Customer Reviews

Hats Gloves Scarves: Easy Designer Knits for Family and Friends

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been paging through magazines and books trying to find a nice looking hat and scarf for my husband and son. Louisa Harding has compiled some excellent patterns here. They are hats and scarfs made for the average person with good taste in style. I can't wait to make them! This book definitely has enough useful patterns to make it worth buying.

The hats, gloves, and scarves are generally nice but all the patterns are for two-needle, flat knitting and are then hats and gloves are seamed to complete. I find it much easier to knit these in the round and not bother with the seaming at all. I also wish the author had made the patterns more yarn-substitution-friendly. She's left out how many yards of yarn are used and has just provided the number of skeins of specific yarns which makes it much more difficult to use the patterns in this book several years from now when some of the yarns may have been discontinued and I can't look up somewhere how much yarn is in each skein. I'd recommend really looking through this book at the pictures of each item before deciding to purchase. In my opinion, a better investment is to get Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" and either volume 1 or 2 of Barbara G. Walker's knitting pattern treasuries and have at it. These last three will be useful for a lifetime. I gave this book three-stars only because I'm certain there are people out there who have so convinced themselves that it is much too difficult to knit in-the-round that they get in their own way - while I hope you're not one of these people, this book is for you if you are.

The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes & Gauges (Interweave)

A Treasury of Knitting Patterns

A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns

This is such a fun book and the designs are beautiful, simple, and timeless. It is the perfect book to have for quick gifts. It is also a great book for "knitting newbies". However, even as an experienced knitter, this book will serve me well for many years.

I was so excited to receive this, and I wasn't disappointed as I flipped through it. The designs are timeless and classic, not a bunch of novelty yarn nightmares!! I could see making almost everything in here.

As one reviewer pointed out, everything is done of 2 needles. I find this a great plus, not a negative. I have just learned to do hats in the round and know how to change a pattern from flat to circular knitting if I want. I haven't done mittens or gloves in the round, so I am excited to find these wonderful patterns knit with 2 needles. When I learn how to do those items in the round, then I can always modify the patterns to be circular if I want.

The yarns used are somewhat pricey(Rowen, Jaeger, Debbie Bliss). So, you may want to substitute. At yarndex.com you can search for the yarns by name to find out what the weight of each yarn is. This will help greatly in substituting. I wrote down the weight of each yarn by the pattern for future reference. It didn't take long to do either.

The designs are beautiful and, I think, would satisfy both the beginner and the more experienced. This may be the only book on hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves that I may ever buy.

I paid full price for this book at a knitting store and really regret it. There was only one pattern I really liked, and there must be errors in it because it doesn't knit up well at all. The photo of the hat is attractive - brown and in a moss stitch. It appears to have a double layer at the bottom, but it is really a single layer, so it isn't even a very warm hat. There were too many increases listed for the bottom and too few for the crown. I would never buy a book from this author again.

This book is full of beautiful, easy to follow patterns with something for all knitters - new and experienced.

The only thing that sells this book are the pretty pictures. Definitely not the quality of the patterns.

I was very interested in the moss stitch (seed stitch) hat and scarf. The whole reason I bought the book. The hat has a vague description of what they call a wrap stitch. The hat photo appears to be a folded up brim but in reality it is a variation in the stitch between the top and bottom that only make it appear that way. Not very attractive when finished. As if that wasn't bad enough, the decreases for the top of the hat are not correct and the top creates a cone when knitted per the instructions. Trying to decide whether to take the knitting apart and experiment on my own or tuck in the pin-head formed and stitch across about four inches from the point to make it lie flat as it should.

It is obvious to me that the other reviewers had not tried the patterns or they would not have rated it as high as they did. Even the scarf does not turn out as wide as the one in the photo using the same size yarn they describe. The only good thing I can say about this book is the photos are pretty. Don't waste your money!

I cannot recommend this book. I think it's another one of those `get it to market' quickly ones, and I'm disappointed about that since I own several of the author's other books. I specifically purchased this for the lace edged gloves and a hat pattern. Both patterns have errors, and the errata I found online (for both), which was supposedly provided by the author, also has errors - different ones! For example: the errata reads: Cast on 5 sts, cast off 2 sts slip st on RH needle back onto LH needle (3 sts now on LH needle) rep from * to * until 36 sts on needle, cast on 1 sts. (67 sts) This has to be wrong! So with errors in both the original and "edited" versions, one can't even determine what to try to fix.

I just purchased this book recently, so it's getting returned. I noticed that some of the really positive reviews sound like the individuals had not yet made anything from the book at the time they rated it.

I really like the designs in this book. The patterns are user friendly and the photographs are gorgeous !

Even though I haven't had much time to try any of the projects yet, They look like they are fun and stylish. I have been knitting for 40 years and I have an eye for nice patterns. I can't wait to try them.