Long long a go, in a town not too far away, I fell in love with sticks, yarn, and all the things you could make with these simple tools.

And I owe it all to books.

When I was a teenager, I taught myself to Crochet, and then to Knit, using books. I had to. No one in my family knew how to knit, I didn’t have a Grandma who could show me, and none of my friends wanted anything to do with this old fashioned hobby.

I didn’t even know knitting existed until I was at the library one day and saw a lady knitting. I was intrigued, and asked her what she was doing. When she simply replied “knitting” and then proceeded to show me her bag with crochet hooks, knitting needles, and yarn, I was immediately hooked.

That day I checked out every book the library had available on Knitting and Crocheting. I devoured them, and picked out the two books that seemed to vibe the most with my style. I then bought Knitting in Plain English, and Crocheting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti, and started my yarn crafting library. Using these two books I taught myself the basics of both yarncrafts, and in the 15 (or so) years since then I have found great enjoyment in creating things for my family or to sell to others.

I still have these original two books in my library. Every time I cull books, those two make the cut. I try to keep my at home library small, but I am able to do so only because I am fortunate to live so close to a great library system.

However, if I didn’t have access to such a good library, there is a list of books that I would be sure to have on my at home shelf at all times.

In this day and age, we have more than books. We have online instructional videos, how to websites, and other sources of information. But there is just something about a book that you can not replace with other media.

You can find my must have list at my Amazon.com Store here . And there are more than books on this list, I have also added knitting/crocheting tools I recommend to make your knitting more fun and enjoyable.

As I do book reviews in the future, I will post my reviews here on this blog. But only the ones that are informational, uplifting, encouraging, and edifying will make it on the list at my Amazon AStore. These will be the best of the best.

I hope you find yourself a book soon that you can lose yourself inside its pages and enjoy.