Itty-Bitty Hats: cute and cuddly caps to knit for babies and toddlers by Susan B. Anderson is a delightful little book featuring 36 baby hat knitting patterns. This is a book written with beginners who want to start trying other techniques in mind, and provides an excellent reference section. The book starts with an introduction sections "What you Need" and "Let's Knit." These sections bring you through materials you will ened to create these itty-bitty hats and how to do the techniques found in this book. Detailed instructions with pictures are provided for basic knitting, crochet and even embroidery stitches (the ones that you will need in this book.) There is even a pompom tutorial!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love spiral bound knitting books? It is so much easier to knit from a book when you can lay it flat!
When you start to move into the patterns, you enter a section of simple hats. To the experienced knitter, this section may be a bit of a let down, but remember that this book is geared to people who are just starting to knit in addition to more seasoned knitters.
The Pattern Sections
- Start Simple (3 basic hats + 3 simple toppings)
- Animals (4 hats including: Bunny Tail, Speckled Hen, Painted Turtle, & Little Chick)
- From the Garden (5 hats including a Flower Pot, Little Pumpkin and various flowers)
- Stripes (6 hats featuring vertical and horizontal stripes.)
- Dots (4 hats)
- Sweet Treats (6 hats - including Candy Cane, Birthday Cake and more sweet treats)
- Embellished Hats (8 hats featuring applique pieces, embroidery and other novelty items.Note this section includes some hats that are entirely knit, but there are a lot of embellishments as the title suggests.)
Each pattern breaks down the skills needed (referring you to the page where you can review the technique.) A lot of these patterns have a basic core with some fancy embellishments, but some of these embellishments really make the hats fantastic. For example, in the Rainbow Marley hat is all knit but the striping and texture (and the little knit marley topper) make it over the top (in a good way.) I loved it so much that I immediately went to my stash to find yarns to cast on (This project will be featured in the next ChemKnits post!) Ribbons is a simple rolled brim hat with some eyelet rounds. You then take some great novelty ribbons and weave them through. The effect is really dependant on the ribbons that you find, but it is a stunning hat that would get a big "Oooo" from any expectant mother. Snowman is a darling hat that contains a whole snowman head - hat, scarf, coal eyes and carrot nose included! I love seeing a hat on a hat. Finally, the Upside down daisy hat is a very classic popular pattern (also because it is avialable for free!)
This is a fantastic book, you can bet I will be checking this out of my library again!