Lovely Knits for Little Girls:
20 Just-Right Patterns, Just for Little Girls
Author: Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard
Publisher: Taunton Press
Publication Date: February 21, 2012
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Source: NetGalley
In many ways, this book delivers exactly what it promises. The patterns in this book are indeed lovely and they are definitely meant for little girls. They're not just frilly dresses covered in flowers and bows, but they are feminine and pretty things like billowy sweaters, knit shrugs, sweater dresses and wrap scarves. Most of them are presented in neutral but stylish colours like creamy ivory, soft grey and light blush pink, with details like fabric bows and puff sleeves.
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| Sofia Elf Cardigan with Fabric, page 10 |
However...
I wouldn't say these are the most practical garments. I agree with Deirdre at Wyvernfriend Knits who said that "this is a book more for events than for everyday." There are a lot of short-sleeved sweaters with VERY puffy sleeves and small shrugs or mini-vests in thick yarn. In both cases I think that if it's cold enough for those garments, it's probably cold enough for a coat but I'm not sure how you'd wear one over them. In most cases they look like they're purely for fashion and not for actual cover ups.
And the oh-so-high-fashion photos confirm that. The photos are beautiful and full-colour, with multiple photos per garment, but they're very "fashion-y." The girls are wearing satin bubble skirts with giant bows on the hips and elaborate fascinations on their heads. It's definitely not playground wear or even everyday school clothes, though some (but not all) of them probably could be worn that way.
Apart from the lovely photos of the finished garments, there were no pictures or schematics of the pieces in progress, closeups of techniques, or closeups of seam stitches or anything like that. And the introduction is pretty sparse, without any "mastering the basics" introduction. So it's not really a book for beginners, at least not without some good reference books to help you along with the techniques.
And I had trouble figuring out the sizing. I have other books that have directions for how to make the same garment in multiple sizes (how many extra stitches to cast on to make it one size bigger, etc.) but with this book I was a little skeptical. Many of the designs are only described in one size with little to no information about sizing it up or down, while others claim to be suitable for sizes 3-8 years but the measurements for each size are nearly identical (surely a girl grows a lot from the age of 3 to 8?). And it seemed most of the size adjustments were in the chest measurements but not the length, which is where my daughter grows the fastest. All in all, I found it a bit confusing and a little daunting.
Has anyone tried any of the patterns in this book? If so, I'd love to hear from you and find out how it went. Leave a comment!
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