The tangled life of the knitter is the subject of inspired nuttiness in 300 tongue-in-cheek meditations from the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. At Knit’s End captures the wickedly funny musings of someone who doesn’t believe it’s possible to knit too much and who willingly sacrifices sleep, family, work, and sanity in order to keep doing it. Covering everything from the deadly “second sock syndrome” to a pile of yarn so big it can hide a washing machine, this hilarious collection will have knitters in stitches!

From your first stitch to your own complete clothing & homeware projects, this book will guide you from novice to pro. You want to learn to knit, but somehow you always end up in a tangle of knotted yarn and baffled by complicated and conflicting advice. This beginner's handbook goes back to basics, with clear step-by-step illustrations demonstrating how to cast on and how to ace a range of stitches, while 15 easy projects allow you to practise your skills and build your confidence. You Will Be Able to Knit by the End of This Book provides a simple guide to picking up your knitting needles and getting started, and it helps to build your confidence slowly, as you practise and perfect skills and techniques. By the end of the book, you will be able to knit a range of projects including a simple headband, tablet case and even a doorstop. So take some time for yourself, learn a new skill, and enjoy crafting gifts for your friends, family and home with this beautiful book by your side. Projects include: - Super chunky scarf - Mittens - Blanket - Baby booties - Cushion - Hot water bottle case - Teddy - Triangle shawl

Both a celebration of the craft and a sourcebook for practical information, Knitting Rules! is a collection of useful advice and emotional support for the avid knitter. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee unravels the mysteries of tangled yarn, confusing patterns, and stubbornly unfinished projects. Daring to question long-standing rules and encouraging crafters to knit in the way that works best for them, this illuminating, liberating, and hilarious look at the world of knitting is full of surprises and delightfully inspiring ideas.

Imagine knitting a beautiful sweater without the stressful obstacles of sewing, seaming, and grafting. Welcome to Knitwear designer Kristen TenDyke's world of Finish-Free Knits! While exploring these 20 designs, you will discover stitch-free solutions to previously frustrating obstacles needed to finish a design. Kristen will teach you to knit sweaters with no assembly required. Through clever planning and some simple techniques, the projects in Finish-Free Knits are shaped and joined during knitting--without sacrificing the pockets, buttonbands, shaped collars, and more that is accomplished in most designs by sewing together separate pieces. In addition, learn how to shape armholes, join pieces as you go, use short-rows for shaping, and more. Once these stress-free finishing techniques are learned, you will enjoy the freedom to apply variations of each method in projects beyond the book. With Finish-Free Knits you can avoid the dreaded "Some Assembly Required" phrase forever.

The search for the perfect cast on and bind off is over! Now, in one extraordinary book, have at your fingertips more than 120 ways to cast on and more than 80 ways to bind off. This beautifully organized treasury is ideal for all skill levels. Find each technique presented with step-by-step written instructions, clear how-to illustrations, and a photo of the finished edge Learn the advantages and disadvantages of each method, including suggestions for when to use it Discover workhorse and specialty cast ons and bind offs for colorwork, cuffs, ruffles, fringe, lace buttonholes, and more

Vickie Howell, the DIY channel's popular queen of knitting, knows that all knitters even the most experienced sometimes need help. What kind of yarn is best for a specific project? How do you pick up dropped stitches without ripping a project apart? How do you knit and purl Continental-style? With her unmistakable charm, Vickie delivers practical answers to every knitter's questions, offering tips on choosing a project, selecting needles and yarn, finding the speediest knitting method, and even handy new ways of carrying your knitting and the best times to work on it. With its convenient size, lie-flat spiral binding and easy-to-follow diagrams and illustrations, this is an item that should be in every knitting bag.

The author of Yarn Harlot returns with more hilarious personal stories about all the ups and downs of being a knitter. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot) returns to pen another hilarious, insightful, and poignant collection of essays surrounding her favorite topics: knitting, knitters, and what happens when you get those two things anywhere near ordinary people. Free-Range Knitters shares stories of knitting horrors and triumphs and knitting successes and defeats, but, mostly, it shares stories about the human condition that ring true for everyone—especially if you have to have a rather large amount of yarn in your house. Praise for Yarn Harlot “Stephanie Pearl-McPhee turns both typical and unique knitting experiences into very funny and articulate prose.” —Meg Swansen, Schoolhouse Press “I laughed until my stitches fell helplessly from my needles!” —Lucy Neatby, author of Cool Socks Warm Feet “A sort of David Sedaris-like take on knitting—laugh-out-loud funny most of the time and poignantly reflective when it’s not cracking you up.” —Library Journal

Cat and Yarn are the best of friends. They have so much fun playing together, the two are inseparable. Until the day Girl takes Yarn away. When Yarn Returns, he is completely changed, no longer Cat's bright and jolly friend. Cat is mad! Soon, Cat begins to miss his best friend, and he just might realize that a little change isn't so bad after all.

One woman shares hilarious personal stories of her obsession, frustration, reflection, and fun with knitting. An obsessed knitter who can’t seem to put the needles down, author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee reveals the tangled and sometimes maniacal path of her knitting triumphs and disasters in Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter. Sharing both humorous and poignant tales of knitting escapades, such as fleeing from a yarn-thieving squirrel, dismantling a car to find a vital needle, and what it feels like to wrap a newborn baby in the work of your own hands. Yarn Harlot exposes the extreme sport of knitting, and adventure that can be fulfilling, exasperating, and wickedly funny. From the moment Stephanie’s family discovers that she has taken to storing yarn in the piano to her attempts to foist knitted socks on a friend with a wool “allergy,” Yarn Harlot looks at knitting with humor, insight, and sympathy for the obsessed. “Stephanie Pearl-McPhee turns both typical and unique knitting experiences into very funny and articulate prose.” —Meg Swansen, Schoolhouse Press “An intimate view of the passionate knitter’s psyche: a transport of hilarity for knitters and the knitted-for; I laughed until my stitches fell helplessly from my needles!”—Lucy Neatby, author of Cool Socks Warm Feet “A sort of David Sedaris-like take on knitting—laugh-out-loud funny most of the time and poignantly reflective when it’s not cracking you up.” —Library Journal

Not all yarns are alike. Some make our hearts and hands sing, some get the job done without much fanfare, and some cause nothing but frustration and disappointment. The gorgeous pair of socks that emerged from their first bath twice as long as when they went in. The delicate baby sweater that started pilling before it even came off the needles. The stunning colorwork scarf that you can’t wear because the yarn feels like sandpaper against your neck. If only there were a way to read a skein and know how it would behave and what it wanted to become before you invested your time, energy, and money in it. Now there is! With The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, you’ll learn how to unleash your inner yarn whisperer. In these pages, Clara Parkes provides in-depth insight into a vast selection of yarns, giving you the inside stories behind the most common fiber types, preparations, spins, and ply combinations used by large-scale manufacturers and importers, medium-sized companies, boutique dye shops, community spinneries, and old-fashioned sheep farms. And, because we learn best by doing, Parkes went to some of the most creative and inquisitive design minds of the knitting world to provide a wide assortment of patterns created to highlight the qualities (and minimize the drawbacks) of specific types of yarns. The Knitter’s Book of Yarn will teach you everything you need to know about yarn: How it’s made, who makes it, how it gets to you, and what it longs to become. The next time you pick up a skein, you won’t have to wonder what to do with it. You’ll just know–the way any yarn whisperer would.