Joanne Yordanou doesn't believe that knitting is just for certain times of year, and I agree with her. True, it's most fun to knit with wool when it's cold outside, and some people only have time for knitting in the summer when everything seems to get a little less stressful, but there are projects you can knit all year long with great results.
Yordanou proves this with her book Twelve Months of Knitting: Improve Your Knitting Skills Month by Month with 36 Seasonal Projects.
Knitting and Learning
The book, as you can imagine, is divided into 12 chapters, and each one includes three patterns, one for beginners, one for intermediates and one for advanced knitters.
A new knitter could theoretically work his or her way through the book, doing a pattern a month for three years, and would leave the experience with a good grounding in knitting skills: from cables to colorwork, lace to embroidery.
Of course the book can also be used like any other knitting book to choose a pattern you'd like to knit any time of year. The monthly selections give you an idea of seasonal appropriateness.
One of the most interesting things about this book is that it includes a "knitter's weekly planner" that suggests how someone might go about working through the whole book and how long different projects might take the average knitter.
This is handy if you're planning to knit something to give as a present; you can see how long it might take and plan accordingly. Know, however, that she says the most complex pattern in the book, a lacy cardigan with intarsia flowers up the fronts, will only take four or five weeks, so you might want to add to (or even double) the timelines if you need to learn a new skill for a project or if you don't have a lot of time to knit or knit slowly.
The Patterns
The 36 patterns in the book provide knits you'd want to knit and wear throughout the year, from sweaters and vests to don't-get-in-the-water bikinis, hats and bags.
There's a pair of socks, a set of place mats and a table runner, lacy pillows and a bunch of scarf patterns to help you use up odd balls from your stash.
There are patterns for kids (two cardigans), men (two sweaters), women and the home. There's even a Fair Isle dog sweater. Odds are good you'll find something you want to knit in this book, probably lots of somethings, whether for yourself or for gift-giving.
Some of my favorite patterns include the Kiss Curls Snuggle Wrap, a fuzzy tie-front top; the complex all-over cabled Stitch Therapy Turtleneck; Boat Launch Cables, a cabled, v-neck tied top; and College Daze, a sweater made to look slouchy with dropped stitches, a Reverse Stockinette Stitch body and sleeves knit in Stockinette.
The bottom line is there are a lot of great, classic patterns in this book that you will enjoy knitting, giving or keeping at any time of year. This is a book you'll enjoy for much more than 12 months.
Publication date: January 2008.
