I've got issues

and I'm not even counting those. Gifts are shown because I probably would have purchased them at some point anyway. Magazines are not- for no good reason. Not pictured are the 2 books on Latvian knitting I ordered from Amazon last week.

First the Big Picture



Books for the Designer



I'd like to report that these are recent purchases, but no. Instead, once I go the hang of knitting and purling, I was fairly sure I'd be off designing in no time. After all, I read Knit and Tonic. I feel pretty good that I have read or used everything pictured (except the 2007 calendar-which was a gift.) at least once.

Books for Help



The Vogue book has been the go-to book since day 1. The knitting basics book- not so much- it was purchased before I paid attention to anything. The top four are purchases I don't regret but I use sparingly. Why look at a book for help when it's so much fun to try to figure it our yourself or take it to knit night. The book of finishing techniques was an especially good buy for the girl trying to seam a sweater.

Books of patterns/techniques



Love the Ann Budd Books.

Haven't done one damn knitted toy but it's a cute book.

The Interweave Knits was a purchase to prevent me from purchasing every last back issue there ever was since I've only been knitting fro 3 years or so.

Simply Beatiful Sweaters, Silk Knits, Freeform Knitting and Crochet, and Module Magic are up for grabs. MAKE ME AN OFFER. These looked so much like something I'd be interested in and then I discovered various facts about myself that make them useless.

Smaller Project Books


These were mostly purchased when I was looking for something inspiring while working on boring stockinette of some larger project. The only one I've actually made anything from is the Messenger Bag in Knitting for Peace (and we all know how that worked out.) The top one (bad photography) was a recent acquisition Scarf Style. Not pictured was the Folk Hats purchase from a few weekends ago. Nope haven't knitted anything from it either.

Stephanie, Socks and one trashy-a$$ed novel



Yea, I succumbed to yet another yes, you too can knit too socks with the magic loop temptation. That was a recent purchase. I've used two of the sock leaflets pictured. Mostly just one, I have it memorized and I grab patterns from the sensational socks book except wait- I mostly use only one pattern from that book row 1 k3 p3 row 2 k1 p1. Not sure I needed the book to figure that one out but there lies so much potential in it.

No need to explain the Yarn Harlot books ( I have the meditation one hiding around somewhere too.) Has anyone read the one on top- Cast on, Bets off? It started with a sex scene that seemed to be written by a horny man and I haven't gotten past that.

The EZ collection



Also included is a book on scandinavian knitting and one by Meg Swansen. I've made a moeibus. That's about it. I watched the first episode about making a hat on the dvd but haven't followed through. But I feel like I can't be called a "real" knitter if I don't own those.

It's refreshing to relieve myself (somewhat) of the truth in my books. I've used more of them than I thought I had. It's the ones that I haven't used that nag and laugh at me every time I buy a pattern on-line or look for the latest book at the LYS.

I know I'm preaching to the choir when I suggest that these all were "MUST HAVES" at the time I purchased them. Feel free to reassure me. Also if you have a successful FO from any of them, tell me about it. I'm a copycat mostly.

More Importantly- If there are any "MUST HAVE" books that are missing from my collection, PLEASE DO SHARE!

ETA~ As if all of these weren't enough, KNQ Debbie just sent me THIS link guess I'll spend some time printing today.