Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This review is more on the style and format of the book for knitters who might be interested in this information:

While I love the Harmony Guides, it is currently out of my budget to get all 7 volumes. The 900 stitches in this Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook are indeed from the Harmony Guides to Knitting Stitches series. I notice from the copyright page that this material is published by an arrangement with Collins & Brown, the same publishers for the original Harmony Guides. Reader's Digest appears to publish by arrangement with British companies, many wonderful titles and presenting a twist of the english sensibility, i.e. Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook (by RD)

The Reader's Digest Sourcebook does not contain every single stitch from the Harmony volumes (numbering over 1000), but it is still a huge amount compiled into one manageable reference and at a much more affordable price. The color combinations look fine to me, the majority are traditional designs, nothing terribly dated except for one or two swatches in strange orange/gray combos. In order to fit 900+ stitches and photographs into the book, each page is divided into 3 columns, with one to two photographs per column followed by the stitch directions. Each photograph measures approximately 2" x 1.5" in detail. The type is either 9 or 10pt., which might be hard for some eyes. I use a craft light like the Ott-Lite to illuminate the page, and also use post-it notes to keep track.

What I like is how it is arranged by weight patterns, and the number of multiples to start with at the very top of the section, and what skill level it requires in bold type. Another wonderful thing are the headers on every page, so that you know what section you are on at all times, (i.e. knitting...heavyweight patterns...slipstich color patterns). There are also crochet letterforms in an art nouveau design for filet crochet.

The one thing lacking is a detailed section for aran stitches (only 3pp), if you are into that. However, many other cable and panel pattern pages are found in the book.

I am a beginning knitter practicing on scarves to improve my stitches. This book gives an endless range of possibilities for me to try, and it will still be useful when I tackle a larger project.

Some of the photographs could be a little clearer, but most are excellent. I have been able to teach myself some new stitches from the printed instructions and diagrams.

This is a great book for beginners and experts alike. Good instructions and diagrams for the beginners, and lots and lots of ideas and inspiration for the old hands. One of the best I have seen in a long time.

I am a beginner in this amazing world of crochet, so many of the recently published books like this one and Donna Kooler's "encyclopedia of crochet" are tremendously helpful in the visualizations of the stitches. I have only owned this book for a couple of weeks, but have already spent hours enjoying all of the photographs and descriptions. The inspiration to begin crocheting in my forties comes from my 98-year-old little grandmother who started crocheting 88 years ago. She has made many remarkably beautiful crochet projects in her lifetime. This book enables me to clearly understand how skilled she has become because she has accomplished all of these stitches, especially the various motifs and edgings and that is priceless for me to realize. Thanks to Reader's Digest for publishing this great book.

The things I liked about this book:
1. descriptions of stitches: drape of stitch, skill required
2. color pictures
3. many stitch patterns
4. relatively equal treatment of knitting and crochet:
knit: pages 11-180
crochet: pages 181-316
5. sorting by weight
knit: medium weight, heavy weight, lace, panel, ribs and edgings
crochet: medium weight, heavy weight, openwork, motifs, edgings

Things that I don't mind, but aren't perfect:
1. small pictures, contrast varies from good to moderate
2. no charts

Some say that this book is like the Harmony guides, but I haven't looked at them closely. As an intermediate knitter and crocheter, I find this book easy to use and completed my first project over the holiday, inserting the Vandyke lace panel into a scarf. I bought this book to add variety to the patterns I already have.

I checked this book out at the library and have learned many things. I am a beginner and it is nice to have such a large reference book at hand. The book divides patterns up by "weight" which is helpful. I'll be getting a copy as a gift.

If you are just starting out, or if you are looking for an all in one guide than this is an excellent book. It has wonderful pictures and instructions. I have not found another book so complete with both as of yet in one edition. I am enjoying practicing the stitchs that I have found in here.

This book is excellent for people who know how to knit and crochet and don't want to be constantly buying patterns. There are tons of patters organized by yarn weight and use. The book gives info on how to knit and crochet however, it is weak in terms of pictures which most beginners need.

What is important for the serious knitter is to know that this stitch book is a rehash of the older Harmony knit and crochet stitch books. One of my books had 440 stitch patterns alone. So with just 900 stitches about half of which are for knitting and the other for crochet, you are not getting the total of all the Harmony books together. However, each stitch has a helpful name to it and they are grouped into like categories. The color pictures are tiny and there are no charts but there are good top subtitles on each page and also at the sides. The index is also a useful feature and the book looks sturdy with good print and binding. The aran stitches and fair isle stitches are lacking from this edition. There was one Harmony book just on those stitches so worth hunting around for that one to supplement this.

I use this book constantly, as I love to create my own scarves and hats with various fancy stitches, and it's fun to find new ones in this book. It's a pretty good collection, at least for an advanced beginner like myself. There is also a fair amount of instruction at the beginning of the book, and it has helped me figure out such intimidating things as psso and sl1 that scare new knitters! I don't crochet, so I can't really comment on that part of the book, which is about half of it.

However, as I am getting a little more experienced, I am finding a few amount of mistakes in the pages of this book. I tried one stitch pattern and found it actually made the pattern shown in the picture for the pattern next to it. Another time, a pattern that clearly had 23 stitches in every other row all of a sudden had the last two rows saying to K1, P11, K1. I am pretty sure it meant the last part should be K11, but I felt quite upset that I worked my way through the first 14 rows only to be unsure what to do.

I also find the organization a bit strange. There are little tiny sections like mesh knitting, and bigger sections like small scale lace patterns and then bigger scale lace patterns and then motif knitting...and they all seem to blend together to me.

I wish also there was a little more commentary on the stitches. I'd love a little guidance as to what kind of project each one might be good for, or even a chatty little comment like "a real favorite for new knitters" or something like that.

Overall, though, I am very glad I have this book. The pictures are in color, the pages are easy on the eyes and it's BIG, with a lot collected together for the money!