If you've ever wished for a lot of knitting stitch patterns and information in a small package you can carry with you wherever you might need a compendium of stitch patterns, the Field Guide to Knitting: How to Identify, Select, and Work Virtually Every Stitch by Jackie Pawlowski may be just the thing you're looking for.
While it doesn't really include "virtually every stitch," it does offer more than 200 knit and purl, lace, cable, ribbing and edging patterns, along with information about the history of the patterns and how they can best be used.
The Patterns
The book is simply divided into general sections of knitting stitch patterns:
- knit and purl stitches
- cables
- openwork and lace
- ribbings and edgings
Each stitch pattern includes a general description of the stitch, which may include a bit of the pattern's history or a general description of how the stitch looks, is made or used; properties of the stitch such as reversability, stretch, texture and drape; yarn consumption relative to Stockinette Stitch; suggested uses including the needle sizes (and therefore yarn weights) that would best be used with the pattern; other names that might be used for the pattern and the pattern itself.
All patterns are given in words rather than charts, which can make some of them pretty lengthy but makes this book a little friendlier to beginners and those who aren't comfortable with reading charts.
Icons in the margins provide a little more information; the only trouble is, as far as I can tell, there's nowhere in the book that actually explains what the icons mean. Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, such as a TV on patterns that are pretty easy and a triangle with an exclamation point in it to indicate the more challenging patterns, but others, such as arrows that form a circle, are less clear.
The book is laid out so that there's a section of full-color photographs of each of the stitches separate from the instructions and there are no photos of the patterns with the instructions. That can be a little annoying because you have to flip through the center section to find a design you like the look of, then go back to the pattern instructions.
Bottom Line
Despite those criticisms, Field Guide to Knitting is a handy reference for a wide variety of knitting patterns, and it's great to have color pictures of these patterns to help you decide which ones you'd like to use.
The small size is great for portability, but the book doesn't lie open at all, which can be a bit of a pain when trying to work from it.
Still, knitters who enjoy having a wide selection of stitch patterns at their disposal will like this book. It's got a lot of the classics you'll find in any stitch guide, but there are some less-well-known ones as well.
Publication date: November 2007.
