Customer Reviews

The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been waiting for someone to finally review this book, but I gave up and ordered it. So here I go with a quick review. I was looking for something to throw in my knitting bag, and since I have the big Vouge knitting book I decided to go with a completely different type of book. The Knitting Answer Book fits the bill. It has a Q & A formatting, a bit unusual, but some of the questions are straight out of my own mouth. The book is divided into the following 13 chapters: Casting On, The Basics, Binding Off, Tools, Yarn, Reading Patterns, Pattern Stitches, Circular Knitting, Color, Shaping, Fitting, Finishing, and Embellishments. I was mostly interested in the Finishing chapter, it has helpful hints on blocking and sewing, which are my problem areas.
Most of the info probably won't be new to a well seasoned knitter, but if you like reading about knitting in general, and like to learn little new tricks, this might be the book for you. The only thing I don't like about the book is that the binding is a bit rigid, and hard to prop open. 4.5 stars.

Even though I am a seasoned knitter, I love this book. It is easy to slip into any bag and the solutions are very easy to understand with diagrams. It is almost like having an expert right in your pocket. Casting on, binding off, pattern reading, colors, shaping, basics and more all packed into this 386 page book. Be sure to add this one to your knitting library.

I am an experienced knitter and somewhat questioned whether this book would be worthwhile for me. I am delighted! Its small enough to fit in anyone's knitting bag. It has a very durable binding that you can open all the way without cracking the book's spine. It has a lot of information and easily read diagrams. There is enough basic information for beginners, but I learned a few things the first time I read. For example, it explains and diagrams how to pick up a dropped stitch in the cast on row whether you use long tail or cable cast on. I always thought I had to start all over. If you're knitting with 200 or 300 stitches, it saves a lot of time. Highly recommeded.

I was so excited when I first saw this book that I snapped it up right away, and like most of the people who have already reviewed it, I keep it in my knitting bag. You know, for emergencies. I am, however, sad to say that this book has disappointed me time and again when I've turned to it for help and guidance. I believe this book is meant to be a reference book, that is, something you pick up and flip to the appropriate topic, rather than reading it cover to cover. The problem is that with most reference books a great deal of care and thought has been put into the book's format, organization, and indexing, the better to help the reader find what they need fast. The organization of this book is haphazard, which may or may not stem from the fact that the format is Q and A, which is not always the most straightforward way to get at a problem. The index is likewise very poor, leading me to wonder whether Ms. Radcliffe wrote it herself or whether she allowed the publisher to provide her with a professional indexer, with the latter being common and prefered practice. Every time I've tried to look something up in the index I either haven't found it or, after sheer guessing, have found it hidden under some other entry. For example, if you are new to knitting and your pattern calls for you to knit into front and back, how are you to know that looking for that topic in the index under K for Knit will yield nothing, and that you must instead look under I for Increase? Cross-referencing would help you find it faster, but there are very, very few cross-references in this index.

Perhaps a second and revised edition would be better.

I admit that I carry this book in my knitting bag, and use it often, but I find it very frustrating to do so. I'm surprised at how highly it is rated by so many knitters. I bought it to be a reference quide that would be informative and thorough--more than a glossary, but still small enough to be carried in my knitting bag. It is thorough, informative, and compact, but as a reference guide it is lacking. For me, as a reference guide, the question and answer format is clumsy and gets in the way of finding information. That's not a big deal and I would overlook that if the index was robust and enabled me to look things up quickly, but that's the frustrating thing about this book. I'm not a novice, but I'm not always sure exactly what an abbreviation means or maybe I need to brush up on a technique I haven't used in 6 months or I wonder if there is a better way to do something. So I go to the index with a keyword in mind, but too often, it's not there; I have to think about what broader topic would include the information I'm looking for and work backwards. Given the way the information is organized, that isn't always easy and I've found myself skimming chapter after chapter to find something that should be an easy thing to look up.

As I said, I wanted more than just a glossary and when I do find what I am looking for I appreciate the detailed instructions and clear illustrations. I'm impressed with the amount of info in such a small book and there are lots of answers here. The problem is that most of the answers will only be found if you sit down and read the book chapter by chapter. If you have a specific question in mind, it will be hit or miss trying to find the answer. I realize that this book can't be all things to all people, but I have to think that because it is small, at least one of the intentions is that it be a portable reference guide. If that's true, then the content needs to be a lot more accessible. If the index was beefed up, I would recommend this book with 4 stars and feel that it's worthy of taking up space in my crammed knitting bag.

I own this book and the "Knitters Companion" as well as many other knitting books. What makes this different?

First and foremost, this book has EVERYTHING. I have never run across a pattern yet which referred to something that I could not find in this book (besides stitch patterns, obviously). As a quick example, this book contains instructions for 8 bind-offs, where as I have only 3 in many other knitting books, many of which are much larger. This is always the first book I check when I have a question.

The other special thing about this book is its shape and size. This book is small enough to fit in ANY knitting bag, and has nice rounded corners and no spiral binding, so it doesn't catch on anything.

After Thanksgiving dinner my sister started a swatch for me in garter stitch. I enjoy a challenge, it seemed easy enough, until I got home & decided to try knitting myself a sweater. Went and got a book, which was far too advanced for my needs. Kept looking for answers on the net, but found it frustrating. Within 10 minutes of reading this book I found out I was trying to learn English-American style, that I'd taught myself knitted casting and simple binding, but was completely unable to begin the first row after casting. Went on to fix each of several mistakes in technique & tried versions of knitting, purling, increasing by accident, decreasing on purpose, stockinette and two versions of ribbing. My versions of each technique looked strange, this book showed me I was making the fundamental error of twisting each stitch and how to fix it! Now I additionally know that I can do all the same techniques purposely with a twist. Now I also know that my project calls for circular and double pointed needles in two sizes, which type of yarn, and two more skills, to increase on purpose and to knit tubular items, then I'll be ready to knit a sweater. I got this book one week ago. Have you ever tried to write CLEAR instructions for anything? Sincere congratulations Ms Radcliffe, all the answers are really here, this is an awesome work!

I taught myself to knit recently (2/11/07) using a one page guide in a kit, and when I needed to progress, bought this book. It is INVALUABLE. The section about decoding knitting symbols is now bookmarked, as are the ones on various stitches.

It's like having your grandmother in your knitting bag...a grandmother with good advice and a bit of dry wit. I can't recommend it too highly. It's a sturdy little book. I would also recommend you get a pad of Post-its or page flags to go with. You'll be referring to it often.

The book is set up in a question and answer format. There is a good index. The questions are ones that I (I've been knitting 3 years now) find extremely useful. They are right on target and are not over-simplified, but are not overly technical either. The author has a pleasant sense of humor and it feels like she really is on your side. There are not many illustrations, so I would not recommend the book as a stand-alone resource.

This book is small enough to fit in my knitting bag, and I always carry it for reference. The writing is very easy to understand, and very helpful. I've learned a lot from actually reading each chapter. The only negative--the Q & A format of the writing can make it more difficult to find the exact topic you are looking for.