A few weeks ago Tanis Gray (who I met in DC last month) asked me if I’d be interested in review a new book she was involved with, ‘From Mama, With Love’. This e-book is a collaboration between 5 amazing designers; Tanis Gray, Connie Chang Chinchio, Kate Gagnon Osborn, Margaux Hufnagel and Melissa LaBarre.
All 5 of these designers have young children that they never find time to knit for. I can very much sympathize with this! When you design for a living all of you knitting time gets sucked into sample knitting so family knitting is a luxury that’s hard to find time for. The inventive solution these designers found was to design for their little ones. This makes the book extra special, the knits were designed specifically with their own children in mind, and they’re also modeled by their own children. Every designer has even added their own little parenting tip to the book.
There are a big variety of knits in this book; 2 blankets, 3 hats, a boppy cover and 9 garments.
If you’ve got young children it’s a great time to knit for them; they’re still young enough to wear what you give them (most of the time) and they are nice and small so you can knit them really quickly.
Sid Scrappy Hat
With small ones the most important thing to bear in mind is comfort. They hate tags, rough edges or scratches so make sure you pick a yarn that is comfortable next to the skin. Ideally it should be hard-wearing and easy to wash. As with adult garments make sure you take care with the size. The patterns in this book give finished measurements as well as suggested ages. Children come in a wide variety of sizes so check the measurements of favorite garments you already own and compare them to the schematics.
Most of the garments in this book have a size range from 6 months up to 4 or 5 years (although there is one that goes up to 10 years) so it’s a great book for the younger age set. The garments all have nice big neck openings so it’s easy to take them on and off. Wide button plackets (such as in Lulu vest, Ronan Pullover or Velvet Hoodie) and cardigans (Viviane Cardigan, Kyle Vest and Ferris Vest) make life very easy.
I think I must be obsessed with colorwork lately. While I love all the projects in this book the two that stood out for me were Isadora Lopapeysa and Ronan Pullover. Both have colorwork details that I just love, they are not specifically ‘child knits’ and both pattern would look great on an adult garment as well.
Isadora Lopapeysa is a traditional Lopi Icelandic sweater, knit from the bottom up in the round. The sleeves and body are joined at the yoke and a subtle stranded colorwork is then worked. It is a simple sweater that looks great on kids and the color choices are just beautiful.
Ronan Pullover from Tanis also used colorwork but it’s a much more graphic bright design. This sweater is knit from the top down, the yoke is initially knit flat until the placket is finished and from that point it’s joined in the round. Again I just love the color choices; they’re bright but not overwhelming. Plus I just love orange in boy’s garments.
There are several more stops on this blog tour, so follow along with the remainder of the tour:
Monday, April 21, Kate Chioccio of Dragonfly Fibers
Wednesday, April 23, Julie Crawford of Knitted Bliss
Friday, April 25, Katie & Kara of Nice & Knit
Monday, April 28th, Ysolda Teague Guest Blog Post
Tuesday, April 29th, Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Co.
Friday, May 2nd, Cecily Glowik McaDonald of Winged Knits
Monday, May 5 – Carrie Bostick Hoge of Maddermade
Wednesday, May 7th – Thea Colman of Baby Cocktails
Friday, May 9th – Kate & Courtney, of Kelbourne Woolens
Tuesday, May 13, Jessica Correa, of Dream in Color Yarn Co.
Thursday, May 15, Kristen Kapur of Through the Loops
Tuesday, May 20, Tanis Lavalee of Tanis Fiber Arts
Friday, May 22, Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting
Would you like to win your own copy of this book? Let me know your favourite pattern from the booklet and your rav name in the comments below and you’ll be entered in the raffle!
Raffle prize will be drawn on Sunday 20th April so get your name down by then!