Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

The Walker Treasury Project

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Most knitters know that Barbara Walker’s Treasuries are indispensable. We use them constantly for designing, for help with a difficult pattern, and for pure inspiration. That’s where the Walker Treasury Project comes in.

A group of knitters have displayed on the web many of [tag]Barbara Walker[/tag]’s Treasury of Knitting stitch patterns in color. The hope is to offer knitters a visual aid when knitting these stitch patterns as the original patterns were pictured in black and white in the books and do not give justice to the true beauty of the [tag]stitch patterns[/tag]. The site will not offer the patterns, however, as they are copyrighted.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Barbara authored several volumes of knitting references. Her knitting treasury series documents over a thousand different knitting stitches. Barbara’s other books included designing [tag]mosaic knitting[/tag] to producing multicolored designs while knitting only one color per row, and ‘[tag]Knitting from the Top[/tag]” a book on how to construct knitted garments from the top-down rather than the usual bottom-up method. After over 20 years out of print, ‘Knitting from the Top‘ is being reprinted with many of her other knitting books, starting in the mid-1990s, as well as the publication of new contributions to knitting literature.

If you have the opportunity, visit The Walker Treasury and view the stitched designs. The site is very slow loading as it is graphic intense. This will be an ongoing project since there are over 1,000 patterns in the 4 book set – so visit often.

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. Hello!

    I wasn’t aware that the page was loading slow (I’m a college student spoiled with high speed internet) – I changed the number of posts that show up and so hopefully that will mean things will load faster!

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

  2. Nicole, thanks for visiting. Love the pics of the stitches. Yes, some of us have slower access,LOL. I was also spoiled at college with the speed, but alas I now have a DSL connection.

    Laura

Have you read?

Book Review: Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.