Review: Kids’ Ultimate Craft Book

If you’ve got kids home for the summer or are just interested in indoctrinating them into the world of crafts at any time of year, Kids’ Ultimate Craft Book is a fun place to start.

This compilation craft book from the editors at Quarry Books covers knitting as well as beading, crochet, knotting, braiding and sewing. Each of the five chapters includes an overview of materials, tools and techniques needed to get started, and then there are a few patterns the kiddo can use to practice that craft.

The knitting chapter begins with an introduction from Mary Scott Huff and includes tips on yarn weight, gauge and fiber, essential tools, how to measure and count stitches and rows, working a cable cast on, the knit stitch, purling, working in the round and binding off.

It also includes some tips for fixing mistakes including how to tink and frog. There are also photo tutorials on basic increases and decreases, how to weave in ends nad blocking. It’s a pretty solid education in the basics that will help a new knitter learn on their own or refresh your memory on how to talk through the basic steps to make teaching someone else easier.

The knitting patterns included are a bias knit garter stitch washcloth, a cowl worked in the round with ribbed edges and a stockinette stitch body (shown in two colors, which adds another skill) and a pencil roll worked in two colors. They’re cute projects but I don’t know if a new knitter would stick with the cowl or the pencil roll long enough to finish them. (That said we do usually start knitters on scarves, which isn’t exactly a fast project, so these could be fine, too!)

Since a lot of us like both knitting and crochet (and it’s great to try to teach kids both in case they take to one more easily), I’ll mention the crochet section covers the parts of a hook, abbreviations and reading charts (though charts are not used in the book), how to hold the hook and yarn, making a slip knot, chain, slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and tips for working in rows and rounds. The patterns include a braided friendship bracelet made out of chains, a monster with a rectangular single crochet body and twisty arms and legs, and a granny square scarf.

This book provides a quick overview of a bunch of different crafts your teen or tween might be interested in and tells you the basics you need to know to make some fun and relatively easy projects. I think this would be a great book to have on hand for summer, or rainy days, or winter, when those I’m bored feelings creep up (especially if you have a well-stocked craft room so these projects can be started without a trip to the craft store).

About the book: 192 pages, paperback (ebook edition also available), 16 projects (3 knitting patterns). Published 2021 by Quarry Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

Next Pattern:

Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

Next Pattern:

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