Knitting

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Book Review: Quick Knit Baby Toys

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Babies like the simple things, including when it comes to toys. While it’s lots of fun to knit elaborate projects for babies (and others!), it’s also totally fine to knit simple things. Baby might just end up liking the more basic toys more because they’re not so precious they can’t be played with. 

Designer Juliette Michelet has designed 20 beginner-friendly doll projects for babies she shares in her book Quick Knit Baby Toys: 20 Beginner-Friendly Patterns for Knitted Baby Comforters. 

The patterns all call for the same materials: fingering weight yarn for knitting the bodies, plus lace weight for embroidery; size 0 US/2 mm knitting needles in straight and circular configurations; thread for embroidering; scissors and a tapestry needle. 

The book covers the basics of knitting and embroidery that are needed to finish the projects, but it’s all pretty basic and the bodies of the dolls are worked flat in rectangles with minimal shaping (ears are worked in the round). There’s more to explain for finishing than there is for knitting, as how you sew up the pieces makes them look like little dolls. 

The creations are as follows:

  • little man with blue hat 
  • apple baby
  • mum with an embroidered skirt
  • little man with a bird sweater
  • sailor
  • sweetheart
  • explorer
  • bear in a ruff
  • bear with hearts
  • deer
  • bird
  • cat
  • rabbit
  • mouse
  • sheep
  • lion
  • elf
  • fox 
  • king
  • witch

The patterns all have fun details such as gold embroidery and a crown on the king, or a little hat with a pompom on top for the bird. The photography is whimsical, showing the characters in different scenes that could inspire creative play if your older kiddos look at the pictures. 

The back of the book includes charts and instructions for embroidery so you can make your dolls look just like the ones in the book or you can go your own way to make different designs on sweaters and skirts, for example. These projects would be great little stash busters, and you can always make them bigger by using heavier yarn if you like. (The patterns don’t say how big these are.) 

These dolls would be a lot of fun to knit and are pretty quick projects so you can make a basket full for a little one in your life. 

About the book: 80 pages, paperback, 20 patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $17.99.

 

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Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

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.