There are well more than two types of knitters in this world, but for the purposes of this post let’s say there’s two types of knitters: those who learn a technique and always do it the same way without question, even if the results aren’t great, and those who question the why and how of different techniques and try to learn or come up with a different, better way of doing them.
Patty Lyons definitely sits in that second group. She says in her book Patty Lyons’ Knitting Bag of Tricks that she wants to know both the why and the why not of different knitting skills, and that learning how stitches work frees you up to develop better techniques for common knitting problems. She has long shared the “unventings” she has discovered in classes and on her website, and now she’s written a book that collects a bunch of them.
Her book includes more than 70 tips for better cast ons, increases and decreases, bind offs, finishing and more, explaining not just how to work her methods but why they work to make your stitching neater and easier.
This is not a book for beginners; it assumes you already know how to knit, though it does have a brief techniques section in the back that covers basic cast ons, increases and German short rows. But if you’ve ever been frustrated by a wonky looking cast on or bind off, the fact that your “mirrored” decrease don’t match or that yarn overs look different depending on what stitch comes after them, this is the book for you.
It’s a book you’ll want to read through but also work through with needles in your hands, because just describing these techniques and showing them in illustrations (most of the book is illustrated with line drawings, but there are photos of real-life knitting, too) doesn’t really cement how to do them or what difference they make in your projects.
Keep this one in your knitting bag or near your favorite knitting chair so the next time you have to join a new ball of yarn, make short roes or pick up stitches you’ll know just what to do to make those parts of your knitting look better.
About the book: 208 pages, paperback. Published 2022 by David & Charles, suggested retail price $22.99.
