What Would You Do?

So, if you were moving to another country and could only bring the bare necessities, which three or four knitting books would you bring?

This is the situation I'm in: My family and I are moving to Austria for at least three years. My husband will be obtaining a doctorate, so this is not a paid corporate or military move. We have to pay to ship stuff ourselves. I homeschool four of my five children and MUST bring books for them to use. Also, my dear husband needs to bring some books for his research.

Bottom-line -- I can't bring everything. Some books and yarn will be put in storage. So here's my short list of what I'll bring:

The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. This book has lots of the math done for me so I can add the lacy stitches or colorwork necessary to create unique designs!The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. Like the original Handy Book, this one has done the math for all the sizes -- from toddler to BIG adult. I can use the book for the math and add color, stitch patterns, or other embellishments to create my own works of art!




Elizabeth's three best books for fun reading and educated knitting. I've been reading and using these books since I first started teaching myself to knit when I was 8 years old -- just a few (almost four) decades back! If you're interested in branching out or trying new things, Elizabeth is the doyenne of ingenuity and creativity in knitting.

I'll also bring Alice Starmore's Charts for Colored Knitting -- a cherished book that is a short-course on Fair Isle knitting with lots of personal details from the queen of British Isles knitting! Too bad this one is out of print -- it's a gem if you can find it!


And, of course, these three books from Lisl Fanderl: Although written in German, the stitch patterns are all graphically presented so theirs no reason not to be able to follow the patterns. Lisl Fanderl (Austria's answer to Barbara Walker!) went through ethnography museums throughout the regions of Austria to find and record the Austrian knitting patterns. In these three books you have lace stitches, twisted-knit stitch patterns and ideas to keep even my knitting needles busy for at least three years.

So these should hold me for a few years. What would you bring?