"knitspeak"

I've been reading "Knitspeak: An A to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns" by Andrea Berman Price. Granted, I never have time to actually READ books! I'm too busy knitting and crocheting. I get a lot of radio, TV and iPod listening, but rarely any reading, unless I'm working on some boring stockinet and have a book holder.

However, "Knitspeak" is a huge help with my current knitting project. I'm knitting up holiday gifts of wristwarmers. I call them "wristys." The pattern that I'm using for the wristys said to use the mattress stitch to join the edges of the wristwarmers. I wasn't quite sure how to do the mattress stitch, so I just looked it up in the alphabetical section of "Knitspeak." Perfect! There was a clear explanation with pictures of how to accomplish this stitch. I figured it out and now my wristys are perfectly joined.

"Knitspeak" is organized with a section on pattern-reading basics, like what do parenthesses mean in a pattern? What knitting patterns don't tell you. Helpful hints. Using charts and common pattern conventions. The following section is an A to Z guide to the terms of knitting. I didn't know about "LLI", Left Lifted Increase. Each term is diagramed and described in plain English. Toward the end of the book is an Appendix that discusses guidlines for substituting yarns, how to read a yarn label, picking up dropped stitches, worksheets for planning a project and much more. The final section has a list of knitting abbreviations, so you can quickly refer to this list while working on a project.

The perfectly pink book is small in size, less than 5 x 7, so it will fit neatly into your knitting bag or purse. I've been taking it with me everywhere, just in case. You can always find answers to knitting questions online, but when I'm knitting in the park or at the Farmers Market, I don't have my 'puter with me. "Knitspeak" is a knitting lifesaver, even for a veteran knitter like me!