My Favorite Book on Finishing

It turns out I had a lot less to say about finishing than I thought I did, so if you have any questions or topics I didn’t cover let me know and I’ll get to them next week.

In the meantime I wanted to share with you the best book out there about finishing: Finishing School by Deborah Newton. This excellent book shares Newton’s passion for a fine finish on knit garments and covers everything from blocking, seaming and edging to adding buttons, zippers and pockets to your projects.

Newton is a huge advocate of swatching and advises knitters to test out any finishing they might be contemplating on their swatches so they’ll know if the project is going to turn out the way they expect. This method also gets you to begin your project with the end in mind, to read through a pattern and make sure it makes sense and that all the pieces fit together logically before you even decide to knit it or how to finish it.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s a fun, encouraging read and it will guide you to be a better finisher, which will no doubt make you happier with your knit garments and other projects.

Have you read this book? Do you use her tips? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Next Pattern:

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

Next Pattern:

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