Would you enjoy knitting clothes, accessories or baby blankets for a sweet toddler or child you know — or for charity? Perhaps you like to dress your little one in a playful, fun-loving style. Or perhaps you like a look that’s a bit more sophisticated. Either way, there’s a gem of a knitting book you’ll want to know about if you knit for children. It’s called 60 Quick Knits for Little Kids.
What You Need to Know About This Knitting Pattern Book:
Author: This book is a compilation of knitting patterns that many different designers contributed.
Publisher Sixth & Spring Books
Copyright Date: 2016
ISBN 13: 978-1942021650
ISBN 10: 1942021658
Book Format: Softcover with perfect binding
Number of Pages: 176
Cover Price: $17.95 US dollars / $20.95 in Canada
Skill Level: There are patterns in this book suitable for knitters of every skill level. One pattern is suitable for beginners; several are suitable for experienced knitters; the rest are either easy knitting patterns or intermediate level knitting patterns.
The Best Things About This Book
I think this book offers one of the best values on the market for children’s knitted clothing patterns and accessories. The book gives you enough variety that you could knit a major portion of your child’s wardrobe using the patterns in it. There are patterns for dresses, cardigans, sweaters, vests, tunics, tops, ponchos, hats, scarves, mittens, a headband and more. Additionally, there are some lovely blanket patterns, so you can also make things to decorate your little one’s room. This one book alone could supply you with patterns for making baby shower gifts, Christmas gifts and all the sweaters a toddler could possibly need.
I think most knitters will find these patterns appealing. Almost all of them look to me like they’d be worth both the time investment and the yarn investment.
Since a number of different designers contributed patterns for the book, you get a wonderful variety of different looks, styles and stitch patterns to try knitting. Some of the designs are sophisticated, some are playful, and some are cute. Some are hipsterish and preppie; some are classic, and some are trendy.
This book gives you many more patterns than your typical knitting pattern book, and the book is priced lower than many comparable books that offer fewer patterns. So if you want to knit more than one new project for a baby or child, this book is an outstanding choice. It offers you a spectacular value for the dollars spent on it.
Whether you’re knitting for girls or boys, either way the book offers you enticing projects to make for them. I love it that the boys are not left out; if you have sons or grandsons to knit for, you’ll find plenty of cool projects to make them.
Many of these patterns include schematics, which will be helpful if you want to make pattern adjustments.
Novice knitters will have plenty of attractive knitting patterns to work on, thanks to the numerous easy knitting patterns included in the book.
Knitting Projects Included in This Book:
This book includes an outstanding variety of 60 different knitted clothing and accessory patterns plus adorable blanket patterns for babies, toddlers and children. Some highlights from the book are as follows:
Toddler Hat Patterns / Child’s Hat Patterns
I counted a total of 11 hat patterns in this book. Several are simple textured hats.
There are fun animal themed hats including a fox hat, kitty cat hat and bear hat. One is a pumpkin hat that’s lovely for fall. One is a silly doll hair hat that would make a hilarious Halloween or Purim costume. There’s a lovely fair isle hat with a heart pattern and earflaps. Most of the hats are standalone patterns, but one is part of a set that also includes matching mittens and a cowl.
Baby Blankets and Child’s Blankets
Checkerboard Blanket — This unique blanket features an interesting textured design. The project sample is knit up in a lovely variegated colorway featuring predominantly serene blues.
Cabled Blanket — This is an easy, solid-colored blanket. The finished design is reversible.
Silver and Gold Blanket — This garter stitch blanket features interesting stripes of color. The pictured colorway is actually more of a gray and yellow than silver and gold, but you can re-color it in any colorway you like. I suggest making it to match the recipient’s nursery or bedroom décor.
Raccoon Blanket — I actually giggled out loud when I first saw this playful raccoon blanket. It’s a clever design featuring three-dimensional details including raccoon tails and ears that stand out prominently from the raccoons’ bodies, a textured tree design featuring cables for the tree bark, and a few 3-d leaves that add interest to the piece.
Bubble Blanket — This clever design is created using a slip stitch pattern. It looks complex, but there’s only one color to knit in each row, making the knitting a lot simpler than it appears. The colorway shown in the book is a feminine look featuring pink, purple, and white. I think this blanket would also be suitable for baby boys if you choose a more masculine colorway.
Toddler Sweaters and Child’s Sweaters
If you’re looking for knitting patterns for children’s sweaters, vests and tops, this is an excellent book to consider. It offers you bunches of excellent options for both boys and girls. The boy-friendly designs include a chunky turtleneck, a striped v-neck cardigan, a sailor-striped pullover, a couple of simple cardigans worked in basic stitches, a striped cardigan, fair-isle band cardigan, v-neck sweater vest, Icelandic pullover, cabled pullover, striped cardigan with bright-colored pockets, cable-dip cardigan, and a sophisticated zip-front jacket with raglan sleeves and an interesting checkered pattern. These designs are all unisex and would work equally well for girls or boys.
One of my favorite designs in the book is a color-blocked hoodie pictured in gray and blue; as shown, it’s a boy-friendly design that looks quite masculine. It could easily be re-colored into a more feminine color combination to make it a great choice for girls too.
There’s a color-blocked henley that is photographed knit up in shades of pink, but if you don’t mind re-coloring it, I think it would be boy-friendly if knit in shades of green or blue. There’s also a striped cardigan that’s knit up in a girl-friendly colorway of pink and orange, but I think it would also be nice for boys if re-colored.
Girls’ sweater designs include an eyelet cardigan, cabled coat, pinwheel lace tunic, long-sleeved scalloped lace top, Fair isle cardigan, ruffled vest, and lace pullover.
Toddler Dresses and Child’s Dresses
This book offers you several delightful girls’ dress patterns to knit.
Child’s Knit Poncho Patterns
I counted 3 poncho patterns in this book. One of my favorite patterns in the book is a child’s cable bear poncho. This intermediate-level pattern features a cute hood with bear ears and an eye-catching textured cable design. The pattern includes helpful charts for working the cables.
There’s an appealing two-tone textured poncho with turtleneck and pockets.
The other poncho is a chic, simple yet elegant textured design knit up in a rich, gorgeous variegated yarn colorway. The effect is simply lovely; I think any little girl would enjoy wearing this poncho.
Kids’ Mittens
The book includes several different mitten patterns including clown mittens, Fair isle mittens and seed stitch mittens that are part of a matching accessories set; patterns for the matching earflap hat and cowl are also included in the book.
Kids’ Scarf Patterns and Cowls
There’s an excellent mix of scarf and cowl patterns included in this book. Some highlights: a fun, assymetrical pencil-shaped scarf pattern is unisex and appropriate for either boys or girls. There’s an easy striped scarf that’s also a nice unisex design. There’s a short-row scarf pattern that looks like a feminine shawlette; it’s perfect for little girls. Several versatile textured cowl patterns round out the selection of scarf designs available in this book.
Girl’s Knit Headband Pattern
The book includes a sweet, pretty ear-warmer style headband pattern featuring a feminine bow design — perfect for keeping a little girl’s ears warm in the fall or spring.
Knit Bow Tie Pattern
This bow tie pattern would be a nice addition to a party outfit or ring bearer’s outfit for a wedding. It could also be part of a Halloween costume.
What’s Not Included in This Book
There are no patterns for socks, slippers, baby booties or footwear of any kind. If you’re looking for baby bootie or sock patterns, try Super Cute Crochet for Little Feet and Baby Blueprint Crochet; both of those titles have some fantastic patterns for dressing up tiny tootsies. Other than that, this book offers most types of knitted clothing and accessories you’d be likely to want for a little one’s wardrobe. There is a LOT packed in this excellent book!
Other Observations About This Book
Before I say anything critical about this book, I want to emphasize that it’s really a worthwhile purchase. The positives far, far outweigh the negatives, and it’s a book I highly recommend overall. BUT, since this is a book review, I feel obligated to give you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So, here are the things that jumped out at me as being the minuses with this title.
I already mentioned that this book is a spectacular bargain — a big, huge PLUS. With every bargain, there are tradeoffs. In this case, the tradeoff for having a whopping 60 patterns packed into a slim, portable volume of 176 pages is that some of the photos are printed small, and some of the projects are represented by only one photo. So you get fewer, smaller photos in this book than you might get in some other competing titles — but you also pay a correspondingly lower price.
For most knitters, I don’t think this will be a deal breaker; and for the frugal knitters among us, perhaps it is more of a selling point than a downside?
In my opinion, the photography is sufficient to show you the most important details on almost all the projects. The one exception to this I noticed was the color-block hoodie. I think that project really should have had an additional photograph taken of the back of the design enabling knitters to see what the hood looks like. For some reason, the schematic doesn’t include the hood, and you can’t see the hood in the one and only photograph of the hoodie you get in the book. Bummer! 🙁
This is a wonderful project overall; It’s attractive, and it looks like it would also be a practical and comfortable design.
If You’re Looking for Baby Patterns
This is not specifically a baby pattern book. However, if you’re pregnant and you’re thinking you want to knit some beautiful things for your little one on the way, I strongly suggest considering this book as one of your selections. There are some really incredible baby blanket patterns in the book, enough that it’s a good buy if blankets are top priority projects for you.
Having said that, young baby projects are not the main focus of the book; the majority of the patterns are sized for toddlers and slightly older children. If you are planning to knit your newborn’s wardrobe, this book is absolutely NOT the right choice for that, as there are no newborn-sized clothes in the book; the smallest sweater is sized for 12-month olds, and the majority of the garments are intended for children sizes 2, 4 and 6. If you’re planning on knitting a significant chunk of your child’s wardrobe as s/he grows into toddlerhood, this is EXACTLY the book you want for that purpose.
Here’s the thing. Many moms will tell you that the majority of your knitting time is better spent on toddler clothes than it is on newborn baby clothes. You may end up with an excess of newborn clothes if you have a lot of friends, family members and colleagues who give you baby shower gifts. You’re going to be amazed at how fast that baby of yours will grow; newborn baby clothes are outgrown quickly. And if you’re like most soon-to-be moms, you’re going to have far less time for knitting than you think you will — especially right after the baby is born. You don’t want your baby to have outgrown your lovely projects before you even get them completed. There is far less deadline stress involved with starting toddler projects than there is with starting baby projects at this exciting time in your life.
If you only want to buy one pattern book, this one will give you multiple choices for adorable baby blankets; there’s also a hat pattern that’s sized for babies as well as toddlers and children. You can knit a few of these things and then move on to creating your little one’s toddler wardrobe as you have time.
Conclusion
60 Quick Knits for Little Kids offers you an excellent value for its asking price — and if you find it on sale for a lower price, you’re definitely getting a bargain at that point. I highly recommend this book to other knitting enthusiasts. Definitely buy this book if you want to knit clothing or accessories for toddlers or small children. Also consider the book if you want to knit blankets for babies, toddlers or children of any age.
Where to Buy 60 Quick Knits for Little Kids:
Similar Knitting Books, Crochet Books and Related Resources
- Click here to check out more amazing knitting books.
- Take a look at Ice Cream Baby Afghans, which is another high-value knitting pattern book.
- Crochet for Girls: A pattern book featuring girls’ clothing and accessory patterns
- Click here to find a book filled with lovely crochet baby layette sets.
- Click here to find a book of cute corner-to-corner crochet baby blanket patterns.
- Check out our picks for the best crochet toy pattern books.
More Craft Pages to Explore:
- Find More of Our Picks for This Year’s Best Craft Books
- Best Kids’ Crochet Pattern Books
- Crochet
- Crochet Hooks
- Knitting
- Kids’ Crafts
Posted By: Amy Solovay
This page was last updated on 8-4-2023.