Suggested Books – Cont'd

As I am just getting started with machine knitting, this book has proven extremely useful as a supplement to the terse documentation that comes with knitting machines.  It comes with a DVD so you can see many of the operations, and also how a linker actually works.

From a machine knitting pattern design and alteration point of view, this book is very interesting.  For starters, the patterns are not at all boring and I can see that they can easily be modified to suit personal preferences.  I haven’t made any of the patterns in this book yet, but I can see that I will be working on quite a few of them (with some modifications, of course).  The pattern and alteration instructions as I’ve read them are very clear.

Lion Brand Yarn's book with more than 50 knit and crochet vintage patterns, always a useful reference.

The wonderful thing about knitting shawls is that they don't require shaping for armholes, etc, yet they are fun to knit and even a begginer can make a beautiful, unique shawl. Shawls can dramatically dress-up even the simplest outfit. This book, which has very nice patterns from varied cultures, allows you to make a number of lovely shawls using mainly fingering-weight yarn. But you will quickly see that you can easily adapt the patterns to use different yarn types. Very helpful drawings and beautiful photography. The Kimono Shawl has been a favorite and there are many versions on the Internet; try Google-ing it and you will see the many versions that have been made.

We are committed to using 100% natural fiber yarns and we are great supporters of local artisans, so this book caught my attention early on.  Fibers explored include llama, sheep, cashmere, angora, cotton, hemp, linen, and silk, and there are some very nice patterns.  Natural dyes and spinning are also explored.  The photography is beautiful.  Ms. Albright, who most unfortunately is no longer with us, made a very interesting presentation that covers which yarns qualify as “organic,” and the various classifications of organic products.  This is an important book because we can achieve better results in our various projects as we increase our understanding of the fibers that we use.

Nice book, nice photography, nice patterns.  A useful addition to your library.