400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch Patterns

Excellent book for crwating your own textures in existing patterns or making a sampler blanket for example. Each stitch is described in English notation and with a chart of that is your preference, the pictures for each stitch are clear enough to make out pattern details and where the stitch is reversible the back of the work is also photographed.I have a good few knitting stitch and pattern books but note that the Japanese pattern books seem to be exclusively chart based which I find it impossible to work from except for Fairisle colour-work and the ones that are not based on charts seem to be be written in ‘new notation’ that appears to be becoming popular in US patterns but is not standardised or clear for many of us older knitters. This book however has clear English notation written instructions and a glossary of terms in the back for any uncommon acronyms, it is my go-to for a nice cable design or lacework pattern.The only minor criticism I have is the rows are all written along one long line of text. I am used to each new row instruction starting on a new line so I tend to write out the instructions in a notebook including the back rows (sometimes glossed over with just follow the lead of the previous row which can be confusing where there are cables to know what to k and what to p). This enables me to also record the number of edge stitches and repeats plus tally the number of row repeats as well, I noted that the ‘edge stitches’ and extra repeat stitches that you need to add at either end of the row can sometimes be a bit wrong so writing out the pattern by hand helps to avoid any mistakes from creeping into the work when a row contains multiple repeats of the pattern plus edge stitches.

I've just taken up knitting for the first time after also recently taking up Crochet. Knitting is more technically tricky but this book soon shows you that you can knit some utterly amazing patterns and stitch types with the minimum of knowledge and effort, and just a couple of needles and some yarn.The more complex 'fancy' patterns are also really clearly explained. I am not sure why other reviewers described this book as 'text heavy' as there are plenty of illustrations, stitch guides and 'how tos' for beginners as well.I've spent a happy week working through most of the Knit / Purl patterns and am now moving on to the more fancy stuff (though cabling is still well and truly beyond me!)An absolutely essential book in my opinion and really great for beginnersGood service from the seller (slower than standard 'sold by amazon' but a better price and the book was properly packaged and did not get damaged in transit.

Firstly - the good:FORMAT: the size makes this easy to handle . It is a paperback but very good quality and the integral folded cover means marking a page is simple.PICTURES: Very clear photographs, and all samples are knitted WELL in the same cream colour. This makes comparing and choosing really easy. This colour also shows patterns very clearly.LAYOUT: It is split into various sections eg Knit/purl stitches, Crossed stitches & Cables - again making it easy to choose and compare.Now the reason it lost a star (for me):INSTRUCTIONS: Both written and charted instructions are printed beside the picture. For those who can read charts (not me!), there is an appendix of the symbols at the back, which is great. BUT -the written instructions are unnecessarily complicated. There is no matching appendix of abbreviations at the back. As it is, the first time an instruction comes up in a pattern, the full instruction is printed and when it comes up again in the same pattern, the instruction is not concise enough. This makes the pattern clumsy to read. Not impossible but I find it irritating.I can see why another reveiwer writes the instructions out for themself.A simple, eg 'C6F', with explanation in an Appendix, would simplify the pattern instruction. Also, the more usual method of printing each row on a separate line would make it easier to follow.I wouldn't be without this book, though; it is full of inspiration, well illustrated and generally an excellent buy.

As a life long knitter now past retirement age, I can with this book make knitted garments with new and fresh stitch patterns and don't have to do every garment in the exact way the pattern designer used.Now I just have to live to 100 or more to use them all.

I’ve been knitting for 60 years and I can honestly say this is a great book. Having accumulated loads of balls of wool, my winter project is to knit them up into a blanket. I wanted different patterns to give depth and texture and this book does just that. I get really excited to see how each knitted square is going to turn out. Only done five squares and it’s looking good already.

This is a lovely book full of lots of different stitches to use. The picture are really beautifully done

So many beautiful new stitches to try but I find the very small pattern square hard to follow. I would also have preferred the instructions to be set out line by line as that makes it easier to read too.I bought this book so I didn’t have to keep looking up new stitches online but I’m finding I’m still checking online just for confirmation.

What a great book. I have been knitting for about 70 years and I have found lots of new stitches, can’t wait to start knitting again