Yesterday, a book order came for me. In it was The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.

I'm really impressed with this book.

It has plain, basic patterns for mittens, gloves, hats, tams, scarves, vests, and pullovers. But the trick is, the patterns are written in sizes from children to extra large adults. And furthermore, they are written for yarns at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 sts per inch.

Brilliant. This is exactly what I had been wanting. Another good point is that the patterns give rough estimates of yardage needed. I always have a hard time "ballparking" how much yarn to buy so this is a help for me.

I plan to cast on soon for a pair of mittens from some leftover yarn. And I have some chunky weight grey yarn a friend bought me in Paris that I've never knit up because I didn't know if I had enough. I think I have enough for a pullover vest, but I can figure that out from the book. And I have some Katia "Nubia" I bought a couple years ago for a rollbrimmed hat, but was always afraid of knitting up because I didn't know how many sts to cast on to make a well-fitting hat.

I know, I could do the math myself. But I like having it all laid out for me so I don't have to do things by trial and error

I suppose some people may find the patterns too plain or too basic. But I love them - I tend to be "plain and basic" in style, and frankly, I'd rather buy a fabulous yarn and use a simple pattern to show it off. But it's also possible to plug stitch patterns into the basic patterns (they show some on the scarf chapter). And I like the patterns - they are very classic, I don't think they'd look dated 10 or 20 years from now. Which is more than I can say for some of the designs in some current magazines.