Review: Cozy Country Knits

I don’t know why, when the weather is finally officially warm here in Arkansas, the book I picked to review this week is one that’s decidedly meant for the fall and winter, but this is the one that jumped out at me.

Cozy Country Knits by Manuela Burkhardt and Dorothea Neumann is all about getting cozy with you’re knitting. It’s full of sweaters and jackets, socks and hats, as well as other accessories with what the subtitle of the book calls “classic rural charm,” which mostly means a lot of chunky knits, texture and cables.

The book includes 24 patterns – eight rated easy, nine intermediate and seven advanced — most of which are sweaters or socks but there are also some hats, wraps and other projects in there, too.

Some of my favorites include the Rustic Pullover, with a complex mass of cables at the center front that still manages to look casual; Delicate Lace, a pullover worked in worsted weight yarn with an allover lace pattern that’s actually not all that delicate; Warm and Elegant, a chunky cardigan with a simple textured stitch pattern; and the Cozy Tam, a slouchy cabled hat.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

Have you read?