with a back ground story to each. The patterns are of socks and mittens – each almost more beautiful than the next.

The Happy Hooker – Debbie Stoller

Fun and funky and modern and handy. Very clear instructions and some nice patterns too.

Stitch ‘n Bitch – Debbie Stoller

Fun and funky and modern and handy. Very clear instructions and some nice patterns too.

Knitting Without Tears – Elizabeth Zimmerman

Basic techniques and easy to follow directions for garments to fit all sizes. A very chatty way of writing which makes one smile!

The Cool Girl’s Guide to Knitting – Nicki Trench

A fun basic book to have with some very nice patterns.

Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns

Very handy library to have. You can never know all the stitches, so you can go look up when you want to use a new stitch in a garment or blanket.

Pattern Library – Kaffe Fassett

Eye candy book! Even if you don’t want to knit so many colours, it is so nice to just page through again and again.

Decorative Knitting – Kate Haxell and Luise Roberts

This book will stretch your knitting mind. Fresh new ideas, beading, embroidery, 3-dimensional yarns, edgings and trimmings. There are a 100 techniques, 200 ideas and 18 projects. So it is not just patterns presented for knitting.

Crochet – James Walters, Sylcia Cosh

Basic instructions and some very nice patterns. Really nice to have.

Crochet – Jane Davis

20 Simple and stylish designs to make over a weekend.

Compendium of Crochet techniques – Jan Eaton

A good handbook to have that covers probably every technique. There is also a section on dying yarns with acid dyes.

200 Crochet Blocks – Jan Eaton

Very useful to have. Some blocks are repeated with a different colour scheme, so it is not quite 200 different style blocks. There is a whole section on how to build blankets using colour and different type blocks.

200 Knitted Blocks – Jan Eaton

Very useful to have. Some blocks are repeated with a different colour scheme, so it is not quite 200 different style blocks. There is a whole section on how to build blankets using colour and different type blocks.

Blankets and throws to knit – Debbie Abrahams

Very nice to have.  Some beading has been used and there is an upbeat and modern feel to the book.

100 Afghans to Knit & Crochet – Jean Leinhauser & Rita Weiss

100 patterns – some I like, some I don’t, because of personal taste.

Boffin Blocks – Cornelia Robinson

This is about building a garment or blanket with a variety of blocks – knitted blocks, crocheted blocks and material blocks, using a wide variety of textures too.

Knitting New Mittens and Gloves – Robin Melanson

A whole book of really nice gloves with nice clear colourful photos.

Inca Knits – Mariannne Isager

Knitting sweaters with an Inca flavour and with a different technique. You knit in the round even where you think you should not and then you use the technique of cutting open for the neck and arms. You can get the book just for the technique, but the patterns are nice too.

Folk Mittens – Marcia Lewandowski

The techniques are well explained and shown. Each pair of mittens to knit has the history added to the pattern which makes it much more interesting.

Andean Folk Knits – Marcia Lewandowski

I like the way she makes this into an interesting reading book, telling about the Andean people and how the men knit with bicycle spokes. I learnt a very valuable technique of using waste yarn where I want to add another piece of knitting later on. I am using this technique now for doing the heel in Turkish socks.

Tea Cozies

Good fun and now your teapot can look ever so cute. A very good start for getting hooked on tea cozies.

Wild tea cozies – Loani Prior

Now for the wild side of tea cozies! Really funky and fun and adventurous. Your tea will never taste the same!

Knitted Flowers – Nicky Epstein

You would not believe how many flowers you can knit! You can even felt them! The photos are also clear and colourful.

100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet

There are flowers, leaves and also fruits and vegetables. There are mainly flowers and quite a variety too. Beautiful photos and a couple of projects to try out.

Surface Works – Jenny Dowde

This is not just knitting. You knit and embellish a little and a lot. You embellish with the usual yarns and also the not so usual. Good to have and to stop one from being boring.

Freeform Knitting and Crochet – Jenny Dowde

Stretching your knitting mind to make unusual knitted garments, bags and buttons. Easier and more fun that you could imagine.

Wool ‘n’ Magic – Jan Messent

Eye candy and a timeless book with ideas you have never thought of. You can make the most stunning wall hangings and garments. You can combine knitting and crochet and hand embroidery in one item, believe it or not.

Contemporary Knitting for textile artists – Ruth Lee

This will really stretch your knitting mind. Here you do not just knit a garment, nor do you use ordinary yarns. You can knit objects as if you are a sculptor artist. You knit with wire, use beads, make flat art, make 3dimensional art.

The Essensial Guide to Colour Knitting Techniques – Margaret Radcliffe

Such a variety of effects can be achieved in one’s knitting by using colour, changing stitches, texture in more ways than one. This book widens the scope of what can be achieved. Good photographs show the effects of just adding a texture in the same colour, or changing stitches while using the same multicolour yarns. There is a wealth of information in just using multicolour yarns to their maximum effect. The contents are the following (and this does not do justice to what the book offers): Colour basics, Stripes, Pattern Stitches, Multicolour yarns, Stranded knitting, Intarsia, Other techniques, Finishing touches, Design workshop.

Scottish Island Knits – Rowan

Lovely photos and patterns. One can see that nature was the inspiration.  Brings back pleasant memories

Design and Knit the Sweater of your Dreams – J. Marsha Michler

The book starts with the basics on yarn choices, the pattern stitch choices and examples. Then there is step by step instructions on how to build your sweater, with patterns and examples to try out until you can do it on your own.

The Twisted Sisters knit Sweaters – Lynne Vogel

A knit to fit workshop. Loads of this-is-how-you-do-it and graphs and examples. You get fun and funky and not so ordinary ideas.

Dazzling Knits – Paticia Werner

This is about knitting blocks. There is a Horst Schulz flavour to it and maybe the instructions are clearer as they are written by a different person with a different perspective of how to word the technique. Very nice and colourful. These blocks really lend themselves to bright and gorgeous colours.

Patchwork Knitting – Horst Schulz

Your first impression is colour. There are no patterns written in the ordinary manner. You have to master the graph on how to knit the block of the particular garment you want to make and then you have to master how to join/knit the blocks as you go along. Not as easy as you think, but as stunning as it looks when you get it right. Worth trying and succeeding.

Shadow Knitting – Vivian Hoxbro

It is a matter of now you see it, now you don’t. Very interesting of swopping your plain and purl stitches and using 2 colours to create a shadow of a pattern that you see from one angle, but not from another.

Folk Shawls – Cheryl Oberle

She has shawls from various countries from all over the world. Many have a bit of lace knitted into them. Some other triangular and some are rectangular.

First Book of Modern Lace Knitting – Marianne Kinzel

There is a chapter on Basic Instructions, a chapter on Working instructions for designs knitted on two pins, a chapter on Working instructions for designs  in round knitting and a chapter on Working instructions for square designs.

SPINNING AND DYEING

Creative Spinning – Alison Daykin and Jane Deane

Color in Spinning – Deb Menz

Yarns to DYE for – Kathleen Taylor

There is a section on materials and how to go about doing the self patterning painting on the yarns and then there are a number of projects to try out. All the projects also have pattern to knit up the yarn you have dyed.

QUILTING

Quilt Africa – Jenny Williamson, Pat Parker

Eye candy, modern with instructions and templets. Even if you don’t want to make quilts, it’s so nice to page through again and again.

Crazy quilting – Martini Nel

It is not just about putting together bits of material. It is about making it stand out in the crowd with embroidery on top. Really worth doing. Many ideas, many stitches, many photos and instructions.

EMBROIDERY

Raising the Surface – Maggie Grey

Eye candy, loads of unusual ideas that will make you hoard all sorts of straws and wires and lace and glue guns and heat guns etc.  This is like free hand machine embroidery, but not the usual cute, pretty pictures. 

OTHER

Creative Embellishments = Sherril Kahn

You can make the most stunning art, wall hangings, jewellery, garments, cards, you name it. Another of those books to page through again and again for the eye candy.

Celtic Knots – Suzen Millodot

Instructions on knotting beaded jewellery. There is some history, diagrams, instructions and photos and projects on each type of knot.

Beaded Adornments – Elizabeth Fourley & Ellen Talbott

Great ideas for adding beads to garments and also to accessories. You can add beads to jerseys, shoes, socks, gloves, hair elastics, bags, belts, scarves, hats, you name it – almost.