Join Me at the Holiday Crafts Summit

Are you ready for holiday crafting? I’ve been doing a lot for Halloween lately so I haven’t given much thought to the winter holidays, but they will be here quicker than we imagine.

If you’re ready to get started on your holiday crafting list, whether you’re looking for decor for your home or easy gifts to make and give, you’ll want to check out the Rebecca Page holiday crafts summit.

This free summit takes place Oct. 16-20 and offers 44 classes in knitting, crochet, paper crafts, embroidery and sewing. I’m teaching two classes, one of which is for knitters.

My class is about knit headbands and earwarmers. In this class you’ll learn how to make custom headbands and ear warmers using any weight of yarn you like, any stitch pattern you want and whatever size you need.

I demonstrate working projects flat and in the round, sewing them flat or with a twist, or using a cable to make the twist. The hope is that this will give you ideas to make the perfect headband/ear warmer for yourself or to give as a gift.

There’s another knitting class that I’m not teaching, for a knit Santa gift bag that is just so cute!

My other class is a sewing class, which shows you how to make a couple of simple and useful gifts for the reader in your life: a pillow case with a pocket to hold your book (or notebook, pens, highlighters, reading glasses, etc.) and a book weight to help hold the book open so you don’t have to. Because I love to read and knit at the same time, which I can’t do if I’m holding the book open!

Each day through the summit a number of classes are released and available for viewing each day. You can also sign up for a VIP pass to get lifetime access to all courses, plus three classes that are only available through the VIP ticket. I hope you’ll join me to learn all about these quick, easy and fun to make gift ideas!

When I discovered Kate Atherley’s book Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond, I wasn’t sure there was enough to say about circular knitting to fill a book. It’s a pretty short book (144 pages) and includes 10 patterns to practice working in the round on small projects, and it provides a decent introduction to the various ways of working in the round.

The book covers using double pointed knitting needles, flexible double points and circular knitting needles with cables. It talks about working using the full circumference of a circular needle and various ways to work smaller circumference projects, such as using DPNs, magic loop and knitting with two circular knitting needles.

In addition there’s a discussion of preventing problems like twists and ladders, swatching in the round without actually swatching in the round, grafting, blocking and weaving in ends.

More specialized techniques likes knitting from the center out, stranded colorwork, helical knitting and jogless stripes are also explored, as well as working pieces like socks or mitts two at a time.

There’s also some information about seamless sweaters, including the different sweater designs that can be worked seamlessly (and why you might want seams in your sweaters) and how they are worked from the top down or the bottom up.

There are 10 patterns in the book, including a basic stockinette stitch cowl and one with a deliberate twist, wrist warmers, mitts and a pair of colorwork mittens, a hat worked in a solid color or in helical stripes, toe up and top down socks and a beret. It would have been nice to have a basic sweater pattern, too, since the book does talk about working larger garments with circular needles, but it’s still a nice collection of basic patterns worked in the round.

If you’re already comfortable working in the round in different ways, I’m not sure there’s much for you to learn in this book, but it is a good reference for people learning circular knitting or who maybe haven’t tried all the techniques yet or need skill building projects to try.

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 10 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Have you read?