YARN Magazine

About our reviews

Particularly in our part of the world, books can be very expensive. Our agenda is simply to provide a buyer's guide, to assess some of the many knitting and fibrecraft books on the market and help you sort out the ones we think you will really find useful, enjoyable and good value.

We provide links to Amazon in the hope that if you wish to buy a book, you'll do so by clicking through from this site. By making purchases in this manner, you will help to support this site and keep the reviews coming.

Many of these reviews have appeared in previous issues of the print magazine, and some are exclusive to this website. We'll be putting all of our reviews online gradually, but if there's something you'd like to bring to our attention, please let us know.

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Absolute beginner?

Read reviews of two books we think will give you a firm foundation in knitting start if you're an absolute beginner.

See what we've got to say about

Shetland Hap Shawls
By Sharon Miller

This book is devoted entirely to the otherwise overlooked workaday shawl called the hap—the one the Shetland knitters themselves would have worn... (read more)

Our stash of book reviews

Reviews by title

200 Knitted Blocks, Jan Eaton (Y0)
A Gathering of Lace, Meg Swansen; Elaine Rowley, Ed. (Y2)
A—Z of Knitting
Alterknits, Leigh Radford (Y2)
Amazing Crochet Lace, Doris Chan (Y6)
Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns, Ellen Liberles, Ed. (Y2)
Big Girl Knits, Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer (Y4)
Bullions and Beyond, Prudence Mapstone (Y1)
Colour (The Knitting Experience Book 3) Sally Melville (Y3)
DomiKNITrix: Whip Your Knitting Into Shape, Jennifer Stafford
Folk Hats, Vicki Square (Y1)
FREEformations, Jenny Dowde
Friday Night Knitting Club, Kate Jacobs
Getting Started Knitting, Jennifer Worick (Y4)
Handmade Style: Knit, Janine Flew, Ed. (Y4)
Hollywood Knits Style, Suss Cousins (Y3)
Hooked: A Crocheter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom, Kari Cornell, Ed. (Y4)
Knit 2 Together, Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark (Y4)
Knitted Babes, Clare Garland (Y1)
Knitted Flowers, Nicky Epstein (Y5)
Knitting Essentials 1 & 2 (DVD), Lucy Neatby (Y5)
Knitting Loves Crochet, Candi Jensen
Knitting Nature, Norah Gaughan (Y3)
Knitting Out of Africa, Marianne Isager (Y3)
Knitting Over the Edge, Nicky Epstein (Y1)
Knitting Vintage Socks, Nancy Bush (Y1)
Learn to Knit: All You Need to Know (Patons) (Y4)
Mason-Dixon Knitting, Kay Gardiner and Ann Shaye (Y5)
Modular Knits, Iris Schreier (Y1)
Naughty Needles, Nikol Lohr
Never Too Many Handbags, Prudence Mapstone (Y1)
One Skein, Leigh Radford (Y2)
Ponchos (Vogue Knitting On the Go! Series) (Y2)
Sexy Little Knits, Ashley Paige (Y4)
Shetland Hap Shawls: Then & Now, Sharon Miller
Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies, (Y2) Jane Davis
Sock Techniques 1 & 2 (DVDs), Lucy Neatby
Spin to Knit, Shannon Okey
The Ashford Book of Weaving, Rowena Hart (Y4)
The Knitted Rug, Donna Druchunas (Y2)
The Knitter's Handbook, Elaine Rowley, Ed. (Y3)
Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, Martha Waterman (Y2)
Unexpected Knitting, Debbie New (Y5)
Victorian Lace Today, Jane Sowerby
Wrap Style, Pam Allen and Ann Budd, eds. (Y0)

Notables

Arachne's Children, Elizabeth Paramanathan
Knit 1, Jo Sharp
Knit 2, Jo Sharp
Metro 2 (Patons)
Textiles Anyone? Maris Herr, Ed.