The Principle of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt

It’s been a long time since I came across a definite MUST HAVE reference book. Dudes, this is totally it! If you have a question about knitting, it’s in here.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this book. The entire name is The Comprehensive and Timeless Guide. The Principles of Knitting. Methods and Techniques of Hand Knitting, and it’s every bit of that. Just shy of 800 pages of every bit of knitting info, every technique, every little thing you can imagine.

You can find the original, on sale, or now the electronic version HERE:

This book has been completely revised and updated, and just released – Feb 2012.

Check out this link HERE to get an inside view of this book. Check out the table of contents. There’s everything; every single thing you could ever think of to help with your knitting. New and better ways to do things, from casting on to seaming up and blocking. Everything!

Read about placement of hands and fingers for different methods of knitting. Read about how the techniques and stitches got their names. I could go on and on listing the different ideas and contents of this book, but you’d get a much better idea by clicking over to the BROWSE ONLINE version. Go on, check it out, I’ll wait right here….

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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