An illustrated guide showing how to create beautiful, timeless pieces, whether you're picking up needles for the first time or a seasoned pro looking for advanced patterns

From scarves and sweaters to bags, pillows, and more, you'll find lots of projects for practicing and perfecting your knitting skills in Knitting For Dummies, which includes an instructional online video showing you the actual knitting techniques being done step-by-step.

Experienced and novice crafters alike can benefit from the book's step-by-step instructions that explain knitting in plain English. For anyone new to knitting, this hands-on friendly guide shows you how to

• Cast on, knit, purl, and bind off -- the four basic skills needed to complete any knitting
• Decipher pattern instructions and charts
• Combine knit and purl stitches with increases and decreases for different effects
• Create different kinds of cables, lace, and more
• Read the language and graphics in knitting patterns and charts
• Increase and decrease stitches and use these techniques to shape a project and create design

It also shows you what to do if you drop a stitch or inadvertently add one. If you know the basics of knitting and want to expand your skills to include stitch patterns with more complexity, you've come to the right place:

• Combine stitch increases and decreases to create lacework
• Get familiar with Fair Isle patterns and simple intarsia motifs, which involve working in more than one color in one row
• Practice with plenty of projects to perfect your advanced knitting techniques
• Learn to add interest with stripes
• Have fun with fulling and felting
• Make sweaters, from blocking and assembling your pieces to adding finishing touches like neckbands, edging, and buttonholes

Knitting For Dummies includes ten quick projects to make for gifts and exercises to "unkink" your neck and shoulders should you lose yourself for hours at a time in your craft! Finally, the book ends with a couple appendixes showing you more cool effects and a list of knitting software and helpful online resources. If you're itching to start stitching, grab this book to start crafting your knitted masterpiece today.