Seasonal Hand Knitted Designs for 18″ Dolls

I recently purchased the “Seasonal Hand Knitted Designs for 18″ Dolls: Spring/Summer Collection” and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. The book is filled with 13 beautifully designed hand knitted patterns that are suitable for both beginner and experienced knitters. The patterns are not only perfect for creating a stylish wardrobe for my 18″ doll, but also as a way to celebrate the art of knitting and honor the memory of the author’s mother, Brenda, who taught her how to knit at a young age.

One of the things I love about this book is that the patterns are designed to coordinate with each other, creating complete ensembles for my doll. From the traditional options offered in the Bria Collection, to the spring cherry blossom inspired set found in the Earth Collection, along with the versatile styles of the Neapolitan Chic Collection, and finishing with trendy nautical essentials from the Sea Collection. Each design is worked with the doll’s ease of dressing in mind, making it easy to dress and undress the doll.

The patterns are designed to fit American Girl Dolls and the comparable 18″ Gotz Dolls, which are very popular among doll enthusiasts. American Girl Dolls are known for their quality and attention to detail, making them a favorite among collectors and children alike. The dolls are designed to have different skin tones, hair textures and eye colors, which allows children to find a doll that looks like them. Additionally, the dolls have a wide range of books, clothing and accessories, making them an ideal companion for children to play and learn with.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves to knit and has an 18″ doll. The patterns are beautifully designed and easy to follow, making it a great way to celebrate the art of knitting and create a stylish wardrobe for your doll.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

Have you read?