Knitting

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Review: Two Easy Ways to Knit for Babies

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leisure arts baby bookletsI was cleaning in my office yesterday and I cam across a couple of cute Leisure Arts booklets about baby knits that I thought you all might enjoy.

The first, Garter Stitch for Baby by Candi Jensen and Heather Vantress, features 10 projects for little ones that mostly use Garter Stitch (there’s also a ripple stripe blanket that uses Feather and Fan). The baby hat and striped leg warmers are super sweet, and that hooded sweater on the cover is adorable, too. There’s also a little knit toy (called a sweetie, it kind of looks like a cat) a vest, a striped blanket, a pair of booties, mitts and fingerless mitts. All the projects are rated easy except the hooded sweater, and this would be a great place to start for a newer knitter who really wants to knit for a baby.

If you want to try knitting in a different way, check out Karen Ratto-Whooley’s Projects for Baby Made with the Knook. A Knook is more like a crochet hook, but you work back and forth in rows more like knitting, and the finished fabric looks like knitting. (It’s actually kind of like Tunisian crochet.) The great thing about this book is that it includes instructions for using knitting needles as well, so you can go either way with your projects. There are six in all: the sweater on the cover, two hats and three blankets. I like the baby beret and the Tracks & Trails Afghan best.

Have you ever used a Knook? I’ve never tried it but it’s on my list. I’d love to know what you think!

 

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Knit a Log Cabin Sweater for Your Little One

I don’t share patterns for kids clothes nearly often enough (probably because my teen long ago aged out of kid sizes) but I’m going to try to make more of an effort for those of you who are knitting for kids, grandkids, charity projects, etc. 

If you fall in those categories, let me know what kind of projects you might be looking for and I’ll do my best to find some and share them for you!

In the meantime, there’s this. The Log Cabin Style knit pullover from Lion Brand yarn is exactly what it sounds like. The back of the sweater is plain and a single color, but the front uses blocks like a log cabin design, and the sleeves are striped. 

The pattern calls for Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which comes in tons of colors so you can use school colors, your child’s favorite colors or just what you have in the house. In all it uses five colors. 

The pattern comes in three sizes, meant to be for ages 6-8, 8-10 and 10-12. The finished chest measurement ranges from 28 to 32 inches, or 71 to 81.5 cm. 

The pattern is available for free on the Lion Brand website, but you will need to sign up for a free account to download it if you don’t already have one. 

You can of course buy a full kit of yarn direct from Lion Brand if you like. 

If you’ve never stitched a log cabin project before, I think you’ll find this to be a lot of fun and you will start thinking of all sorts of ways to use this technique in different projects. (And if you want a quick overview of what log cabin knitting is and how it works, I have a post on my website all about log cabin knitting where I show it being used to make a pillow.)

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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