Review: Teach Me to Knit

I’m teaching some classes at the “summer camp” at my daughter’s school this year that will include a couple of general fiber arts courses for different age groups and a class just focused on learning to knit.

So I have been looking with special interest lately at books that aim to help get kids interested in learning to knit and that include easy projects younger people will enjoy making and using.

Teach Me to Knit from Leisure Arts is a brief booklet that covers all the basics, from yarn and needle selection to casting on (long-tail), knitting, binding off, purling,decreasing, seaming, increasing, working yarn overs to make eyelets, slipping stitches and producing the make 1 increase.

Each lesson is accompanied by a project or two that will help knitters of any age use their new skills. It starts with Garter Stitch coasters and a flower made by casting on, binding off and sewing up. There’s another coaster worked just in purl (which is still Garter Stitch), a washcloth, can cozy, dog’s ball toy, eyelet scarf, lap afghan made with the ripple stitch and a pillow worked in wedges that are seamed together.

Other projects include a fish-shaped cat toy, leg warmers, mitts and a hat, all worked flat.

There are lots of pictures and words to guide knitters who are learning new skills, and links to online video tutorials are included for anyone who needs more help. If the child knows an adult who knits, so much the better, though it’s not strictly necessary to be able to follow this bookk.

I like the variety of patterns in this book and that it manages to cover a lot of skills quickly, giving new knitters confidence to try new things and to make projects they will love to use and give as gifts.

I will definitely have this book on hand while I’m teaching this summer.

Book specifications: 64 pages, paperback, 13 patterns. Published by Leisure Arts, December, 2015. Suggested retail $14.99.

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?