Would you be interested in learning how to knit cables?
And would you like to find a book that’s part cable knitting instruction manual, part knitting stitch dictionary, and part pattern book?
Furthermore, do you want to try working lovely cable knitting patterns for classic home decor items such as timeless pillows, blankets, placemats and similar projects?
If these ideas sound appealing to you, there’s a lovely knitting pattern book I think you’ll be delighted to learn about. It’s called The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting: Step-By-Step Techniques, Easy-To-Follow Patterns, and Projects to Get You Started.
All the Details You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book
Author: Lynne Watterson
Copyright Date: I’m reviewing the first US edition, which is dated March 2010. The book is immensely popular, and it has been reprinted since then; it looks to me like the contents haven’t substantially changed, but the book is apparently now being published by a different publisher.
ISBN 13: 978-1782219842
ISBN 10: 1782219846
Book Formats:
This book is available in the following format(s):
Number of Pages: 144
Recommended Knitting Skill Level: This book is intended for knitters who have no previous experience with cable knitting. It starts at the very beginning, and includes illustrated tutorials for the most essential basics that a new knitter would need to know.
The Focus of This Book:
This book is dedicated to teaching you the basics of cable knitting. It is a beginner’s knitting manual, a cable knitting technique book, a stitch dictionary and a project book, in one handy volume.
This book does an excellent job of making cable knitting extremely approachable. Many knitters shy away from knitting cables because it looks intimidating — but if you’re nervous about cable knitting, this book will show you what you need to know to get started.
Knitting Projects Included in This Book:
Mug and Tea Cozies
You knit these cabled mug cozies in one piece. They have ties that you use to tie each cozy onto your mug; one tie goes over the lower part of the handle, and the other goes above it.
The tea cozy is gathered at the top and adorned with buttons.
See also: Button crafts
Placemat and Napkin Rings
The placemat has a cable-knitted band with a pocket that’s intended to hold a fork, knife and spoon. The body of the placemat is knitted in ultra-easy seed stitch.
The napkin ring is embellished with lustrous 6/0 Rocalille beads.
Cable Knit Scarf
Although this scarf is pretty, it looks unfinished to me. It ends abruptly with no edging, and the cables make it look a bit uneven.
Storage Basket
This storage basket looks much nicer than the typical basket presented in crochet and knitting pattern books, but I’m wondering if there is some secret to making it look so perfect. The author suggests you starch it, but none of the starch I’ve used would be that effective. Maybe I’m just using the wrong brands of starch? This project looks amazing, but I’m not convinced mine would look as nice if I were to knit this.
Hot Water Bottle Cover
This is a really pretty project.
Hand Muff
This is a pretty and chic project; however, it’s old-fashioned and not as practical as mittens, gloves or fingerless mitts would be. On the bright side, it’s much easier to knit than mittens or gloves.
Pillow and Bolster
These are sophisticated and useful projects. The bolster is gathered at one end; the pillow has decorative buttons.
Cabled Throw and Pillow Knitted in 4 Different Colors
Both the throw and pillow are cozy and lovely! The throw has a fringed edge. The pillow has buttons stitched to the edge to close it. This appears to be permanent (no buttonholes), which is kind of a bummer, because it would be a hassle to clean it without being able to remove the knitted pillow cover from the pillow form underneath.
Oblong Pillow
This sophisticated cushion design is tailored and textured.
Knitting Bag
To make this, you need a pair of bag handles plus sewing thread and fabric for the lining. This pattern actually gives you instructions for lining the bag, which is a huge plus, because many crochet and knitting books omit the instructions for bag linings.
Baby Blanket
This is a beautiful, sumptuously textured blanket that’s embellished with contrasting pom-poms.
Handbag
To make this pretty purse, you’ll need a pair of purse handles, fake fur trim, a needle and sewing thread in addition to your yarn and knitting needles. This is a cute and chic design with a knitted lining; again, this pattern includes lining instructions, which is a major plus since many of the other competing craft books out there do not give you lining instructions.
Cabled Floor Pillow
This chic, cozy pillow is knitted using size 15 (10 mm) needles. It’s finished with tassels in the corners.
The Best Things About The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting:
The photography presented in this book is clear and helpful, showing generous-sized swatches of the cable patterns. Usually at least 2 full repeats are visible, and you can see how the lower edge of the fabric will look.
For the stitch dictionary portions of the book, you get both charts and written instructions for each cable pattern presented.
With some of the cable stitch patterns, the author includes a variation — so you can easily see what happens if you change an important detail. For example, you could see the difference in outcomes if you were to shrink a 6-stitch repeat down to a 4-stitch repeat, or if you were to switch from using a crisp yarn that shows a lot of stitch definition and instead use a fine mohair yarn with a fuzzy halo. To me, these variations were one of the most interesting things about the book; I own several other cable knitting books, but none of them offer close variations like this.
The projects in this book are appealing ones, although I think some of them are more compelling than others.
The book includes an index, which is helpful for navigating to the topic you want — although the index is not really an extensive one, I appreciate its inclusion.
Things to Be Aware of Before You Buy This Book
This book covers a lot of very basic information that experienced knitters will already know.
Some of the stitch patterns included in this book are “mock cables” that resemble cables but don’t actually require a cable needle.
Some of the suggested yarns for these projects have now been discontinued.
The project instructions feature written instructions but not charts.
The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting Vs. Cable Knits From Nordic Lands
If you’d enjoy knitting cabled sweaters and other wearable projects featuring cable patterns, you might want to consider reading Cable Knits From Nordic Lands instead of, or in addition to, The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting.
- Cable Knits from Nordic Lands is slightly longer, at 160 pages (versus only 144 pages for The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting.
- Cable Knits from Nordic Lands features 18 projects, versus only 17 for The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting
- Both of these books simultaneously function as stitch dictionaries, technique books and project books.
- If you’re most interested in owning a book that offers you a stitch dictionary covering cable knitting patterns, you’d be better off choosing The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting, because it offers more cable stitch patterns than Cable Knits from Nordic Lands.
- Cable Knits from Nordic Lands is not specifically focused on teaching basic knitting skills to beginning knitters; if you’re a beginner, you are likely to have an easier time working from The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting; but if you are an experienced knitter who already knows the basics of cable knitting, you might prefer to work the more challenging patterns found in Cable Knits from Nordic Lands.
The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting Vs. the Cable Knitter’s Guide
If you’d enjoy knitting cabled socks, sweaters, and a broad variety of other cabled projects, you might want to consider reading The Cable Knitter’s Guide instead of, or in addition to, The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting (that is, if you can find a copy. As far as I know, The Cable Knitter’s Guide is now out of print. I don’t want to send you on a wild goose chase — but if the book sounds interesting to you, it’s worth checking to see if you can find a copy of it, because it really is a lovely book.)
- Both of these books simultaneously function as stitch dictionaries, technique books and project books.
- One major bonus you get from The Cable Knitter’s Guide: The publisher included 51 different QR codes in this book that lead to videos which show you how to knit the featured cable stitch patterns. I haven’t previewed any of these videos to comment on them, but if you enjoy learning from videos, you will likely find this feature useful.
- The Cable Knitter’s Guide is a longer and more in-depth book, at 178 pages (versus only 144 pages for The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting.)
- The Cable Knitter’s Guide offers more projects; I counted a total of 27, versus only 17 in The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting.
- The Cable Knitter’s Guide features a whopping 50 cable stitch patterns.
I attempted to count the number of cable stitch patterns offered in The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting, and it was a difficult task because of the variations; I had a hard time figuring out if the variations were different enough from each other that they warranted being counted as two different patterns. In most cases, I decided that they were sufficiently different to count twice, but in some cases, I thought they were so similar to each other that I only counted them once.
If you were tasked with counting these designs, it’s possible that perhaps you’d count them differently than I did — so please take my count as an estimate rather than as set-in-stone fact. I came up with a total of 47 cable stitch patterns, but keep in mind that nearly half of these are close variations of each other. - If you’re a beginning knitter, you’re likely to have an easier time using The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting, so I’d recommend sticking with that book to start with. But if you’re an experienced knitter, you might prefer the more challenging projects featured in The Cable Knitter’s Guide.
Conclusion
I’m delighted to recommend The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting to other knitting enthusiasts, particularly to beginning knitters.
I think beginning knitters will get the most value from this book, but I would also recommend it to intermediate knitters who don’t already have either a stitch dictionary that covers cable knitting or a book that’s entirely dedicated to cable knitting.
Experienced knitters may want this book for the projects, which are lovely — but other than that, if you already have cable knitting reference books in your library, this probably isn’t going to be an essential purchase for you.
Where to Buy The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting:
- Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.
- Click here to shop for new and used copies of this book from the independent booksellers at Biblio.
Thanks for checking out this book review of The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting by Lynne Watterson. I appreciate your interest!
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About Your Book Reviewer:
Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds an Associate of Arts degree in Textile Design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College. She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.
Amy learned to hand knit as a teenager, and she learned to machine knit in design school at FIDM. After graduation, she worked in the textile industry as a professional knit designer. She still enjoys hand knitting all these years later.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles. Nowadays she uses online platforms for sharing her knowledge about textiles, crafts, current color trends and current design trends.
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