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Review: Color Knitting with Confidence

January 20, 2015 by Sarah White

color-knitting-with-confidence

A lot of knitters are intimidated by color knitting, whether because they’re afraid of the techniques or because they don’t want to pick colors they end up not liking together. Nguyen Le tries to take some of the fear and mystery out of colorwork techniques with her book Color Knitting with Confidence (Barron’s, 144 pages, 30 patterns, October 2014, $19.99).

In the interest of full disclosure, my new book coming out in April is a colorwork book, so I might be a little more judgmental than others on this topic right now.

That said, this is a cute book that really focuses on people who are new to colorwork (and, indeed, new to knitting, as there are basic knitting instructions here, too). It covers knitting stripes, slip stitches, stranded colorwork, intarsia and double knitting with a focus on simple, often repeating designs and small projects.

Each chapter takes you through the basics of how to perform the given technique as well as offering some sample patterns you might want to play with. There’s a handful of patterns for each technique, most of which are pretty simple, such as an ombre striped baby blanket worked mostly in Stockinette Stitch, a slip stitch chevron rug, a collar worked with hearts in intarsia, fingerless mitts with stranded knit triangles (both of those are on the cover) and a double-knit belt that’s solid colors on both sides.

There are some more elaborate patterns as well, such as a baby cardigan worked in stranded knitting that involves cutting a steek, but most of these patterns are pretty straightforward, which is great for people new to colorwork but those with a few projects under their belts might find these options a little boring. (But they’re not the target audience anyway.)

That said there are some projects here that are really cute. I actually like those stranded mitts on the cover, and the color wheel pillow is super cute and I wish I’d thought of it. There’s a little bunny (that looks more like a mouse to me) with a stranded knit body that’s really sweet, and the double-sided double-knit cowl is pretty and practical.

So if you’ve been afraid to try color knitting in the past (and don’t want to wait for my book) and are looking for some straightforward patterns to get you started, this is a good book to check out.

Have you read it? Or are you in the fear of colorwork boat? I’d love to hear about it!

Next Pattern:

  • Book Review: Knit Color Block Blankets
  • Have Fun with Color in the Ocean Pathways Sweater…
  • Play with Color in this Retro Scarf Blanket Knitting Pattern
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Comments

  1. Vickie Howell says

    January 22, 2015 at 8:31 am

    Love this cover! Looks like a sweet, informative book. 🙂

  2. Cindy S says

    January 27, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    My next goal is to learn colorwork, I’m thinking intarsia. I just finished my last goal and knit a lacy shawl! I love learning new things.

Have you read?

Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

Knitting Patterns for Little Chicks

Tiny Hens to Knit

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