Book Review: One Stitch Baby Knits

Knitters tend to love fancy stitch patterns and embellishments on projects, but making something that looks cute doesn’t have to involve a lot of fancy stitchwork. In fact, there’s a lot you can do just with Garter Stitch.

That’s the premise of One-Stitch Baby Knits by Val Pierce, a book of 22 patterns for garments, bibs, blankets and more that only uses Garter Stitch and simple shaping. That doesn’t mean all the projects are for beginners, but they show newer knitters that they can build from basic skills to make some really fun projects.

Some of the projects I really liked include the Bunny Earflap Hat (which sounds like what it is, a hat that has both earflaps and bunny ears); the Sleepy Babies Blanket, with blocks of different texture and three sleepy baby faces along the top; the Navy Striped Bib, which uses slipped stitches to add interest to Garter Stitch Stripes; the Striped Yoke Cardigan, a bottom-up raglan with stripes on the yoke; and the Little Rosebud Wrap Set, which includes a wrap sweater, bonnet and booties.

The projects aren’t on Ravelry that I can find but you can see some of them on the preview of the book on Amazon.

Six of the projects are rated for beginners, 11 are intermediate and 5 experienced, mostly because of shaping and additional elements/embellishments that add to the skills required.

The projects are cute and a great place to start if you need some new options for baby knits, especially if you like Garter Stitch and adding appliqued embellishments like animal faces, sailboats and fish to projects.

What I didn’t love was some of the beginning knitting instructions, such as when the text is teaching the knit cast on and says “again, as if you were making a knit stitch” when the knit stitch hasn’t been introduced yet. It talks about gauge and shows a picture of a swatch but doesn’t really explain how to knit or measure a swatch. It suggests when changing colors in the middle of a row that you knit the first stitch with both colors, which could definitely mess up your pattern. The description of how to seam Garter Stitch is unhelpful and there’s no photo.

But if you have a grasp of the basics and can skip straight on to the patterns, I think you’ll find something fun to knit for the next little one in your circle.

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 22 projects. Published in 2019 by IMM Lifestyle Books, suggested retail $17.99.

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?