Teach Yourself Visually Circular Knitting

Melissa Morgan-Oakes is one of my heroes. She chucked a cushy life working as a charge nurse at a nursing home and moved out to the country to raise chickens and bees and write books. I have a dream that I'll do that one day too. But then the city girl in me kicks up a fuss and says that I'm gonna die with concrete under my feet. Who knows? Maybe one day...

Melissa's latest book is Circular Knitting. It's part of the Teach Yourself Visually Series that Wiley publishes. The idea behind the series is to use minimal text and maximum illustrations to get the point across. While I'm no expert on pedagogical theory, I think knitters as a whole are a visual lot so this makes sense to me.



















This book is pretty much soup to nuts. It starts out with a discussion of the pros and cons of circular knitting along with recommendations for needles, yarns and tools that might come in handy. It then goes on to talk about different methods and special techniques of circular knitting. All the while, there are lots of pictures, diagrams and drawings to help you visualize the process.

The middle section of the book is projects. Again, she walks you through from starter projects like potholders and mitts all the way through scary things like steeks. (Eeks!) Each pattern has a nifty little section called "Plan Your Project" where Melissa holds your hand through the process of picking things like your circular knitting technique, yarn, size, stitch pattern etc.

Melissa finishes up with a brief stitch dictionary designed to serve as a springboard to allow you to take the projects in the book and customize them to your own tastes. All in all, this is a great introduction to a way of knitting that is becoming more and more popular all the time.

Lorna's Laces is featured in one of the intermediate projects, Basic Socks, Kids to Adults. The instructions are clear and concise and provide a template to make any size socks in several gauges. This is a feature that will keep me picking up this book again and again.























And this sweet little baby set, Infant's Cardigan, Hat and Booties, is in the advanced project section of the book.



















It's knit from our Honor yarn in the Calumet colorway. Seems like a fun project for a lucky baby!

Speaking of lucky...would you like a copy for yourself? I have a signed copy right here on my desk waiting for a good home. Leave a comment here until 5PM CDT on Friday, June 24th and we'll pick a winner with the ever-so-popular random number generator.