Book Review: Conscious Crafts Knitting

April 12, 2022 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Knitting is more than a way to make things, though it is great for that. It’s also a great way to relieve stress, connect with other people and express yourself.

Knitters Sicgmone Kludje and Vanessa Koranteng, founders of the Black Girl Knit Club, explore the benefits of knitting and share 20 simple patterns for your home and accessories for you to wear or make as gifts in Conscious Crafts: Knitting.

The book goes over the basics of learning to knit and emphasizes mindfulness and positive thinking as you work on your projects. It’s sprinkled with affirmations amid the knitting patterns, which use simple stitches like Garter, Stockinette and Moss Stitch.

Some of the patterns are variations on a basic theme such as bath mat worked in a single color and the same project worked with stripes.

Patterns include mats for mugs and your desk, a washcloth, a plant cozy, a blanket, a cushion cover and a wall hanging. Accessories for yourself include a headband, fingerless mitts, a scarf, snoods and a couple of bags.

The photos that accompany the knitting instructions are somewhat small. If you are a completely new knitter it might be hard to see exactly what’s going on in some of them. But if you have a little knowledge of the basics, the patterns in this book are simple, soothing and fun to knit.

About the book: 144 pages, hardcover, 20 patterns. Released April 2022 by Leaping Hare Press. Suggested retail price $18.

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Get Graphic with the Snug Wrap Knitting Pattern

I don’t know if it’s possible to look at the Snug Wrap from Sylvia Watts-Cherry and not smile. There’s so much fun stuff going on in it that if I had a bunch of sport weight yarn in my house I definitely would have cast this one on immediately after seeing it.

There’s stripes and circles of different sizes and colors, worked with intarsia. The wrap is worked sideways in both garter stitch and stockinette, so different sections also have different textures. Color blocking means you’ll use a lot of two main colors, and there are two more colors used for contrast throughout the piece.

As I mentioned, the project calls for sport weight yarn, and it’s already pretty big — 23.25 by 82 inches or 59 by 208 cm — so you probably wouldn’t want to use heavier yarn unless you just want to make it a super scarf. You could use even lighter yarn to make it more of a scarf than a shawl if you wanted.

The yarn used is a combination of Merino wool and recycled threads from La Bien Aimée’s yarn making process, so it’s a fun way to reduce waste while making something awesome.

The color motifs are depicted in charts in the pattern, but none of these are difficult so even if you’re new to chart reading you should be able to handle this pattern. The colors in the sample are so pretty but you can of course change it up with your favorites that will make you smile as you knit and wear this super fun pattern.

As usual, checking out the projects tab on Ravelry will show you some more fun color options. I love the idea of using jewel tones to give it a more wintry look, but the sky is the limit when it comes to color options.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sylvia Watts-Cherry]

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