Knitting (Idiot's Guides) Paperback – September 3, 2013

The instructions are very detailed and there are excellent pictures to help. I'm a rank beginner, but I've already made some gifts for family. I am finding knitting to help with stress as well. I've made tons of mistakes, but I'm starting with the super easy projects and getting better as I practice. I recommend this book to others who want to learn how to knit. There are some projects in the book that allow you to create a handcrafted item quickly that can be enjoyed right away, and others that require patience and experience. I checked this book out from the library about 5 times before buying it. Great value!

I'm a beginner knitter and this book was so helpful in not only teaching me the basics, but introducing more challenging knitting techniques. Love the stitch galleries and all the helpful picture instructions!

I just finished up reading the Idiot’s Guide to Knitting by Megan Goodacre. I’d heard an interview with the author on the Knit Picks podcast, and I was impressed enough to pick up a copy.Now, why am I reading a beginners book? First, I like to have something to recommend to new knitters because I remember being terribly frustrated when I started out. I ended up learning from a mish-mash of friends looking over my shoulder, YouTube videos, and mediocre beginner books from my library. I’ve been on the hunt for a program that involves slightly less cursing.Second, there are still some things I don’t know how to do. Colorwork is a big one for me. For years, after some huge failures, I just avoided doing anything more complicated than stripes. I think, once I whittle away at my queue a bit, I’m going to give it a try again.Anyway, the review.Is this book really for beginners?I’m happy to report: Heck yes. It covers techniques at a glacial speed, with a great mix of diagrams and photos. This is just what a beginner needs. Too many books try to teach casting on, knit stitches, purl stitches, and binding off in the first few minutes.Even with going slow, though, she manages to cover a wide array of techniques. She goes all the way up to cables, colorwork, and knitting in the round! I think this is the first time I’ve seen a book cover this many things and still be a beginners book.Goodacre also covers things most beginning books avoid. I’ve never seen a book talk about picking out yarn (most just say to use the yarn in the pattern), or the differences in various kinds of yarn. I learned how to substitute through guessing, and that’s an expensive way to learn.Finally, she goes over mistakes. This is something I wish I’d had, back in the day. The only solution from my knitting circle? Rip back and try again. *sad trombone* She goes over dropped stitches, fixing stitches, and getting rid if stitches you don’t need.The patterns are actually nice (most beginner books suffer from having incredibly ugly patterns), and the author takes care not to use any techniques or stitches that haven’t been explained before. I’m going to be trying several out!Digital versionMy only critique has to do with the digital version. I read mine on my Kindle Fire, and it was pretty obvious that they weren’t planning for a digital audience. There’s no useful table of contents for tablets. The index only has page numbers (so no hopping around). I couldn’t zoom in on text, which was an issue for some pages, since the text and color caused some weird dithering. I could still read it, but it wasn’t pleasant.Also, I’m on the biggest Fire. Had I been on a smaller tablet, I’m pretty sure this book would have been unusable.I hope that they fix this in the future, because this would be an awesome book to have on your phone, knitting on the go.

Unlike a lot of other beginner books, the pictures were in color, large, clear, and often added a contrasting color to the strand to which you needed to pay attention. I learned all the basics, how to read a pattern, the codes/abbreviations, and a dozen or more knit/purl patterns. There were also instructions for felting, knitting in the round, fixing mistakes, and a few nice projects.A great first book that I’m sure I’ll come back to for the easy to understand directions.

This knitting idiot is loving working my way through this book. When I decided I wanted to learn to knit, I dove into the internet looking for instructional videos. I quickly became confused and frustrated at how hard it was to follow someone going at a fast pace when I had no concept of what they were trying to explain. Finally on my 3rd video, the person mentioned this book so I looked it up and ordered it. With this book, I've learned faster than I thought I would. This book does a fantastic job of explaining basic procedures and even how to begin working some pretty nice patterns and I'm only on the first few chapters. I can't wait to read more! This is a MUST HAVE for any beginner.

It was perfect, I absolutely love it!!

The missus wanted this and loved it. She's already a pretty decent knitter and has knitted for quite a few years but wanted something that had some basic patterns that she could go over with our daughter as it has nicely done step by step pics. She found out about the book by using a bunch of free patterns on the authors blog that were nicely done.The basic patterns are great, covering simple stuff like scarves, but some very pretty patterns and knots for jumpers and what not.Well worth getting if you're a beginner and even if you're not.

returning to knitting after many years this is a handy book with various styles of knitting stitch patterns to follow.

This book is the one missing tool i needed to learn .I had tried to learn more on youtube and i have looked at other books but their price was 4× this .I was not expecting such an amazing Text book .Yes I said text book .Its not just some DIY help guide .Its literally the book i will be buying everyone that says they want to learn .Yes YouTube helps but this book was actually more then i expected. It shows from casting on to off ,all the stitches ,how to read patterns, how to anything you need to learn .with projects to practice your lesson .I know some basics and i realized i didn't know enough .You want to learn well this book is just important as the needles if you ask me .20 minutes into the book and I'm better then i have been the last year of trying to learn on my own .

I decided to take up knitting and this book was a godsend. Super easy to follow instructions. I have just been following the how to pages while making a scarf (with a very interesting pattern). Currently done Chapter 3 (except the projects which I will do once I have practiced the skills a little more).

Excellent for a beginner - shows everything you need to get going and inspires when you are ready to expand your new skills

Great book very colourful pictures and also first time with yarn