Big Book of Baby Knits

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Big Book of Baby Knits is a well curated and traditional collection full of beautiful garments and accessories from Marie Claire. Originally published in French in 2010, this English language edition is due out 24th Aug 2021 from Fox Chapel on their Landauer imprint. It's 192 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a large collection with a wide range of styles, garments, and accessories. There are all-season garments including outerwear, rompers, pullovers, socks and booties, blankets, and soft toys. Most of the pieces are easy to intermediate difficulty, there aren't any prohibitively difficult ones. Sizes range from newborn to 24 months. There aren't any sized specifically for preemies, but smaller needles and more delicate yarn would make a possible substitute (with careful gauge measurements).

There isn't a thumbnail gallery anywhere in the collection. Some of the patterns are pictured in the table of contents, but they're not shown in order. The index does list garments by type: dresses, pullovers, booties, socks, etc, with page numbers, but I found this omission and that the designs were scattered somewhat haphazardly, to be less than optimal. The patterns are arranged in collections: hello baby, sweet treasures, baby basics, softness & warmth, etc. The individual collections are not coordinated into layettes or by yarn types, so it was a bit confusing to me why they were arranged as they were. All the design models are knitted in Phildar yarns, but yardages and content are listed for each pattern, so substitutions are possible.

Tutorials include a photo of the finished project, tools and supplies in a sidebar bullet point list (both US and metric sizes given), followed by knitting and finishing instructions. Many of the patterns are generalized and a bit abbreviated, so new-beginner knitters might need occasional help with interpretation (probably not, but it's always good to have a knitting buddy to ask if one is stuck).

The designs are traditional and classic and there are no "edgy" or "trendy" designs. My own kids are grown (and I don't have any grandchildren now - if ever), but I do a lot of knitting for charity and this book is chock full of the sort of knits which will be well received and are needed by the groups for whom I knit. Everyone has their favorite standard patterns, but it's lovely to find a collection of new and different designs to try out.

Four stars (mostly because of the lack of pattern arrangement, limited size range, and no thumbnail gallery). This would make a good choice for library acquisition, knitting group/guild library, or for the home knitter.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.