Book Review: Knit the City Building Blocks

Jake Henzler first designed knit blocks that look like buildings to commemorate his travels to Copenhagen; over time he added other cities and developed still more city blocks for the book Knit the City Building Blocks.

The book includes designs inspired by Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Sydney, London and Prague.

The book has the blocks for each city together, and they generally increase in difficulty as the book goes on. The beginning of each section includes design notes that include gauge, block measurements and the ratio of different amounts of yarn needed for each block.

Patterns are charted and there are additional elements you can mix and match to make your own blocks with the help of an included blank grid. Sketches of different block ideas are included to give you more options you can use or build on to make your own designs. Suggestions for sizing are given for making a pillow cover, baby blanket and larger blanket but there are no actual patterns.

The squares call for fingering weight yarn, though of course you can use heavier yarn and make bigger blocks if you like. The blocks are worked flat with stranded knitting, and the author advises not working more than three stitches before you trap a float (the book also talks about leaving long floats on the back and trapping them on the purl row if you need to go more than three stitches).

Having never been to any of these cities, I can’t say how well the buildings represent their respective places, but they are cute. I do like that the London blocks had gray sky worked in ribbing, which represents the gloominess for which London is famous.

Even if you’re not from or haven’t visited one of these places, the idea of making a city block blanket or other project is appealing, and there are lots of variations you can use to make the designs your own or make them look similar to buildings where you live.

I might have liked to see the blocks used in a greater diversity of projects, even if there weren’t patterns included. Building blocks on a sweater or vest would be super cute, for example.

Knit the City inspires knitters to look at their communities or places they travel to in a new way, and to make knitting projects from those observations.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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?