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Book Review: Knitter’s Almanac

Posted on by Rebecca Tyrrell

Let’s start off with my book was bought used about nine years ago, so if it looks like it’s been dragged through hell and back that’s because it has.

Elizabeth Zimmerman is one of the most influential knitters in my life, and the one that really got me started on knitting from an idea instead of strictly a written pattern. Her thought processes might not be to everyone’s taste, but she’s always worth a read.

Start with this book’s dedication “To the unsure knitter, to the blind follower, and to all those who do not yet know that they can design their own knitting, this book is encouragingly dedicated.”

See why I went with Knitter’s Almanac after my last review? The premise of this book is pretty much what it says on the tin, it contains projects for each month of the year. The majority are sweaters, but there are is also a month for mittens and gloves (May, so it’s not cold and you don’t rush them and have cold fingers), socks, a famous baby jacket, and shawl patterns. The patterns were written from the 1970s (the first edition is from 1974), but classics that carry you through. I remember reading through it the first time and learning about charts, traveling stitches, and the importance of a gauge swatch and how to make that swatch into a practical hat all in the first chapter.

The book is written like a cross between a novel, a diary, and a knitting pattern book. It’s actually a good read even if you aren’t into her patterns.

She has a very natural writing style that makes you feel like you’re in her head, seeing her thought processes and intentions for each pattern organically. The patterns aren’t line-by-line and written in a very conversational style like she’s telling you exactly what she was thinking as she drafted each pattern. There are ‘pithy’ patterns at the end of each chapter that iron out the details of the project.

The only drawback and it’s one where you need to consider the time it was written is that she can come off a bit anti-feminist, such when she’s describing the idea of a circular shawl increased using pi and writes that women “have expunged such theories from their memory” but does say the theory has been expunged to make room for more important things.

I love how she describes her life and what was going on when she drafted each pattern (someday I’m going to get myself an Old Man and live in a converted schoolhouse, hold me to this).

Now tell me, who’s in the mood to knit an almanac? I know I’ve got mittens on the horizon. Or perhaps I’d better start on knitted borders and hats for June?

Pick it up on Amazon here…

Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book

Posted on by Rebecca Tyrrell




Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book, written in 1938 is a general knitting how-to book and reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitters Almanac in the tone and style.

Mary Thomas starts with a little bit on the history of yarn and knitting, from the days of ancient Egypt and naalbinding, although she doesn’t use that term because at that time not much was known about it. That technique is like a combination of knitting and crochet. A large needle or hook is used to draw the entire length of the working yarn through each stitch. Take a look at the Coptic naalbound socks from Egypt (link leads to Wikipedia).

Knitting was the provenance of men at first, with guilds, apprenticeships, and a desire to keep women out of the professional knitting scene. Yes, there is and was one. Women were still expected to knit at home, making their own clothing for themselves and their families but not make a living off it.

She then moves on to Shetland knitters and the tremendous amount of knitting they produced. She mentions a Shetlander woman being able to produce “200 odd stitches a minute!”. They would tuck one needle into a knitting pouch worn around their waists like a brace, so one hand could be free for everything else they were expected to accomplish in the course of their day.

Mary Thomas moves on through the decline of production knitting, as it was, with the advent of sock looms and knitting machines to produce the bulk of knitted clothing.

There is information on needles, point guards, more on the pouches, knitting spools, circular needles, etc. The next chapter is on yarn, how to start a center-pull ball, fiber types, ways to join yarn when you need to start a new ball, and tension. Keep in mind that this information is what was around in those times and hasn’t been updated so there isn’t anything on acrylic, polyester, etc.

There is a lot on the stitch techniques like the knit stitch, purling, increases and decreases, and casting on and binding off. The patterns are basic and the charts are outdated, but that’s the caveat you get when you’re using a book written 81 years ago. The book hasn’t been updated to include the standard symbols used in knitting but that’s a huge part of the charm.

There are a lot of photos and hand-drawn illustrations that give this book tons of character. While much has changed, the basics have stayed the same.

Without a doubt, it’s a worthy inclusion in any fiber library.

Pick it up on Amazon here…

Knit One Knit All

Posted on by Rebecca Tyrrell

“One can only cite the elegant appearance of Garter stitch. It forms beautiful crinkly ridges, which are handsome in themselves. They can be employed horizontally or vertically or both and enable the structure of offbeat knitted pieces to be visible and organically decorative. I like to think that the very first knitter, doodling with sticks and sinews at the sunny entrance to his cave, or peering at his knitting by the flickering firelight, doodled with, or peered at, Garter stitch; the bread and cheese of knitting, the basic stitch — surely the prototype.” — Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knit One Knit All

I’ve never met a knitter (or read a knitter’s books) who stretched a pattern to the limits in order to avoid a purl stitch like Zimmermann did. She purled only when she had to, and then only with reluctance. To be honest, I’ve been skimming through some of the other Zimmermann books in my library to find where I first heard about her dislike for the stitch, and so far I found a quote from Knitting Without Tears “Why do so many of us object to purling? Is it because as children we are taught to knit first, and are then presented with purling as the second and more difficult step? Who knows? Who is willing to take a little innocent child and teach it to purl first? You must admit it’s the trickier of the two.”

Knit One Knit All, therefore, is a collection of Zimmermann’s garter stitch designs. There is a good variety of patterns, starting with hats and working through to jackets. Despite the constraints of only knitting every row (although now that I use that word, I wonder how much of a constraint it really was to Zimmermann, considering her preference for the stitch). There are quite a few patterns I had never seen before, which was cool to see. The cover hat, the Chambered Nautilus Tam for instance is a hat made out of a spiraling i-cord. The pattern instructions for the book are a mix of Zimmermann’s more conversation writing style (more like a description of how to knit the item and less of a row-by-row list of directions) which I find makes this book a bit more beginner-friendly in comparison to her Knitter’s Almanac. Something I learned while researching this post is that Zimmermann’s company Schoolhouse Press has a very comprehensive website. I’ve been trying to order less from Amazon, etc. and more from small businesses, and I learned that you can order books, yarn, and individual patterns directly from the Schoolhouse Press website. I’ll have to take a closer look!

Shifting gears, this weekend I participated in a paranormal investigation of the USS Wisconsin along with the Wraith Chasers and hosted by Haunted Nights Paranormal Events. Very cool night!

Getting there from Fredericksburg to Norfolk, I was so giddy over driving through the midway tunnel (dork) that I took a wrong turn once I emerged from the other end and ended up driving through it twice more before I managed to reach the park where the battleship is permanently docked. I parked my car in the first available spot I found (a bit of a nail-biter there, the sign said two hour parking and I was going to be gone for quite a bit longer). Next time I’m in the area I want to check out the science center nearby and take a proper tour of the battleship itself. Fascinating history! If you’re interested in some more photographs and ghostly details, check out my up-coming Patreon post.

Sock Knitting Master Class

Posted on by Rebecca Tyrrell

“For Sock Knitting Master Class, I asked fifteen renowned sock knitters and experts to contribute their designs and sock-knitting knowledge. In addition to the spectacular patterns, you’ll learn a variety of design approaches and techniques that will provide the foundation for creating beautiful socks of your own. While some designers begin by choosing a skein of yarn for its color, fiber content, or structure, then design a sock that makes the most of these properties, others begin with an idea for a particular stitch or color pattern. (…)

However they begin, the most successful sock designs follow the Bauhaus principle that form follows function. In socks, this means that each part — cuff, leg, heel, instep, sole, and toe — has a pleasing design that accomplishes the necessary function. The true art in designing comes from the integration of the different parts into an overall plan that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. ” — Sock Knitting Master Class, Ann Budd

Considering all the sock knitting books I own, and I own quite a few, and all the patterns I’ve seen in those books, this is the first one that made me gasp out loud at a pattern. Anna Zilboorg’s Half-Stranded Socks. It may just be the gorgeous photographs, but I took a sock yarn stash dive as soon as I could, looking for two solids (or semi-solids) that would work. I got as far as casting on for the first sock, when I really thought about it an realized casting a few stitches and knitting a long, thin toe band an a dark yarn late at night wasn’t something I really had the mental spoons for at the end of a work day. Also, in the near distance I saw my Firefly socks from A Knitter’s Book of Socks, staring at me with their bright colors, almost-done first sock on handy circular needles and I just felt like a monster. There will be another time, though. The construction of the Half-Stranded socks really is pretty clever. You cast on for the toe band, pick up stitches for the top half of the foot and knit the stranded pattern on the instep, put these stitches on a holder once you get to the gusset, then pick up the other stitches for the bottom of the foot that you’ll knit in one color, then join at the gusset and knit up from there for the rest of the sock. The though process there is so that if you end up with a hole from wear in the bottom of the foot, you can just snip a stitch and re-knit the bottom without loosing the rest of the sock. Reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Moccasin Socks from Knitter’s Almanac. Me, however, being the basically lazy person I am, I’d probably just darn any holes that appear. But it’s nice to know I have options. I love that richly stranded pattern, though.

There are a lot of really wearable patterns in the book. I know, you figure it’s a book of sock patterns, so yeah, you reckon they’d be wearable, but in a book like this where designers are trying to come up with a real showstopper to show off their design skills, there are bound to be one or two designs that are hard to imagine seeing regular wear. Like, for instance, Up-Down Entrelac by Kathryn Alexander. Don’t get me wrong, they’re certainly striking, but looking at them I can’t help but think they’d be a bear to knit tight enough to fit. Entrelac, at least for me, is tough enough to pull off as it is, but on the photo used in the book, you can tell that the finished product is already starting to bag out on the foot of the model. Certainly statement socks, though!

In this book the actual knitting techniques (the Master Class bits) are spread out through the pages, instead of clumped together at the beginning like I usually see. The book is packed with detailed instructions on different methods of sock knitting, such as different heel and toe structures, and the pros and cons of each. Definitely worth taking a look at if you want to push your sock knitting to the next level.

Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop

Posted on by Rebecca Tyrrell




Back in 1974 Elizabeth Zimmermann ran the first knitting camp/retreat in the United States. While doing some background research on my post for this book I also found that someone at a university in Wisconsin actually wrote her thesis on it, which is quite awesome. A few years later in 1981 while at one of the week-long camps she was approached about doing a video series based on what she taught at the camp that ended up being aired on PBS. You can find further info on that on the website for the business she started in the 1950’s, Schoolhouse Press.

Eventually, a book was written which contained the lesson she taught in her videos. Aptly named after the series, Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop is written as a companion guide to the video series but also as a useful resource if you’ve never seen them. There are three main parts; Beginnings- A Hat, Two Sweaters, and Master Classes. Within those three, there are four lessons which go into greater detail. The lessons are full of her illustrations and handwriting, and the photographs for the book were taken by her daughter Meg Swansen. That touch gives this book a very personal feeling. There is some overlap between her books, for instance the Pi shawl in this book is also in The Knitter’s Almanac, and if you are familiar with that almanac you’ll also recognize the Fisherman’s Guernsey from the month of January in lesson four of part three.

This is the book where some of her more famous patterns sprang from, for example, the baby surprise jacket (and the child and adult versions) named so because in her own words, “I call it the surprise jacket because it looks like nothing on earth when you have finished knitting it. Sew up two seams, and you have the nicest little garter stitch baby-sweater or adult mind boggler.” Also included here are the Tomten, a modular-knit jacket, “yes, Swedes, I know the ‘en’ is redundant”, and the rib warmer, a vest that she calls the second-best bazaar item (presumably for selling) after the hat.

I feel that the forward by Barbara G. Walker really sums it up. “The first of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s writings that I ever read told me how to make a ribbed turtleneck: pick up a multiple of four stitches around the neck and work in knit-two purl-two ribbing until you are sick of it. When I finished laughing, I realized that Elizabeth is more than witty – she’s right. Every knitter knows that is indeed how turtlenecks are made. For many years, I and thousands of other enthusiastic Elizabeth-watchers have heartily enjoyed her wit and wisdom. She’s a delight and an inspiration. Her designs are interesting. Her written instructions combine two qualities all too seldom met together: they teach, and they amuse, both at once.”

Pick it up on Amazon here…