Review: Small Knits: Casual and Chic Japanese Style Accessories

Japanese knitting patterns are popular around the world for their simplicity of style, timeless designs and easy to understand charts that basically give you the whole pattern without words. It’s not a style everyone loves, but there are plenty of Japanese style knitting pattern books that include a little bit of written instruction to get you started but mostly rely on the charts to convey necessary information.

Small Knits by Yoko Hatta is done in this style. It includes 19 patterns for accessories including hats, mitts, cowls, socks and a shawl.

The book opens with full page, full color photos of each of the projects. It almost feels like a fashion collection in that pieces often repeat motifs or stitch patterns in different ways or projects coordinate with each other.

I love the Nordic mittens, with their wavy multicolored cuffs and detailed colorwork on the hands; the Aran hat, densely cabled and designed so you can flip the brim back and it still looks good; the houndstooth neckwarmer (find more houndstooth knitting patterns here); and the Argyle neckwarmer, worked with intersecting bands of color that make for a colorful and cozy project.

Once you flip through the photos you’ll find the patterns, which include information on the yarn used, needles and other tools needed, gauge and finished size. The pattern is presented as a schematic with the instructions written within and beside the chart. There are also charts for the colorwork and stitch patterns as needed.

These patterns also include a bit more written instruction and some photo (or drawn image) tutorials for techniques such as working magic loop and turning cables. More techniques are included in the back of the book such as cast on methods, how to knit and purl, increases and decreases.

The extra bit of written instruction makes these patterns a nice way to try Japanese knitting patterns with a bit more hand-holding than you would usually get, so if you like these classic designs and want to give Japanese style knitting patterns a try, this would be a good book to check out.

About the book: 80 pages, paperback, 19 patterns. Published 2022 by Tuttle Publishing, suggested retail price $16.99.

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?