Book Review: Complete Knit Collection for Beginners

Sometimes when you are a new knitter or you are trying to get someone started as a knitter, it can be difficult to pick patterns that will be easy enough for you/them to be successful with but that also aren’t boring or take a long time to knit.

While I’m guilty of using a bulky weight Garter Stitch scarf as a beginner project, something smaller is a great choice to give new stitchers the gratification of finishing a project quickly.

Marly Bird’s Complete Knit Collection for Beginners offers 20 patterns perfect for new knitters, plus lots of tips and advice to get you started (it does not, however, include actual instructions on how to knit).

The projects take you through Garter and Stockinette stitch, ribbing, stripes, increasing and decreasing. There are lots of great basics here that are good for learning new skills or knitting as gifts or for charity projects. (You can see pictures of the projects on the Leisure Arts website.)

Four of the patterns are rated easy and the rest basic, so even if you are a completely new knitter you can find things to knit here. This would be a good book to give as a gift to someone who you want to encourage to learn to knit as well.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2019 by Leisure Arts, suggested retail $21.99.

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

Have you read?