June 18, 2006

Book Review - The Knitter's Companion

The Knitter's Companion: New and Expanded by Vicki Square.

I just received the updated and expanded edition of the compact knitting reference guide, The Knitter's Companion. The original, published in 1996, was a great standard reference but the new edition has a lot of cool features including:

  • a hardback that conceals the spiral bounding so it is less likely to catch on things in your knitting bag plus the cover should hold up longer. And it lies flat.
  • color illustrations and photos. The old one had no photographs and all the illustrations were black and white
  • new sections on winding yarn, measuring knitting, circular needles, and knitting backwards
  • several expanded sectionsg:
    • casting on
    • splicing yarn
    • binding off
    • increasing stitches
    • correcting errors
  • information on the CYCA guidelines for the six standar categories of yarn sizes based on yarn thickness
  • a needle sizer and stitch guage guide in the back

The Knitter's Companion: New and Expanded by Vicki Square has all the basic information on casting on, binding off, increases, decreases, stitches and stitch patterns, gauges, joins, seams, borders, and buttonholes. Plus, the small size of this guide makes it a good choice for including in your knitting bag or keeping by your chair when you knit.

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