4 Knitting Books That Inspire & Teach

It's World Book Day! 

I wanted to do something special for you today, so I am sharing some of my favourite books that have inspired me as a knitter and shaped the way I design. 

Books play a special role in our lives, but it's easy to forget with Google Search and YouTube. They can ignite our imaginations, expand our horizons, and help us tailor our unique style. World Book Day this year reminded me to think of these books below as destinations I can always return to when I want to reflect on how my journey once began and my aspirations for Zanete Knits.  

So, if you’re anything like me and want to advance your skills, these books provide insight and inspiration to take your knitting to the next level.

Most inspiring: Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible by Hitomi Shida 

This book is for any knitter drawn to intricate and complex stitches. Hitomi Shida, a professional knitwear designer since 1992, offers a stitch library of hundreds of Japanese cable and lace patterns to help knitters of all levels discover the beauty of Japanese knitting. Whenever I need to get my creative juices flowing, I can flick through this book and walk away with a thousand new knitting project ideas.

The Clotted Cream pullover is the embodiment of inspiration stemming from this book.

Most admired: Knitted Cable Sourcebook by Norah Gaughan 

This book is about the craft of knitted cables, a pattern created by combining loops of yarn in various intricate patterns to create a unique textured fabric. Norah expertly organizes the patterns in her book, graduating readers from simple to complicated designs to help us understand the anatomy of knitted cables and unravel their mystery. I admire the ease with which she creates new cables from simple cable motifs. She is truly the queen of cables.

My very first self-published pattern, Not a Boring Sweater, was brought to life by the pages of this book - what an incredible way to start my knitwear design journey!

Most precious: Latvju Rakstu Ābecīte by Ed. Paegle 

This book is a collection of Latvian signs and symbols that survived the Soviet era. In handmade cover, it’s an heirloom I inherited from my grandma. The Soviet government banned all publications on Latvian identity, so my grandma risked her career at the library when she chose to protect it from getting destroyed. I have referred to it for inspiration for most of my Latvian-inspired colourwork projects. Thank you, grandma!

The most notable patterns to list are the Pagan Sky and A Thousand and One Suns.

Most educational: Top-down Sweaters by Ann Budd

This book taught me the most as a designer about top-down sweater construction and grading for multiple sizes. It's a recipe book for four basic top-down sweaters that provides stitch and row counts for all sizes in a table format in a way that is easy to read. Thanks to the numbers in this book, I've been able to reverse-engineer a formula for creating well-fitting garments for all sizes.

Try the Amber Blossoms or Starry Dawn!

Have you read any of these books? Let us know, and give us your recommendations!