Books For Knitters, Both Young, And Well, Younger!

2 books have recently stumbled down my path, found their way into my life, and deposited themselves on my coffee table. Here’s what I found:

Knitty Kitty is an engaging tale, written by David Elliot, complete with gorgeous illustrations, by Christopher Denise, about a Kitty who, well, knits! The scarves, mittens and hats she makes for her kittens end up being used for something else, but no matter, they manage to stay warm anyway. And… the patterns for them are included! You’ll have to see for yourself how these mischevious kittens use their hats, mittens and scarves, and how mama keeps them warm anyway.

This is a nice hardcover book, suitable for your toddler’s coffee table!
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Shear Spirit is a book for every knitter. It seriously made me want to go hug a lamb! The subtitle is Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns, and Miles of Yarn. (It should read.. Miles of “Droolable” Yarn). I couldn’t put this book down. Not only are the Fiber Farms showcased, but their owners too. It’s nice to read about the “behind the scenes people who make this stuff happen”, the REAL people. The people who feed and care for their animals and who shear, work with rovings, spin, dye, knit, felt, and weave with the fibers. And love it. There are lambs, alpacas, even yaks in this book, but I think my personal favorite is the Icelandic sheep. From farms all over the USA, these stories and patterns will have you out hugging your fiber animals! This book’s description includes “A visual journey to America’s fiber farms and ranches plus a rich inside look at the challenging but rewarding lives of the people who have devoted their lives to harvesting and spinning fleece into yarn.” It’s truly inspiring to get to know others, if only through print and pictures, who’s lives revolve around the fiber animals we love.

Shear Spirit is written by Joan Tapper with photography by Gale Zucker.

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

Have you read?