With the temperature dropping and shorter days upon us, my passion for indoor hobbies like fiber arts and craft-making are reignited. In fact, my favorite way to enjoy these hunker-down hobbies is with a good audio book on my mobile BARD app keeping my imagination as busy as my fingers.

My fabric hobbies began with cross stitch which is easy and repetitive- perfect for wiling away with an educational podcast, a gripping novel or the daily news, but I steered away from the passive crafting when I moved on to quilting last year- a much more ambitious and high stakes endeavor that requires my entire attention to avoid sloppy stitches and mistakes. Now I feel the itch to return to something more multi-task friendly, so I’ve bought my first set of knitting needles and plan to tackle the process of learning to make a hat- a goal which I’ve heard is more interesting than the simple and repetitive scarf, but small enough to be manageable for a beginner.

Luckily I have a knitting friend willing to teach me the basics and cringe through my first stitches with me, but if you’re looking to learn the craft independently, this website has useful tips for learning or re-learning to knit with a visual impairment.

We also have a handy large print title in our collection on the subject:

CL13333: Knitting for Dummies by Pam Allen

Using easy-to-follow illustrations, knitting pro Pam Allen demonstrates basic knitting stitches and then shows how to decipher patterns, work with multiple colors, and get creative. Also included are 10 unkinking exercises to keep the body’s knitting parts loose, limber, and fatigue-free. 2002.

And a few digital books you might tackle the endeavor with:

DB52082: The Knitting Goddess: Finding the Heart and Soul of Knitting Through Instruction, Projects and Stories by Deborah Bergman

Folktales and legends about knitting lead into basic information for beginners and progressively harder projects for the more advanced. New stitches are explained as required. Projects include a stole, ribbed scarf, pullover, pillow cover, bag, turtleneck, afghan, and a hood called an Athena smoke ring. 2000.

DB84558: How To Knit Socks That Fit: Techniques for Toe-up and Cuff-down Styles by Donna Druchunas

Guide to the basics of knitting socks. Discusses considerations for choosing yarn, needle choice, determining sock fit and sizing, the parts of the sock, which direction to knit the sock–up from the toe, or down from the cuff, with specific techniques for each–knitting two socks at once, and more. 2015.

And if you’re interested in knitting fiction, you might want to start the cozy mystery series Seaside Knitters:

DB80491: Death By Cashmere by Sally Goldembaum: Not long after Isabel “Izzy” Chambers opens up a knitting shop in the sleepy fishing town of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, a diverse group of women begins congregating each week to form the Seaside Knitters. When Izzy’s renter drowns mysteriously, the women decide to investigate. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2008.