Customer Reviews

Funky Knits

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I can't speak for the knitting instruction chapters, as I know how to knit and skipped those parts, but the patterns in this book are FUGLY.

I bought this thinking it would have some great patterns for my teen nieces - WRONG! The patterns are just plain awful. Knit a fake cactus? Yeah, that's on every young hipster's list. How about an egg cozy? Or a cozy for individual apples or bananas?

There is a pattern for a safety pin sweater, knit with intentional holes and uses safety pins across the holes, all in a horrendous yellow/brown striped combo. Ugh. This is NOT cutting edge shabby fashion, it's just plain bad.

Or maybe you might like to knit up the mini-dress with lace edging...modeled on a young girl wearing pink and black striped tights. Yeah, if you want your daughter to go out looking like a hooker, go for it.

Knitted KNEE PADS? For BOYS? With a brown center and powder blue/brown stripes radiating from the center? Seriously. What "hip young" teen boy is going to wear this? One who wants to get beat up at the skate park.

There are a couple of patterns that are okay. For example, fingerless gloves. Of which there are plenty of free patterns available on the internet, minus the unfortunate green/white striping. There is a cute slipper pattern, that my nieces might wear around the house. Um, yeah, that's about it for the "okay" category.

Skip this book. I really try to be supportive of the people who put out knitting books, but dang, this one is bad. "Hip Young Things" will not want to either own or knit the overwhelming majority of these patterns. I feel a responsibility to warn other people not to waste their money on this book. I'm sending my copy back.

Okay, this is not my favorite book, but i wanted to speak up in favor of it, just to give another opinion. It has a lot of patterns i would actually use. i love the knit cactus, i think it's a hoot, and i can totally see the value of the fruit protectors. i mean, fruit can get really banged around in a lunchbox, and i hate bruised and mushy apples ;p I'm going to agree with the other reviewer though, Some really fugly color choices, but those are easy to fix, just don't use that color yarn! Also some goofy patterns i wouldn't use. But there were more that i liked than those i didn't. If you can get past the look of the book, which has a feeling of trying WAY too hard to be "hip and young" it's got some fun patterns. :)

It's never good to start out a book for teens with terminology from a long-dead age - they claim the projects are "never square." It would probably have been a better move to say they "don't suck" or something more up-to-date. But here's the thing. They actually do suck. (Or they're "square," whatever) Speaking as one of the "Hip Young Things" they mentioned, I can honestly say the only thing in this book I would even consider making is the halter top. The ripped up, "punk" sweaters just look like something from your Grandma's that went through a horrible scissor accident. And the felted wool necklace? Please. We're not THAT easily marketed too. Skip this book for something better, Like Teen Knitting Club.

i browsed through this book at the library. thankfully, i had never wasted my money to buy it and sadly enough, i wasn't even willing to borrow it for free!

the patterns MIGHT have been less than okay in the early 90's. most of it if very "grungy." the patterns are beyond simple and teach nothing to a new knitter other than how to cast off and cast on in the middle of a row.

i'm not a teenage but am still well under 30. knitted guitar cases? knee pads? i imagine if i told anyone what i was actually knitting, the ridicule from such a stupid idea would have my friends and family laughing for weeks. and these are people who argue over who gets something knitted for them next...

Even beginners should stay away from this book. The patterns are pathetic, just more proof that publishers will turn out anything these days.

This book contains a couple of cute patterns, and a lot of ugly or useless ones.

The cute patterns: a cozy for an individual apple or banana, and a knit cactus.

Most of the other patterns seem to be trying to hard to be "hip." There is a pattern for a guitar case, knee pads, and a couple really ugly sweaters. The book seems to be aimed at teenagers, but I can't imagine any teenager I know leaving the house wearing anything from this book.

I agree with the reviewer who said this book tries way too hard, but does have some fun patterns. I can't decide if this book is really marketed to "hip young things" or people like me, who used to be hip and young about 20 years ago. Anyway, I can't believe that ANYONE would make some of these patterns, but I did really love the fruit cozies and the fake knitted cactus, the extra-long skinny scarf, and the knitted shoes.

I thought this book's best feature was that every project calls for, say, a 50g ball of DK yarn, and then in the back there's a picture index to the patterns that tells you exactly which yarn was used. So your imagination is free to substitute your own favorite yarns. I wish every knitting book had this feature.

The "guitar case" is just bizarre, by the way. It's a plain, gray, knitted cover for...a guitar case. It calls for 12 balls of aran weight yarn. Come on, projects like this are totally filler.

This book would have gotten a lot more stars if it were an $8 pamphlet without all the lousy patterns.

I would've bought this book in a heartbeat if I had a teen to knit for. Yes, it has the expected patterns you can find anywhere like beanies, ipod covers and fingerless gloves, but the more unusual ones include a guitar case (a guitar case!), a pillow with a musical staff and buttons for notes, knee-pads that go over jeans for skaters, chunky sweaters with thick "ripped" ladders of dropped stitches, sweaters with big holes that are kept together with safety pins, and quick knits like decorative cacti, patches ("art badges"), pixie hat egg cozies and banana and apple cozies.

This book is great at showing and describing techniques, which I think is so important to new and young knitters.