Carmen Jorissen’s Colorwork Knitting for Head to Toe encourages people who’ve never tried colorwork knitting to get started and has patterns that might still be fun for someone more skilled at colorwork.
The book includes 20 patterns — five each for hats, cowls, mittens and socks — and each kind of garment includes the same colorwork patterns as all the others so you can knit a matched set if you like.
Three of the motifs are suggested as easier than the other two, and the designer says the patterns are in skill level order. The options are Wessem, a kind of wave pattern; Halen, with is three-color plaid; Leiden, a diamond pattern; Herlen, which looks like stems with little flower buds; a Urmond, which has a leaf shape.
There are three sizes offered for the hat patterns (though she says they are all adult sizes), while the cowls have two length options, the mittens have two widths (and are only measured by rounds; it doesn’t say how long they should be), and the socks have six adult sizes.
None of the shaping on any of the projects is done in pattern, so these would be good beginner colorwork projects if you don’t want to have to deal with shaping in pattern (the socks have striped gussets and the colorwork continues on the bottom of the foot).
The book includes one page on choosing colors and has some knitting instructions in the back such as long tail, German twisted and Judy’s magic cast on; grafting and half mattress stitch; a twisted bind off; knitting, purling and basic increases and decreases; and tutorials for German short rows and working magic loop, which is her preferred method for all of the projects. There are QR codes in the book that lead to videos for some of the techniques.
There’s also a section at the very end about reading charts and handling yarn for colorwork. Since this book feels like a beginner colorwork book to me, I might have liked to see that at the beginning rather than the end, but that’s a minor issue.
I wouldn’t say anything really grabbed me in this book, though I do like the plaid pattern (the plaid socks in particular are really cute). I try not to be too hard on colorwork knitting books because I knit one, but it does feel to me like there could have been more motifs or project styles or something to make it feel like you’re not just getting five patterns.
Still, if you like the motifs (you can see most of the patterns in the scroll on the publisher’s website) and want to make a whole matchy-matchy set, they are pretty patterns that will give you a good grounding in the basics of colorwork knitting done with two colors at a time.
About the book: 176 pages, paperback. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.
