Book Review: Mindfulness in Knitting

Mindfulness is a buzzword that gets thrown around about all sorts of subjects these days, and it is often connected to craft because of the ways that mindfulness, attentiveness and thoughtfulness can combine when making something to turn it into a meditative, contemplative act.

Most of us who’ve been around the knitting world for a while know that knitting is often noted for its stress relieving properties (at least after you get over the frustration of learning the basics), but it can also serve as a means to connect you to the string of knitters throughout history, as well as to yourself and your immediate community.

Rachel Matthews explores these threads and offers essays and exercises for other knitters to try in her book Mindfulness in Knitting.

The book offers reflections on knitting as a lifelong structure for learning, finding our place through yarn, knitting sacred spaces, knitting circles and craftivism and knitting and self-discovery.

“The simple life of mindful knitting co-ordinates our heads, hands and hearts, helping our thinking become wider, deeper, freer and ultimately more interesting and creative,” she writes.

While knitting is often categorized as woman’s work or something grannies do, those of us who make with yarn know “the skill, vision, patience and devotion with which all things, useful or not so useful, are made.”

In addition to stories from her own life and those of other knitters, Matthews calls on knitters to explore their own connections to the craft and other crafters through exercises throughout the book. One example is meditating with yarn and then using leftover yarn to make a mandala that can incorporate different shapes, colors and important numbers.

Mindfulness in Knitting is a meditation on the values that we bring to our knitting and the way that those values can shape us and our knitting projects. For example knitting can become an expression of our thrift, our desire to protect the environment, or a way to connect with like-minded people and express things through yarn that our important to us. And as we shape the knitting, the knitting shapes us as well.

There aren’t any huge revelations about the power of knitting in this book, but there don’t have to be. Read it and see if those revelations come to you all the same.

About the book: 144 pages, hardcover. Published 2023 by Leaping Hare Press, suggested retail price $15.

Next Pattern:

Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

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