Monica Russel

100 Little Knitted Gifts to Make is an anthology of patterns from 16 of Search Press's “Twenty to Make” series by eight different designers. (Most if not all of these are out of print.) As such, there is something to please everyone and quite a bit to leave any given person cold. I personally liked the patterns from Knitted Fruits and Knitted Vegetables very much, found some value in Knitted Cakes (rather obvious by now that I knit for my grandchildren's play kitchen, isn't it), appreciated Knitted Bears and Mini Christmas Knits, and wondered why on earth Knitted Aliens and Knitted Boot Cuffs were even included. There were probably 15 or 20 patterns for tiny and cute articles that I would consider making, which is pretty good value for a knitting book. I've already made the Peas in a Pod and Plum, also Angel Cake, and found the instructions adequate if just a tiny bit terse. I believe the editors wanted to fit most of the patterns on one page each, or to be precise, one opening with a large and colourful photograph facing a page of written instructions. So the pattern verbiage is well pruned and there are no explanatory diagrams – which would have been quite helpful in the beaded blackberry pattern – or how-to-assemble photographs. But the extremely clear and enlarged photos of the items are quite helpful, and there's a chart for the stranded colourwork wrist warmers, although not for the cable and bobble headband. A particularly frustrating pattern was the pineapple. The model has some embroidery to emphasize the pineapple structure and it really enhances the appearance, but there are no directions for completing it. But overall, this is quite a practical book and the little projects are quick and easy to complete.

Note: This book has been reprinted as Quick and Easy Knits: 100 little knitting projects to make. I notice that the photograph of the pineapple seems much clearer and will make it easier to do the accent embroidery.… (mais)