Book Review: Graphic Knits

Even though I’ve written a book about colorwork knitting, I have to admit a lot of the projects I knit are worked with a solid color or a self-striping yarn rather than working in stripes or a colorwork pattern on my own.

Colorwork is a lot of fun, though, and it makes projects look a lot more interesting than if they were worked in a solid color or allover stitch pattern.

Alexis Winslow defines graphic in the title of her book Graphic Knits: 20 Designs in Bold, Beautiful Color to mean both colorful elements and variations of stitch pattern in an otherwise solid garment.

Her tops, hats, mitts and other accessories look like a lot of fun to knit and something a little beyond the ordinary in terms of construction techniques and the skills involved.

Some of my favorite projects include the Minnow Top, worked with stripes of chevron lace and eyelets; the Rockling Cardigan, which gives the grandpa sweater a colorwork update; Woodstar beret and mitts, lovely pieces worked in three colors with star and diamond motifs; the Tanager Shrug, an origami-like design worked in three colors of stripes broken up by eyelets; the Liwi Top, a simple Stockinette shell with mesh lace at the bodice; the Sweetness Pullover, a top-down, circular yoke sweater with dots of different colors; and the Burren Pullover, which uses short rows to make skewed stripes.

Check out all the designs on Ravelry.

I think this book is a great one for people who might not knit with a lot of color or who tend to stick to Stockinette. It will broaden your horizons and increase your skill levels while providing you with really lovely projects to wear and use.

About the Book: 136 pages, paperback, 20 patterns (no skill levels given). Published October 2014 by Interweave/F+W, retail price $24.99.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?