“The Knit Stitch”, by Sally Melville

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to.  As an experienced knitter on my way to become a Master Hand Knitter, I don’t ignore beginner’s books, but I don’t generally find anything new in them.  This one impressed me by not leaving out all the ‘extra’ stuff that a lot of books think beginners don’t need.  By focusing only on the knit stitch (not even purling!), she can include all kinds of little touches and details that make a knitted garment outstanding.  I mean things like how to start and end a row, or exactly how to make a buttonhole that will work well for a certain garment.

I actually found it because I was looking on Ravelry.com for a certain type of jacket I wanted to knit.  I found something pretty close, which turned out to be the Einstein Coat in this book.  I’m about a quarter of the way through an enjoyable garter stitch project, which I never thought I would do!  The plain, flat fabric of garter stitch turns out to be the best way to show off the crazy colours of variegated wool I bought at fire-sale prices from KnitPicks.