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For those outside the knitting world, mention of knitting may bring to mind the image of a glowing young mother-to-be, rocking in a rocking chair and knitting tiny little booties and sweaters. While today’s knitters definitely aren’t just pregnant women (or frail grannies, either, for that matter), most knitters know that it’s just plain fun to knit for babies. The tiny sweaters and booties take much less time to knit than adult-sized sweaters and socks—and they make great projects for trying out new techniques.
Elanor Lynn’s Cozy Knits for Cuddly Babies is both a beginning knitting course and a pattern book. In the first half of the book, Lynn teaches readers (perhaps those glowing young mothers-to-be) the basics of knitting through words and nice big illustrations. If you’ve never knitted before, it’ll help you get started (though I recommend finding someone to show you how it’s done, too). For more intermediate knitters, the front part of the book serves as a great refresher—and you may just learn a few tips along the way.
The second half of the book is filled with patterns, placed in order of difficulty. Lynn starts out with the very basic yet beautiful garter stitch Underwater Afghan and builds up to ponchos and hats and sundresses and a variety of sweaters—from coats to v-necks to top-down cardigans and more. For some of the patterns, Lynn even gives tips for making adult-sized versions of her designs. So once you practice on the mini version, you can make another one for yourself.
You won’t find many duds in this book. The majority of the projects inside are as cute as the book’s title. Even the bonnet with bunny ears, which could possibly result in years of therapy for the wearer, is irresistibly cute. In fact, I dare you to flip through this adorable book without cooing at least once. I’m pretty sure it’s not possible. And while I would have liked some of the pictures to focus a little more on the garments than on the adorable babies wearing them, I also can’t blame the photographer for focusing on the cuddly little models.
Cozy Knits offers a variety of designs (using a variety of yarns) that any mom-to-be will love. Whether you want to learn the basics and knit something for a little one of your own—or you want to knit something up for a friend’s baby shower—this book is a great place to start. And I can personally guarantee that the designs in this book will be showing up at baby showers in the near future—because I have a lot of pregnant friends.
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