400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary Of Essential Stitch Patterns

by Potter Craft, Thierry Lamarre

Whether you're a beginning knitter or advanced, whether your tastes range from simple knit-purl stitching to fancy Daisy or Moroccan screen, this dictionary of stitch patterns is indispensable! Young knitters, old knitters, hip knitters, traditional knitters: they all enjoy different styles. But every knitter from age 5 to 95 needs a good dictionary of stitches.  400 Knitting Stitches is a comprehensive guide that invites knitters to experiment with a variety of new stitch combinations. The book is conveniently divided into eight categories: knit-purl, crossed and cables, slipped, lacy, double, twisted, cast-off, and fancy stitches.  Making a romantic lacy wrap or a classic cable sweater? Whatever your style, there's a stitch in here for you. Each of the 400-plus featured stitches is accompanied by easy-to-follow written and charted instructions, as well as a full-color photograph. A section on basic knitting information and techniques at the front of the book makes this volume even more invaluable.

From advanced knitters experimenting with their own designs to beginners looking for clear instruction and explanation, 400 Knitting Stitches is an essential reference for knitters of all kinds.

Genres: Knitting, Crafts, Nonfiction, Reference, Cookbooks

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked out several stitch-tionaries from the library to get a sense of what they’re like and which is best. This one didn’t make the short list of birthday asks but I’m still interested in it. Not buying just yet because (in no particular order) a)no index or toc to quickly find patterns b) all swatch images knitted in the same natural color yarn c) patterns written in paragraph form rather than starting each row on a new line (this is my pet peeve with recipes too - this is perhaps the biggest reason for me not to buy this book actually) d) wish it explained about each resulting fabric (reversible, good uses of, how much more yarn is used, stuff like that; sometimes this is included but not consistently).

I do like all the knit-purl stitches in the beginning. There are also a ton (90 pages so probably over 150!) of cable patterns. The slipped and lacy stitches are probably more than an advanced beginner like me could ever need but this is where the way the instructions are formatted makes it difficult to digest quickly. If you read charts (teeny ones) or are already pretty comfortable with the directions and just need a reminder then the maximization of space in this dictionary will likely work well for you.

[Dina (ReviewTime) · Rating 5 out of 5]

400 Knitting Stitches is a good resource to have on hand for beginners and advanced knitters. Inside you will find patterns that cover the basics for beginners, intermediate patterns and advanced patterns for skilled knitters. Beginners will find the “Knitting Basics” section to very helpful. This section offers step by step instructions to teach beginners the basics. The tone is easy is to follow, yet remains informative. Also many of the patterns in the “Knit-Purl” section are designed for beginners to practice their knitting. This section also has many patterns that intermediate beginners will enjoy. The “Cross Stitches and Cables” section contains many lovely patterns ranging in difficulty from intermediate to advanced. Seasoned knitters will find the patterns within the “Slipped Stitches, Lacy Stitches, Double Stitches, Twisted Stitches, and Cast-Off Stitches” sections to be a real treat, as these showcase the knitter's skill. Page Count: 256 Page. Size: 8.8 x 7 x 0.7 inches

What's Inside?

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Knitting Basics: Abbreviations, Understanding a Pattern, Tension, Diagrams, Casting On, Stitches, Knit, Purl, Casting Off, Patterns and techniques.
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Knit-Purl Stitches: These 86 stitches include: Stockinette stitch, Garter stitch, Moss stitch, 1/1 rib stitch, Caterpillar stitch, 2/2 Garter stitch rib, Furrowed rib, Dot stitch, Seersucker.
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Crossed Stitches and Cables: These 139 stitches include: Simple twist, 10-Stitch cable, Double cable, Stitch plaits, Broken rib, Uneven cable, Chain links, Honeycomb.
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Slipped Stitches: These 60 stitches include: Double stocking stitch, Speckled rid, Partridge eye, Grass stitch, Wisteria stitch, X stitch, Wings, Butterflies, Alternating Arrows, Sycamore, Alternating grass tufts.
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Lacy Stitches: These 85 stitches include: Simple openwork, Eyelet fabric, Openwork squares, Openwork ladders, Matting stitch, Turkish stitch, Patchwork, Tulle stitch, Horizontal eyelets, Tile stitch, Falling leaves.
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Double Stitches: These 12 stitches include: Fisherman’s rib, English rib knit-wise, English rib purl-wise, Fancy Richelieu rib, Ladders, Alternating English rib, Wheatgerm.
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Twisted Stitches: These 6 stitches include: Double twisted stocking stitch, Twisted stocking stitch, and Two-tone double twisted rib.
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Cast-Off Stitches: These 3 Stitches include: Bamboo stitch, and Diamond drops.

My Personal Opinion:
As an intermediate knitter I find this book to be a valuable resource. The patterns can easily be adapted into a variety of projects such; scarves, throws, afghans, or prayer shawls. Unlike other knitting books 400 Knitting Stitches focuses on stitch patterns, rather than project patterns. This format helps you to learn new stitches, practice them, and apply them to your own project patterns. I highly recommend this edition for those who enjoy new stitch patterns as this is the best resource I have encountered.

[Kelly Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots and lots of ideas here. Some of the instructions are not perfect - I've found several where the final stitch count varies from row to row because there's a k1 missing at the beginning or end, before or after a bunch of repeats. You have to figure out where to add that yourself, to have the right number of stitches for the next pattern row. Use the charts as well as the written instructions; that helps.

[Debbie Handley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been checking out several stitch dictionaries from my local library searching for THE one so I can buy it for myself to keep. This one fails for a few different reasons. 1. No index. 2. All are done on the same bland color of yarn. 3. I would really like a small explanation of the stitch pattern-such as garter stitch-lies flat and is identical on each side. 4. It would be fantastic if a chart was also included in each.

[Pegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I *needed* another knitting stitch pattern book. I picked this one because it includes both written and charted instructions and anymore I'm all about the charts. The photography in the book is excellent. All the samples are knitted in a neutral ivory that allows the reader to see the pattern well in the photos. There is a chart with each pattern, but they are quite small. Really small, actually. Older eyes aren't happy with that, but in every other way, this book is top notch.

[Denise Mullins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent assortment of patterns, including types never seen before(twisted and cast off). Appreciate that each pattern is presented in chart and alphaed instruction format. However, this is where the problem lies: in doing both, the print font is extremely small and all but impossible to read for older eyes. If you're not visually impaired, this might be the tutorial for you.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource on knitting stitches. This gave me the skills I needed to start making my own creative, unique patterns!

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

very useful and easy to follow

[C2015 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, amazing stitches. I still have to figure out how to read the chart, especially for cables, but if I want to make something of my own, this book would be the one to look through.

[Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first pattern book. Lots to inspire me here!

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly comprehensive and fun collection of, like the title says, 400 Knitting Stitches, sorted into eight categories: 1) Knit-purl stitches, 2) Crossed stitches and cables, 3) Slipped stitches, 4) Lacy stitches, 5) Double stitches, 6) Twisted stitches, 7) Cast-off stitches, and 8) Fancy stitches; the bulk of the book's content is spread through the first four categories. A very little colorwork is included in the slipped stitches category, but otherwise colorwork - Fair Isle, intarsia, etc. - is absent. Many common, comparatively simple stitches are excluded from the book, I presume to make more space for the more complicated or original stitches in the larger sections, hence the "fairly comprehensive."

A "Knitting basics" section at the start of the book goes over some of the terminology used for certain techniques (this took me an abominably long time to discover, as I expected a glossary to be in the back) as well as providing some very brief how-to info about casting on, knitting and purling, etc. The book is very, very light on how-to instructions especially with the more complicated technique and stitches, but free on-line resources like knittinghelp.com, knitting.about.com, and Youtube provide translations and demonstrations that can help you out with that.

What I find particularly helpful about this book is that every stitch pattern is charted and written out; many magazines and books only include charts, and unfortunately I'm not very good with charts, hahaha. So that's great news for me! The charts are pretty tiny, though, so be aware of that. There is a glossary in the back, one dedicated to the symbols used in the charts; as far as I can tell, it's well-edited and thorough. All instructions but for one are written as flat-knit; that is, not in the round.

Presentation is lovely! Every page is glossy, and the book's in color (except, oddly, for the very first section, the basics). It's a little heavy, but not prohibitively so, and really, it just feels meaty. The only problem I have with the binding is it's a pain trying to keep the book open to a certain page while knitting, both because it's traditionally bound and because of the aforementioned heaviness. Every time I've worked with a stitch pattern in the book, I've had to either write it out by hand on paper or type it up in Notepad on my laptop.

I do love this dictionary a lot! It's neatly organized, nicely presented, and I think a great resource of stitches that I've been incorporating into my knitting, sometimes with modifications, sometimes without. At $18.99 (USD), it's surprisingly inexpensive, too! So, yes, I would recommend it. :)

[Emm · Rating 1 out of 5]

No index! No alternate names.

[♥ Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has good organization. Many of the stitches are basic and there are patterns that are just reflections of each other. This isgreat for those who want to understand how those stitch patterns are constructed. However, those who are looking for advanced stitch patterns may not like the choice of patterns.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent selection of stitches enhanced by detailed colored photos. Only drawback is that it is not spiral bound; and because of narrow inner margins which would cut off some text, it cannot be rebound at Staples.

Marking this book as read for Goodreads purposes; however, it will be opened many more times to discover new stitches.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a 40 year old book with 100 different patterns. I LOVE that book. Unfortunately, it is out of print. This is the 2nd best similar book I have found. IF you wish to learn LOTS of different stitch patterns this book will help you. AND you can take the squares you make, slip stitch them together, and create a unique afghan to show off your experience.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. It is such a beautifully comprehensive reference. The pattern instructions are clearly written and a chart is included for every single one of them. This combined with a glossary in the back provides ample opportunity to learn to read charts besides being handy for experienced knitters. I cannot overstate how much I love this book.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tons of beautiful stitches, all worked in the same ivory colored yarn, with both written instructions and graphs! There are lots of cables and textures. Be warned: there is no index. I typed up my own, but it's kind silly to publish a stitch dictionary with no index.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the lovliest of photos depicting each stitch accompanied by the instructions. It'a great book for self designing. As mentioned before in comments, it doesn't have an index. One industrious commentor made her own. Now that's committment! I love the many cable stitches!

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The instructions are clear and the photography is vibrant and seductive—it makes you want to knit. The book itself is a good size for handling while knitting. I have other stitchonaries, but I will consider adding this one to my personal craft book library.

[Martha]

charts could be bigger; great photos

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one to own! How can a person go wrong with this many stitches? The possibilities for custom garments, bags, accessories, etc. is endless with a book like this.

note to self: buy this book!

[J2418 K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful resource book of knitting stitches, small but good photo's of each design.

[Jams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't tell you how helpful this stitch guide has been to my knitting.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much as a book to read but rather one to reference. I like it so much, I ordered a used copy from an Amazon seller and will add it to my knitting library.

[K Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous dictionary on all the different knitting stitches. I was tempted to buy it, but kind of went off knitting for a while. Would be an excellent resource for the keen knitter.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would like to own this book for my reference library:)

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great reference book for various stitches for building your own patterns. I have been trying many of them on various washcloths and scarves.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirational for a fledgling knitter.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very good for beginners...pretty to look at, but confusing.