Knitting books and magazines normally trickle in one every other month or so, other than small deluges around Christmas and my birthday. But this week I had a sort of perfect storm of knitting books coming in.

I only bought one of these books, Firmament, on purpose from Amazon. The others are all courtesy of our local used books store, Title Wave. Due to us Kondoing our house, we have built up so much store credit that they were getting reluctant to let any more build up. So we had a wander around, and I came up with the other four items here.

Firmament, by Hunter Hammersen, is about what the author calls dip stitches. You create the patterns by pulling your working yarn through different areas of already worked knitting to make elongated stitches. She has created four main stitch patterns using this technique, which are used in the four hat patterns included. There are also variants on the stitch patterns, and also directions for doing cowls instead of hats. It’s a small book, but packed with knitty goodness! The technique and stitch patterns are very clearly illustrated, as are the hat projects included.

The Rowan magazine in the back row is from 1993, when Kaffe Fasset ruled the earth and all the patterns featured intarsia and were just basically crazy. In general, I’m not a Rowan fan. Their patterns are kind of plain, which is fine but not really my thing. But this particular magazine has some wacky patterns, so I bit.

Knitted Wraps and Cover-Ups is by Annie Modesitt. It features an array of wraps, boleros, shrugs, and little capelets in a vast array of techniques. There are things in lace, cables, slip-stitch colorwork, entrelac, and much more.

Geo Knits by Mary Jane Mucklestone takes stranded colorwork in a slightly different direction. For the patterns in this book, she uses the same techniques you would for traditional fair isle knitting and uses it to create more modern looking items with polka dots, stripes, and other geometric shapes on wearable accessories and household items.

And finally, Knitting In the Sun. This book is all warm weather knits – tank and short sleeve tops as well as miscellaneous items. A lot of the projects are in cotton or linen yarns – that sort of thing. I initially picked this up because my Mom spends a good part of the year in Florida, and I thought she might like it. And indeed she might, but I also have plans to make quite a few of the things myself. The sad fact of living in a cold climate is that office buildings and other public places are often way overheated, so layering is a necessity. Truly warm pullovers are good for the outdoors and for spring and fall, when the HVAC systems aren’t on yet, but the rest of the year you don’t want to dress too heavily for day-to-day work. So a nice light tank top and a light cardigan work out pretty well.

So a strangely busy week for new knitting books, but they all look interesting! I’m looking forward to reading them all through and putting some of these new patterns to use 🙂

Have you read any good knitting or crafting books lately? Got any favorites you are revisiting?