Purls of Wisdom – review

Hackney author Jenny Lord

Knitting. If you hadn’t noticed it’s all the rage, you must have a pretty woolly perception of modern trends. The cool kids were doing it under gazebos at this summer’s music festivals, and underground guerrilla knitters are using it to decorate ugly public spaces throughout the world.

And a brand new book to celebrate this craze has been created by our very own Jenny Lord.

“Purls of Wisdom is the book I would have loved to have owned when I first started knitting,” said Jenny, who wrote much of the volume from her home in Victoria Park. Having taught herself to knit in the early 2000s using old books and YouTube videos, she keeps her skills fresh with regular interactions on her the perfect person to guide you step-by-step through this creative pastime.

The pages abound with glossy, quirky photos, clear stitch explanations and novel ideas for beautiful and genuinely attractive items – for example, a knitted tie or an iPod cover. If her chatty, friendly manual doesn’t make you want to grab the nearest knitting needles and yarn, nothing will.

Jenny explains all the stitches first, then page references them in the patterns that follow so the new knitter doesn’t get themselves in a tizz. The patterns are rated by difficulty from one star (seriously easy) to five stars (challenging), and most items are intended as gifts.

Indeed, no sooner had I brought the book home than my flatmate Rachel had grabbed it and presented me with a beautiful new blue bangle – or at least, a horrid old plastic one with a beautiful new blue cover that she’d knitted using one of Jenny’s simple patterns. And whilst she’d always assumed cable knitting would be hard (this involves crossing over stitches to produce a twisted design), Rachel found Jenny’s explanation remarkably easy to follow.

The book includes an interesting history section, in case you ever wondered where it all came from. “I had no idea there was such a fascinating history behind the craft, taking in all manner of characters from Henry VIII to Roger Moore,” said Jenny.

The back section includes ideas to help you use knitting to make money, raise fund for charity and make the most of all sorts of online resources, making the book a wonderful modern-day guide to this ancient pastime.

Purls of Wisdom by Jenny Lord is published by Penguin.

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