Sunday 16 May 2010

Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots

Book Depository Link Ravelry Link


Types of patterns: Garments and accessories for babies and toddlers

Number of Patterns: 25

Split of patterns: Babies & Toddlers

Size Range:6 months to 6 years, not all patterns cover all age ranges

Colour/Black & White: cute colour photos, colour charts,

Schematics: No

Target Audience: Some pieces are aimed at beginners, but with no schematics you'd need to have some ideas of how garments should look

How to knit guide: No, but there are some good finishing notes and notes on resizing

Experimental/Classical/Modern: Modern colouring but much of it is pretty plain.

Comments: Zoe Mellor is well known for her colourwork and this shows. Theres a lot of colour, much of it in stripes. Several pieces though are textured rather than coloured.

Daisy Dress - flower-motif dress knit in cotton, no sleeves, cute stuff. Very plain look needs the flower-motif to take it from bland. Could be faked with some edging or bought motifs

Little Star Sweater: Pretty unisex jumper with a large five-pointed star centred on it and contrast trim on the cuffs, rib and neck.

Lacy Sweater - knit in one colour with lacework on the sleeves and a lacy edge and a flower motif worked in lace and bobblework this is a girly top. Cute without being overcute

Little Blossom Cardigan - Zoe Mellor's signature blossoms. Done in three colours this could be made less pink and still be fairly cute.

Fair Isle Cardigan - Hearts make this rather cute, probably a good introduction to fair Isle.

Dots and Stripes Blanket - mixes blues, pinks, green and cream to create a fairly unisex blanket that could be made more gendered or less gendered if you wished

Funky Tank Top - tank top with stripes, unisex, shoulders could be made a little narrower for a slightly better look

Sundress - button fastening on the top sundress, striped.

Pirate Sweater - Skull & crossbones Jumper, skull has a bit of a smile. Could be very entertaining if done in very subtly contrasting yarns. Also cool in the original blues, reds and whites. She manages to make the skull cute and smile!

Strawberries & Cream Sweater - Jumper in an off-white with strawberries as an edging.

Heart-motif cardigan - frilled edging with hearts in a variety of colours and sizes

Fairy Dress - knitted bodice and sewn skirt.

Ship Ahoy! Sweater - fish and a boat decorate this jumper with contrast trim on the sleeves, cuffs and rib

Ballerina Wrap - Wrap top

Chunky Cable Sweater - contrast edging and an aran-style jumper

Multicolour bobble cardigan - Bobbles edge this cardigan, the cardigan itself is pretty basic with moss stitch edging, other ornamentation could be used.

Zip-up Jacket - Zipped Moss stitch cardigan with pockets, pretty unisex

Robin Hood Jacket - this is a rather cool cabled jacket which I would regard as pretty unisex, tassled hood and toggles enhance it and the cable around the edge of the hood is cool.

Hearts and Stars Blanket - All one colour the hearts and stars are done in moss stitch as relief. Rather cute.

Fair Isle Tassled Hat - Square hat with tassles at the ends. Knit flat

Striped Hat & Scarf Set - Stripes in five colours, hat has earflaps and is knit in the flat

Cabled hat with earflaps - it has a bobble and reeks cute. Knit flat.

Bold banded Mittens - with a string to keep them from getting lost. Knit in the flat

Polka Dot bootees & Hat - Slippers would be good practice for the hat, both knit flat.

Baby Slippers - Moss stitch slippers with mother of pearl buttons and cross stitch embroidery look like mary-janes but extremely cute.

The cute is strong with this one, I'd possibly eliminate many of the seams, particularly in the cardigans but still they're nice pieces, fairly classic stuff and amenable to change. Colour fashions change but the basics here are good and the shapes have some added interest to keep you going. Many of them would be workable for a beginner without some of the fru-fru and possibly enhanced after sewing up. This would be an ideal book for someone looking into playing with colourwork or lacy pieces without investing too much money or work to the item.

Buy/Borrow: I'd borrow first and see if it appeals. If I was knitting for kids I think it would be part of my library

Where found: Dublin City Public Libraries has copies.

No comments:

Post a Comment