little wonders

lately there has been a little flurry of books arriving in my mailbox, signaling a revival of new knitting publications. one that turned up recently caught my eye—one-skein wonders for babies, edited by judith durant and published by storey press.

when our grand nephew, baby eli, was born in january, i said i would wait to knit him a sweater until he was big enough not to grow out of it too quickly.

now he’s a big strapping superbaby of nine months and i’ve been casually entertaining thoughts of what that sweater might be (oh, and i am never going to let my nephew live down this photo, hahaha; he even dressed the dogs up in superhero costumes!).

so the arrival of this little book of treasures was quite welcome; i was looking for some inspiration and wondering what hand knits kids are wearing these days. filled with adorable photos and loads of patterns (101 in all!) for all manner of children’s wear and related items—everything from pullovers to pillows and all knit from one skein of the suggested yarn.

sweaters and other wearables top the list; there are a wealth of really cute articles of clothing included. in fact, i am quite surprised at what a knitter can make with just one skein—baby knitting is a real stash buster and a great way to use up all those singles in your collection.

and many are sized for toddlers as well, so we are not talking only about little tiny things for infants. another thing i like about this collection is that there seems to be a really equal representation for boys clothes—not usually the case. and yet, in my experience little boys love hand knits even more than little girls do.

although girls are certainly well represented too, with cute dresses, skirts, and sweaters.

a number of projects also offer interesting construction strategies to keep the knitting fun; sideways sweaters, blankets with “handles” that double as toys

and items that are super-functional for family use, such as coverups that are compatible with car seats

or—my personal favorite—cotton bibs without ties that double as mouth wipers! these are such a wonderful, quick, giftable item; any parent would kiss the ground you walk on if granted a few of these.

speaking of quick, cute, and giftable—there is no shortage of clever hats and booties for those times when the family of a co-worker or neighbor is expanding and you want to extend a little token of hand knit love, even though you don’t know the expecting parents personally. a tiny item to knit in one sitting is just the thing.

knitted toys can be a bit fiddly, but so worth the trouble for a dear little one and this book has plenty of those as well. most are knit in cleverly easy steps too, so that you can enjoy the process as much as the recipient will enjoy playing with them.

such a lot of knitting enjoyment on one little book—one-skein wonders for babies is a great resource if you find yourself needing to knit for little ones a lot these days (it comes in waves within families, right?).

now most of the time, this is where i would tell you that the publisher provided a giveaway copy of the book for a randomly drawn winner. but this time i’m going out on a limb to do something different, since i do have just the one copy.

there is a very special grandma in my circle of friends that you all know too—my friend beckie became a grandma all over again about eight weeks ago to baby alice.

here she is on her arrival at home, few days old, swaddled in the blanket beckie knit while she was getting ready to be born. soft organic worsted weight cotton, the color grown by nature. just perfect!

and beckie is crazy about her—i think she’ll get a lot of use out of this book, don’t you?