A beginner's guide to the art of knitting uses an easy-to-learn dual-step process, along with more than two hundred photographs, illustrations, line drawings, and diagrams, to present step-by-step instructions for more than thirty projects, including a cardigan sweater, a scarf, and a baby blanket. 10,000 first printing.
This book is an excellent book for a beginner. There are lots of instructions generously illustrated. The spiral lay-fat binding is a nice touch, too. The patterns are simple and geared for beginners, showcasing a number of different techniques. The problem is that most of the patterns are pretty ugly and uninspired. Contrast that with books like Debbie Bliss's simple knits for babies which are very simple but still beautiful patterns. However, someone who is creative and good at other crafts would be able to modify most of the patterns to be more interesting.
This is a great book for beginners. I really liked the section on troubleshooting problems with your knitting. I wished I'd had something like this in the beginning! The projects are not as interesting as I'd like, there's a LOT of seed stitch. I understand this is a two-stitch pattern, but so are ribbing, basket weave and others. The pictures don't always show the garment in its entirety,in one instance the front of the sweater isn't even included, which makes it hard to know if you want to put the time into knitting it. But overall I enjoyed the book's layout, photos and instruction.