Review: Super Duper Knit Hats for Beginners

Evelyne Nemcsok has been a friend of Craft Gossip for a while, so when I heard she had released an ebook of knitting patterns I wanted to check it out. She sent me a copy to look at, and it’s a great collection of quick and easy patterns particularly for newer knitters.

Super Duper Knit Hats for Beginners has six projects:

Big Hat
Faux Fur Lumberjack Hat
Infinity Scarf (big enough to wear over your head)
Peaked Beret
Twisted Stitch Pom Pom Hat
Plum Fedora

All of the projects are worked flat on two needles and seamed after the knitting is done, which is great for knitters who might be intimidated by working on circulars or DPNs. All the projects are for adult women and come in one size.

The instructions are simple and clear, and terms are defined in the pattern notes when needed. There’s no knitting instruction here, but those with a grasp on the basics should be able to knit any of these projects with no problem.

It’s a fun collection for people who love to knit hats and want to make a variety of projects for everyone on their list. New knitters who want to pick up a few skills while whipping up some quick and cute accessories will enjoy this book as well.

About the Book: 22 pages, ebook only, six patterns (two each are rated easy, easy + and “a bit tricky). Published by Evelyne Nemcsok, The ebook in the US is here: and in Canada is here:

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

Have you read?