Patty Lyons' Knitting Bag of Tricks: Over 70 sanity saving hacks for better knitting

I have been knitting for years and I still learned so much from Patty! I mean Patty Lyons, am I right?? She is terrific and friendly. This book is well worth the money. She explains the "why" in easily understood terms and encourages you in your knitting like your best friend! I plan on making my way through this book chapter by chapter and technique by technique. I also bought the work book and that is such fun and includes space for your knitting notes, swatch samples and thoughts. The Franklin Habit designed stickers in the work book are fun and cute and a great plus!

Patty Lyons' Knitting Bag of Tricks was exactly what I was looking for as a beginner knitter! I am pleased to have this eye-opening, must-have knitting information all in one place in book form. I finally understand the why of knitting! I highly recommend Patty Lyons' Knitting Bag of Tricks as a worthwhile addition to any beginning knitter's library!

First impressions...I really love the quality of this book. The paper is smooth and heavy...the cover looks durable and the binding top notch. I love how it is a sewn binding so that the pages lay flat when you turn the pages. I can imagine being able to throw this into my knitting bag and not worry about it falling apart and getting frayed. I really appreciate how Patty has a combination of photos with illustrations which place emphasis on the action being performed. I normally have a hard time processing illustrations and prefer photos...just the way my mind comprehends things...the way the action is showcased in a different color is brilliant! Of course, the whimsical drawings by Franklin are a nice added touch as well! Patty delves into the why behind the stitches and really helped me gain an understanding of the anatomy of the stitches and how that makes the knitted fabric behave. It is almost like a fiber physics class. Instead of just telling me to do an action...but why I am doing it... it is creating a mindset for me to help solve some problems I may encounter on my own as well. Honestly I feel like a have a teacher in my knitting bag ready to guide me through any project I may have on my needles. I have been knitting for over 18 years and I have to say...I have learned so much from reading this book. I only wish I had it as a reference when I was a novice. I honestly think that if Elizabeth Zimmerman was alive today..she would be giving Patty and five star review and saying way to go Patty!

I've taken some of Patty's classes before and I don't always remember all her tips until after I could have used them, if that makes sense- now the tips are organized, illustrated and printed out so that the next time I start a project, I can quickly flip to see if there's a tip that oh yeah- I should have remembered that! New knitters will understand their knitting and avoid bad habits while the more seasoned will understand the 'why' better. The true knitting nerds (like myself) will also find it just a pleasurable read from cover to cover, nodding in recognition of the mistakes and lessons we've hit ourselves along the way. What is really remarkable (and rare) is that Patty is able to show you how something you've done (maybe a thousand times) could be improved- but without making you feel foolish for having done it that way or damaging your knitting self confidence. A pleasure to read and a valuable resource for virtually every project.

As an experienced but self-taught knitter, I found this book to be absolutely wonderful. She solved many problems I had pondered, some I had given up as unsolvable, and some I had just chalked up to be "just the way things are". I slightly modified the way I cast on and bind off, and things are suddenly looking much better - square and simple to stitch together. This is definitely one I am going to keep with my other main knitting reference books. The ideas that she presents are ones that once you learn, you know, and won't need to keep looking up, if you keep knitting, and keep knitting similar things. But, many of us like to knit different things for variety. I sometimes like to knit lace, and she shows how to make your various yarn-overs the same size, no matter what kind of stitch you are coming from or going to. No more lopsided lace, just because one side is followed by a knit and the other by a purl. I docked it one star, because while the content of the book is stellar, the binding leaves a bit to be desired, and came unstuck from the back cover on the first reading. This makes the book a tad annoying to read, and makes me worry for the continued health of the pages, and how many might accidentally fall out.

If you’d told me a year ago that not only would I buy a book about how to knit better, but that I would ENJOY it, I would have said you were full of it! But I’d started to learn how to knit a while back, and I was still struggling with some things. Saw this recommended on the Purl Together channel, and the lady there is great, so figured worst case scenario, it just ends up in my unread stack. But I was honestly hooked from page one, and this was a quick read for me. After not quite half-way thru, I started a new practice swatch, and omg, this one was so much better than what I normally put out! It was totally flat (I wasn’t twisting my yarn anymore!), and when I read the section about pattern knitting, it was like when you’re playing a video game, and you open up a new section of map and can suddenly see all this stuff that was hidden to you before. I’m still very much a beginner (haven’t finished anything bigger than a washcloth!), but I found this book to be a very valuable resource. Really helps you understand the mechanics of knitting, from how you hold your needles, how you pull your loops, and how twisting in different directions will all affect your stitch. Very cool!

As a self taught knitter, this book is a wonderful resource. It's easy to read and very clear in educating the reader how to approach a knitting project to maximize success. After ripping out several sweaters over the years because the fit was way off, I really need this book. The book itself it bound to allow the pages to lie flat and is of high quality. I'm so glad I made this purchase.

I ran across the recommendation for this book in a knitting facebook group I am part of. I had to get it when I seen it had tips and tricks. As a self-taught knitter I have found these are the things that make knitting exciting. There is nothing like finding a golden nugget of a tip that makes all the difference in my projects. I was thrilled to learn that the author is also a self-taught knitter. This means, like me, she learned by many trial and errors, often taking the LONG way around the learning curve. How exciting to have so many tips in one place. I especially love the section on GAUGE! Who doesn’t struggle with that in every single project?? She lays out how to demystify it and have SUCCESS in your projects by using some simple math. She dedicates an entire chapter to it! The illustrations and humor she uses are fantastic. It takes the fear out of learning new ways to accomplish tasks to have better success with our final outcome of projects. I can see me referencing this this book OVER and OVER through the coming years! Bonus is she planned to have this book be just that and provided a special lay-flat binding for the book so you don’t have to struggle holding the pages open while you knit and read at the same time as well as thick smooth pages! There is something for everyone from the lifelong knitter to the beginner. Patty hit is out of the park with this one! THANK YOU!