Knitting Library

Today I went to my local Japanese bookstore - Kinokuniya (in NYC, 49th St. btw. 5th&6th) and picked up a wonderful stitch dictionary "Knitting Patterns Book 250". My friend Janel had shown me her copy of this book so, of course, I had to be a copy cat and get my own! The diversity of patterns in here is just spectacular! Although the book is in Japanese, all the patterns are charted out so most knitters who are familiar with knitting from charts shouldn't have too many problems. There are some pretty complicated stitches here with many symbols that I did not recognize. But I'm still not a very experienced knitter so those of you with a bit more knitting knowledge probably won't have any major issues. Plus there are illustrated instructions in the back.

In the last couple of months I've acquired a few other books for my knitting library:

Interweave's "Favorite Socks"
Now those of you who know me, know that I have yet to finish knitting my first pair of socks but I have great plans I tell you! As witnessed by my purchase of not one but two sock yarns at the Maryland Sheep and Wool fest. So I needed - absolutely needed - a sock pattern book. This book really has a nice selection of patterns from lacy socks to a variety of fancy and plain cable/rib socks and some colorwork and folk patterns. I definitely want to knit at least half the patterns in this book which is a rarity for me and a pattern book. I've only been subscribing to Interweave Knits magazine for a little over a year now so I didn't have any of these patterns. However, if you're a long time subscriber, you probably don't need this book unless you just like the convenience of it. It does have a nice spiral binding and it's not too big, fitting nicely in a project bag. And I've just discovered that there's a KAL for this book at http://www.favoritesockskal.blogspot.com/


I've also recently purchased Interweave's Scarf Style which has a nice variety of patterns as well. Again, there are lacy patterns and some nice cable patterns, several colorwork designs. Definitely something for everyone here. In particular I want to knit "Backyard Leaves" by Annie Modesitt. And there are several others on my to-do list as well. There's a KAL for this book at http://scarfstyle.blogspot.com/

Now, maybe I should go work on my socks!