World of Knitted Toys

Rating:
Summary: All designs can be completed by advanced beginners.
Review: If you can do the basics (knit, purl, cast on/off) plus increase and decrease, you can make anything in this book. There is one pattern with intarsia (a pig with spots), but it's simply a variation of a standard pattern. Patterns marked "challenging" have colour changes, but only at the ends of rows. This book, along with Jean Greenhowe's _Knitted_Toys_ and Sharon Welch's _Knitted_Toys_ (both sadly out of print), are must-haves for this genre of knitting.

Rating:
Summary: All designs can be completed by advanced beginners.
Review: If you can do the basics (knit, purl, cast on/off) plus increase and decrease, you can make anything in this book. There is one pattern with intarsia (a pig with spots), but it's simply a variation of a standard pattern. Patterns marked "challenging" have colour changes, but only at the ends of rows. This book, along with Jean Greenhowe's _Knitted_Toys_ and Sharon Welch's _Knitted_Toys_ (both sadly out of print), are must-haves for this genre of knitting.

Rating:
Summary: The clownfish is an instant hit!!
Review: OK, where else are you going to find a pattern for knitting a stuffed clownfish? I have made 5 of them so far - two for nieces, and then 3 more for people who saw me knitting the first two, and demanded their own. The clownfish pattern is straighforward, simple. And accurate - the number of stripes, the placement of the fins and the coloring of the tail - all accurate! I am currently adapting the pattern, which is easy to do since it's simple, to make a garabaldi damselfish and a couple of different butterflyfish and angelfish.

The book is divided into sections - jungle, north woods, ocean, australian outback. Each section includes some kind of human character: a Polynesian pearl diver in the sea section, for example, and an Australian sheep farmer in the Australian section, a Canadian Mountie in the North Woods section.

The variety of animals is astounding: everything from platypus to moose. I have already purchased the yarn to do the platypus, once I finally manage to make fish for everyone who wants one. There's chipmunks, beavers, cats, tigers, merino sheep, sharks, octopus, zebra...

The pictures are so good, people who don't even know how to knit have spent time in my armchair leafing through the book, admiring them and asking if I can teach them to knit, because these animals are so inspiring, so cute!

Rating:
Summary: Projects are fast, easy, inexpensive and fun
Review: This book is just excellent. The patterns are simple and beautiful. She lists them as "easy", "straightforward" or "challenging" but many of the challenging ones are only marked that way because they have a lot of colour switching, which you can replace with solid or variegated yarn (the barn cat looks even more authentic this way and it becomes very easy to knit).

The toys knit up fast, with the majority of shaping done through simple increases and decreases on one larger piece instead of a zillion little bits and pieces that you have to sew together. She really leads you through it in small, easy steps, explaining everything as she goes along so that you never get lost or bewildered.

In an evening or two you can have a gorgeous and very inexpensive handmade toy to give away as a birthday gift, or keep for yourself or your kids. A great way to use up odds and ends of yarn, and the toys look just as lovely knit in inexpensive acrylic worsted as they do in the DK wool she uses. This book is worth every penny!