Book Review: Burda Strick-Lehrbuch

Burda's Strick Lehrbuch is *awesome*. It is the German version of Vogue Knitting, meaning that it is much denser and contains more information about knitting than you can imagine.

The stats: Published in 1983. Hardcover. 187 pages including a 2 page index. Many color photographs with some diagrams. The image to text ratio is about 1:1 by area, so everything is very well pictured.

First, you would not like this book if you: are a beginning knitter not fluent in German, do not like charts, want written explanations instead of pictoral explanations, or want pictures that specifically show English style knitting (pictures with hands demonstrate the Continental method).

I don't know where to begin describing what is in the book because there is so much information. There's even step by step pictures detailing how to make bobbles, and then how to make bobbles in a contrasting color from the main body. It is like Vogue Knitting on steroids. For example, just looking at the sock section, Burda Strick-Lehrbuch diagrams how to cast on for knitting on dpns by first putting all the stitches on two needles and then moving them over to four needles. They also diagram how to knit in the round. Oh, and there's even a picture that splits the areas of the sock into 6 parts: (1) the upper calf, (2) the portion with calf shaping, (3) the ankle, (4) the heel, (5) the foot, (6) the toe.

Here are pages that cover calf shaping, heels, and toes (the parts that actually involve increase/deacrease):

You'll notice that they have an entire page and several methods shown for each. I found the picture of the swatch with a mirror to figure out how a pattern will look with double decreases to be pretty cool.

The section on mittens and gloves is at least as thorough as the sock section. There's even several pages on finger puppets, dolls and doll clothing! The garment section shows the top down raglan technique for v-neck, crew neck and turtleneck. There are also sweater patterns for yoked, drop sleeve, set-in sleeves and all sorts of sweaters, including one with short rows for bust shaping. Each has schematics with measurements.

And then we get to the section I bought this book for: LACE.
The knitting for the home section (mostly lace with some information on blankets) spans pages 116 to 179. There are diagrams about how to begin (crochet method) and a couple pages showing each symbol with a corresponding diagram for how to knit it. If you are comfortable with pictures and charts, you should have no problem interpreting these. There are stitch patterns, a section on how to decrease or increase in a lace pattern, an awesome lace sock pattern, edgings, insertions, and then it's all doilies and tablecloths from page 160 to 179. The most impressive is a Lily of the Valley tablecloth pattern that I assume is a Niebling. The patterns are charted and included on separate sheets that are kept in the back of the book.

Have I raved about this book enough? So now the question is: Where to get it? Well, for starters don't look on Ebay. I saw it sell for $181 once! The book is actually widely available at used bookstores in Germany for a reasonable price. Mine was 4 Euros plus shipping. Shipping from Germany is hefty, but not *that* bad. Do a search on Abebooks, and you should be able to find one. If not, wait a while, and one will pop up. It's not a rare book, though you might be led to believe otherwise from Ebay sellers.