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knitting

What are your favourite books about knitting? Not pattern books, but books talking about knitting - things like Yarn Harlot's books or It's My Party And I'll Knit If I Want To.

What do you like about them?

Any you'd say to avoid? (I know some of that is going to be personal taste, but I'm interested to know why.)

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From:

jazzypom

My problem is, my knitting dates from the Ikea generation (I learnt to knit in 2004 from Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch) so I'm accustomed to diagrams and pictures breaking it down. Zimmermann has tremendous insights but her writing style is so free wheeling, I never really got the whole how to make your own patterns at all (I have Knitting Without Tears). I know she goes on about knitting continental (no lie, if I had to learn to knit again, I'd knit continental, it seems fast, and I can do that, but I have no desire to reaquaint myself with a new sort of tension, whereas my tension is pretty good, and my stitches are relatively even as they are).

The book that helped me wrap my head around the notion of knitting sans pattern was Barbara Walker- who seems pretty humourless in print, lol.

From:

jackandahat

And I'm approaching from the opposite side - I learned just enough about "this is how you knit, this is how you decrease, this is how you increase" then went off on my own. That was out of necessity and the results weren't the best, but I'm comfortable with how I've ended up now.

One day I'll knit something exactly as the pattern tells me to. One day. (Maybe.)

From:

havocthecat

For me, I need to know how the structure works before I can knit in a freewheeling style. I would have thrown any Elizabeth Zimmermann book out in frustration had I seen it as a beginning knitter. I like having stuff broken down for me. I like knowing how the little bits add up to the whole structure. It's how my brain works.

(Nice Cloak & Dagger icon, by the way!)