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Book Review: Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible

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Japanese knitting patterns and knitting stitch patterns have become popular in the rest of the world over the last few years, and more books are being published for a non-Japanese audience, which is great for those of us who might be a little intimidated by the charts and a foreign language explaining what the charts mean.

Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: 260 Exquisite Patterns by Hitomi Shida, is just one such collection, and it’s a beauty. The book includes an English introduction by Gayle Roehm, which talks a bit about Japanese knitting in general, working with charts and deciphering the symbols used in the charts. Within the patterns themselves, Japanese patterns do not usually provide a key for what the symbols mean, but there is a thorough chart of the symbols at the beginning of the book that explains what they mean and which patterns in the book use them.

The stitch patterns themselves are presented in large photos (with two or three patterns presented on most pages) with the chart presented beside it. The patterns also indicate how many stitches are used in a repeat, so you can easily add them to garments or other projects.

These stitches are gorgeous and cover a variety of styles including lacy patterns, overall patterns and crossing stitches, panel patterns, pattern arrangements (which play with different variations like adding bobbles, changing the vertical alignment of a pattern or changing the direction of the twist in a twisted stitch pattern), circular yokes and edgings. (Those last two the photos are in a gallery with the charts printed together after.)

There are also five patterns in the book: a mini scarf with frill, socks with cables, a hat with cables and eyelets, fingerless mitts and a lace collar. These patterns include more text than traditional Japanese knitting patterns, which might be a good way to practice if you haven’t worked a pattern like this before.

I tend to think Japanese knitting patterns are not the best for beginners, but if you are more visually oriented, comfortable with reading charts and confident in your ability to translate the symbols, these designs are a lot of fun.

About the book: 160 pages, paperback, 260 stitch patterns, 5 projects. Published by Tuttle Publishing, 2017. Suggested retail $16.95.

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Fun Halloween Cowls to Knit

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine. 

Case in point: Halloween cowls. 

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute. 

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like. 

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use. 

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry. 

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart. 

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry. 

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry. 

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.