I frequently “try out” books from an excellent regional library before I decide to buy. You name the knitting book, and nine times out of ten, they have a copy of it.

I recently checked out Color In Spinning by Deb Menz. I can’t believe this book is out of print. Amazon has a waiting list of twelve people. I haven’t checked e-bay but I’m sure it probably fetches high bids. It is a great resource on color theory for yarn and includes extensive information about dyeing, carding and combing.

The Big Book of Knitting was the first knitting reference book that I purchased after I decided to take up knitting again. I was originally attracted to this book when I was learning how to make socks. It has some of the best photo instructions (on socks and other techniques) that I have found. Most of the written instructions are ok, but sometimes I find that the translation from German isn’t always clear. It seems to be one of the few books that shows a lot of advanced techniques, which I believe, are quite common in Europe.

I recently picked up The Knitters book of Finishing Techniques. While it mostly shows just the standard lists of techniques, it does have excellent photos and descriptions. As I’ve mentioned before, I like how it describes the three-needle bind off with short rows. I also refer to it when doing a K1P2 grafted bind off.

I wonder if a new version of “The Principles of Knitting” will come out anytime soon.  This is another book that shouldn’t be out of print. I checked out a copy from the library and was amazed. An updated version of this book would definitely beat all the rest. Amazon has plenty of copies for sell with the lowest price being around $200. I might pay that for a newly revised edition, but for now I’ll just continue checking it out of the library.

I have some mixed feelings about Latvian Dreams by Joyce Williams. The list of techniques is excellent but the tiny digital photos are awful. It’s obvious that they put all their effort into the charts, patterns and photos of the sweaters. The back of the book has slew of charted latvian designs that would inspire anyone.