Book Review: The Knitter’s Book of Knowledge

Debbie Bliss knows a lot about knitting. She’s been a renowned designer for decades, has published more than 40 books and has her own line of yarn.

So you might guess that a book filled with her knitting knowledge would be pretty long, and you’d be right. The Knitter’s Book of Knowledge: A Complete Guide to Essential Knitting Techniques covers everything from casting on to knitwear design, and it’s a huge book at 320 pages and weighing in at just over three pounds.

The book includes pretty much everything you need to know to get started knitting and beyond. There are thoughts on yarn, needles and other supplies, tips for holding needles and yarn, nine different cast on methods and eight different bind off methods.

There’s a rundown on knitting terms, tips on reading charts, tutorials for various means of shaping knitting, tons of ways to add texture to projects, a short course in color theory and color knitting techniques, ways to embellish knitting like surface embroidery and beading, finishing touches like fringe and pom-poms, edgings, seaming, finishing techniques and more.

You’ll learn about buttonholes and pockets, sewing in elastic and installing zippers, how to measure bodies and garments for knitwear design and all the things that go into making a successful project from scratch.

There’s also a troubleshooting section that covers fixing dropped stitches, knitting backward and ripping out knitting, making projects shorter or longer and mending holes, among other things.

Throughout the book there are large drawings to illustrate techniques. It’s a great guide to the basics and beyond. If I had any complaint it would be that there aren’t enough relevant pictures. For instance, the section on bobbles shows in drawings how the bobbles are made, but there’s only a picture of one kind of bobble, and it’s not a great photo. The only other actual picture in the whole section is just of a ball of yarn. It would have made the book that much more valuable if there had been swatches showing what the different techniques look like in real yarn.

Still, if you only want to buy one knitting book to get you through a lot of the things you will want to know as a knitter and you like a lot of step-by-step illustrations, this book is worth checking out.

About the Book: 320 pages, hardcover, no patterns. Published October 2015, Lark Books. Suggested retail $29.95.