I first heard about Extreme Double-Knitting when it was in its infancy… I met Alasdair Post-Quinn on Ravelry and heard that he was writing an ‘encyclopedia of double knitting’. I was intrigued. I volunteered to knit a sample for the book.

I’m delighted to see, now that I have the actual book in my hands, that it truly IS an encyclopedia of Double-Knitting!

About Double-Knitting

Have you heard of double-knitting? It’s a technique that creates a knitted fabric with no wrong side- you’re working two sides of the fabric at once.

It’s an eensy complicated, but SOOO worth it! Double-knitting allows you to create types of fabric that you simply can’t accomplish with other techniques… and once you get started- it’s not so hard!

About Extreme Double-Knitting

Double-knitting is really more than just a technique… it’s a whole new chapter in the book of knitting. You can’t decrease your usual way and there’s a whole new group of cast-ons and bind-offs. The sheer number of methods required for exploring double-knitting makes a mega-book a real necessity.

Extreme Double-Knitting covers all of those methods and techniques with clear step-by-step photos.

The techniques covered in this book include:

• The basics of double-knitting
• Increasing and decreasing
• Working two-pattern double-knitting
• Multiple-color double-knitting
• Knitting cables
• Bind-offs, cast-ons and selvedge edges

The book also includes a number of great patterns. The book is organized in order of difficulty, with the easier patterns first. Early in the book is the sample that I knit, the Sierpinski Blanket.

Isn’t it a fabulous design?

I also really love the cabled, multi-color hat:

Talk about expanding your knitting skills! I think I’m going to have to try that one…

Review

This book is incredibly comprehensive, and if you’re interested in double-knitting, it’s a must for your collection. There aren’t many other double-knitting books out there… and this is the most jam-packed with information that I’ve seen.

The patterns are all really interesting, although I would probably only set my needles to a few of them. The main reason I love this book (especially since I’d never find the time to knit all of the projects) is the step-by-step photos and variety of techniques.

This book is a little pricier than your average knitting book ($29.95), but I think it’s worth it. I think of it more as a reference book than a knitting pattern book. And, don’t we all need another awesome reference book?

Tags: book, double knitting, knitting

In: book reviews