INTRODUCTION

Cool Stuff

by Claudia B. Manley, Amy Singer

Books are softcover unless noted otherwise.
All prices USD unless noted.
We are provided with samples to review for free, and we do not publish reviews of products that do not perform well in our testing. We are not paid to review any product.

Browse the whole list of books reviewed this issue at Bookshop which gives 10% of their profits to independent bookstores across the US, and a 10% commission to Knitty for every purchase.

We also provide links to purchase on Amazon, and they give us a commission when you purchase as well. Thank you for supporting Knitty!

Every Way with Granny Crochet: 50 shapes in classic granny stitch
by Julia Madill
David & Charles
$24.99

Buy now from Bookshop.org | Amazon

Despite the recent proliferation of crochet patterns available, and the increased popularity of crochet in general, the granny square still seems to be reigning visual of crochet. Julia Madill, Knitty’s new Crochet Editor, asks you to think again with her book Every Way with Granny Crochet.

Madill bursts out of the confines of the square and introduces readers to a variety of other shapes that can be achieved with the granny stitch. With 50 designs to choose from, the humble afghan will never be the same.
Madill starts readers off with the basics, including colour selection and understanding crochet charts. She essentially teaches readers how to crochet with clear instructions and illustrations. She does all this with a sense of humour as well with section titles such as Start Me Up: Beginning Your Granny Journey, Gauge Old Wisdom: The Importance of Gauge, Three Sides a Charm: Triangles, and What’s Your Point?: Stars.

After covering the basics, she offers the Classic Granny as the first pattern. Mastering the original is a good way to prime readers for the variations to follow. In addition to squares, she provides variations on triangles, rounded shapes, other straight-sided shapes (such as a trapezoid), stars, and rectangles.

Each pattern includes written instructions, a chart, ways to modify, and stats, which give the reader the basic details of the pattern such as colours used and possible pairings with other patterns. She provides information on finishing as well as blocking, stitching together, and crocheting a border. Finally, to demonstrate the possibilities, she includes instructions for a sampler, which brings new life to the afghan (see below).

This is the kind of book that appeals to both seasoned crocheters and those new to or curious about the craft. As someone who has often said “I only crochet when necessary,” I’m excited to explore the possibilities contained within this book.

CBM

Magical Knits from the North: 19 Enchanting Knitting Patterns Inspired by Magic and Mysticism
by Katinka Sarjanoja and Meri Mort
David & Charles
$24.99

Buy now from Bookshop.org | Amazon

This is not your typical knitting book. In addition to the 19 patterns, there are poems and spells. Leaning into the mystical, Sarjanoja and Mort see knitting as a meditative and intentional practice. The patterns can be seen as a kind of spellcasting or simply as unique designs.

The patterns have no difficulty scale, and the colorwork (which all the designs feature) is only charted. The designers discuss color dominance and catching floats in the brief General Instructions for All Patterns section, but these patterns assume a familiarity with both colorwork and knitting techniques.

Magical Knits from the North contains 19 patterns, mostly for accessories. There are only two sweater patterns. The category with the greatest representation would be the leg/footwear category. There are five sock patterns, two yoga sock patterns (which are thigh-high and heelless and toeless), and one pair of legwarmers. Many of the patterns are suitable for men or women although they are predominantly modeled by women.
Having recently had to say “goodbye” to one of my cats, I resonate with the Forever pattern, a hooded shawl. The designers dedicate this to beloved animals no longer with us. There’s something compelling about a hooded shawl that reminds me of Mulberry (see below).

The Women Rise yoga socks are tempting although I’m not sure if the thigh-high design will work for me. The designers do provide guidance on how to convert them to standard socks, so that could make them more accessible.

King of the Elk is one of the simpler designs. The graphic nature of the colorwork elevates a basic hat.
The sizing information is not very detailed, and the only measurements they provide for their two basic sizes (S/M and L/XL) are for the waist to armpit, armpit to elbow, and armpit to wrist, which puts the onus on the knitter to use the gauge of a specific pattern to ensure or modify fit. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the way Sarjanoja and Mort wove together Finnish folklore, unusual motifs, and a touch of magic throughout this book.

CBM

Knitted Kalevala II
by Jenna Kostet
Laine Publishing
€36.90 (hardcover)/€33.90 (digital download)
Available in English and Finnish
Sizes XS-5XL (28.75" — 59.5" chest measurement)

Buy now from Laine Publishing

This is the second book by Kostet featuring knitting designs based on the Finnish compilation of epic poems, the Kalevala.

Kostet takes time in the introduction to speak about the place of the Kalevala in the Finnish identity and addresses some of the questions that it invites around cultural ownership and identity. This helps put the designs and the significance of the Kalevala into context. Kostet received funding from the Association of Finnish Nonfiction Writers, and the reason for this is evident throughout the book. She presents her research clearly and in a way that is accessible for most readers. I appreciate how she sees her book as part of an ongoing “journey into the world of mythology, tradition and stories,” and as there are still some poems she hasn’t translated into sweater designs, perhaps there will be a Knitted Kalevala III.

The book contains 20 patterns, all of which feature colorwork. In the introduction to each, she provides the poem upon which the design was based, a summary of the associated story, and how she translated the poem into the pattern. Not only does it make for fascinating reading, but it gives the reader an opportunity to understand and see the inspiration.

Of the 20 patterns, 15 are for sweaters (2 of which are cardigans), 3 are for socks, 1 is for a cowl, and 1 is for a sweater dress. The patterns predominantly feature only two colors, but the results are striking. Whether it’s the combination of colorwork sleeves with a textured body as in Veneenveistosanat (see below) or the deep colorwork yoke evoking feathers featured in the short sleeved sweater Meren luo‘lle lokiksi, there is a sufficient array of patterns to satisfy and inspire almost any knitter.

The combination of beautiful designs, fashion-forward photography, and excellent writing should make this a welcomed addition to a knitter’s bookshelf.

CBM

Mosaic Chart Directory for Knitting + Crochet: 75 Geometric Designs
by Anna Nikipirowicz
David & Charles
$26.99

Buy now from Bookshop.org | Amazon

This book of 75 patterns is both for the crafter new to mosaic colorwork and those looking to expand their library of possible motifs. These patterns could easily be used for the patterns in Mosaic Knitting Workshop (reviewed above/below). A key advantage to this book is that it provides instructions for both crochet and knitting.

In the introduction to Mosaic Chart Directory for Knitting + Crochet, Nikipirowicz explains how to navigate the pattern pages as a whole, pointing out key details such as skill level, chart repeats, and how to read the actual pattern. There is also an extensive Basics section, which covers everything from tools, materials, and terminology to instructions on mosaic knitting, mosaic crochet, and even Overlay and Tunisian mosaic crochet. All instructions feature both charts and photographs. Basic crochet and knitting instructions are provided at the end of the book alongside finishing techniques.

The patterns are grouped into five themes: Geometric, Aztec, General (a catchall for those motifs that didn’t easily fall into the other categories), Nature, and Seasonal. Each motif has a skill level from 1 to 3 (3 being the most advanced) and features photographs of the motifs both knit and crocheted. In the introduction to each motif, Nikipirowicz provides helpful suggestions such as where a motif might be best employed or things the crafter should pay close attention to while working the motif. For example, when introducing the Bloom motif (in the Nature section), she lets the reader know that this would work well on a blanket as a large repeat.

This book is a great reference source for those interested in learning or expanding their knowledge of mosaic colorwork.

CBM

Quick Knit Baby Toys: 20 beginner-friendly patterns for knitted baby comforters
by Juliette Michelet
David & Charles
$17.99

Buy now from Bookshop.org | Amazon

Despite the caption, this book does not feature any blankets. The “comforters” are little knit figures, which I imagine could comfort both a child and an adult. I found them all terribly cute. Michelet, in the table of contents, refers to them as “characters.”

All the patterns employ the same basic technique. They are knitted flat before being made into a tube that one stuffs to provide three-dimensionality. Michelet begins the book with some knitting and embroidery techniques and then has a 17-page section that demonstrates all the basic construction requirements with clear photographs and written instructions for each step.

While “beginner-friendly” in most ways, many of the projects provide the beginning knitter an opportunity to try a little colorwork as well, which, due to the scale, feels like a low-stakes way to explore this skill. For example, Little man with a bird sweater features an intarsia bird on the sweater. Sheep features a more intricate colorwork skirt, and Lion offers an opportunity to try out some embroidered embellishment. Fox has to be one of my favourite characters. It sports a tiny stranded colorwork sweater and a two-tone face.

Specific instructions beyond the essential techniques are provided for each of the 20 characters. The charts and embroidery patterns are organized together in their own section at the end of the book.

These toys are a great alternative to more traditional baby gifts such as blankets and sweaters. The child won’t physically outgrow them, and as the recipient gets older, these characters could take on new adventures as imagination blossoms.

CBM

Clover bag – Ojibway Floral Collection
by Wonder Twin Fiberarts
12.5" tall, 14.5" wide, 5.5" deep
$65CAD
Optional adjustable shoulder strap: $15CAD (extends to 39"); coming soon: option to add a pocket and snap
Buy now from Wonder Twin Fiberarts

This bag is a sexy dry-bag-type project bag. But even more importantly, the fabric is designed by Ojibway artist Jackie Traverse, and 20% of the sales from these bags are donated to Makoon Transition Inc, an organization that creates safe spaces for families and children transitioning out of the Child and Family Services system in Manitoba, Canada.

The cotton fabric is printed with exceptionally vibrant colors and is stunning in person. The bags are lined with a heavyweight unbleached muslin, making it easier to find what you are looking for in your bag against that light creamy background. All the straps are heavy-duty nylon webbing and every seam is sewn perfectly. It's a lovely bag.

You can wear the bag cross body, with the optional adjustable shoulder strap. When you sit down to work, roll down the top a little or a lot, and it makes working from the bag super easy. The bag is ludicrously capacious; one could easily carry a full bag of sport-weight yarn; multiple sweater parts would fit, or a large sweater in progress with a ball of the yarn. And all the notions. Take a look:

When you roll the bag down and secure the buckle, the shoulder straps come off and tuck inside, and you can carry it easily in your hand (see below). When rolled down, the Clover can carry 6 skeins of worsted-weight yarn.

If you're looking for something bigger, the Clover Deluxe has all these features in a bigger profile (3" wider and 3" taller), adds two very large inner pockets on one wall, and a snap in the center for extra security, and includes the shoulder strap. The Clover Deluxe can carry 10 skeins of worsted-weight yarn when rolled down.

I mentioned to Danielle and Chelsea, the wonder twins behind Wonder Twin Fibrearts, that I would love the Clover even more if it had the pocket(s) and snap of the Deluxe version, and they told me they're soon going to be offering each of those as an optional add on when you check out, based on customer feedback. Got to love a small company that listens and acts on what their customers want!

The Clover or Clover Deluxe are the ideal bags to take to a yarn/fiber shopping event. Pack it flat (it takes up no more room than a t-shirt) and when you get to where the yarn is, have fun filling it up! It's very lightweight, despite it's solid construction and strength of the materials used, so it adds almost no extra weight to your new fiber bundle.

I love (!) the graphics on these bags and that they're authentically Ojibway designed and support an Indigenous charitable organization doing much-needed work for their community. A very thoughtful creation by a pair of former yarn-shop owners who are doing good in the world.

AS

Nomad Tote
by TOMBIHN
10.1" tall, 17" wide, 3.9" deep; handle drop 11"
$190
Comes in a variety of colors

Buy now from TOMBIHN

The Nomad Tote is one of the latest designs from Knitty long-time favorite bag designer, TOMBIHN. This bag is almost a stealth fibercraft bag. It could take your laptop and file folders to work and business meetings; it could carry baby necessities wherever you take baby; and it could, gleefully, take a whole bunch of yarn, your iPad or pattern book, your project and all your essentials wherever you go.

The form factor is lean and streamlined. A 13x9" main compartment will hold sweater parts, a sock, or almost any accessory on the needles as well as the yarn you need for the next week or three. A divider keeps the main compartment separate from the place you'd slide your iPad or pattern/pattern book, and of course, as with all TOMBIHN bags, there are pockets. So many pockets! Two huge ones in the main compartment alone, each big enough for a trade paperback, the biggest possible cellphone or a mini-tablet, even.

The front section, shown above left and below, opens with a zipper and will hold everything you'd normally carry in a purse: phone, keys, wallet, pens, sunglasses, with room for more! There's also an o-ring with an attached strap to keep your keys within easy reach.

On the back, shown above right, you'll see one of my favorite new features at TOMBIHN – the over-the-rolly-bag-handle panel that zips open at the bottom so you can slide it over the handle of your rolly bag when travelling. If you don't use it for that purpose, it becomes another full-width open-topped pocket for quick-access items like a book, magazine, or almost anything.

The Nomad Tote is really a tote, and there are no attachments for a cross-body strap. The shoulder straps drop a generous 11" and are comfy on the shoulder, well made of reinforced strapping with trim over each side, for a polished look.

The Nomad Tote comes with a bag of 4 pulls du jour, which are little straps you can add to the zipper pulls to make them even easier to grab and tug. The zippers are very high quality and open easily on their own, but sometimes it's nice to have a little something extra to grab when you're in a rush.

Like all TOMBIHN bags, the Nomad Tote is made in exceptionally durable material: ballistic nylon for the outer and halcyon reinforced nylon for the insides usually in a fun and bright contrasting color. I have a library of TOMBIHN bags, and the oldest one looks as good as this new one. They just don't show wear.

If you're looking for a fibercraft bag that can double for business or parenthood, take a look at the Nomad Tote. It's multipurpose, durable, and very intelligently designed by a company with many, many years of experience making great bags. Knitty recommended!

AS

FORTÉ 2.0 Interchangeable needle set
by ChiaoGoo
Contains 8 small gauge 5" long tips (sizes US2/2.75mm to US8/5mm) with carbon fiiber bodies and stainless steel tips and ends;
6 large-gauge 5" long tips (sizes US9/5.5mm to US15/10mm) with blackwood bodies and stainless steel tips and ends;
6 SWIV360 silver cables and 3 red TWIST cables; needle gauge, steel scissors, leather-wrapped measuring tape, a pen, and a hinged notion tin containing tip/cable adapters and connectors, darning needles, end stoppers, stitch markers, all in a deluxe leather-like zippered case.
$330

Buy now from your Local Yarn Shop
(if they carry ChiaoGoo products, they can special-order it for you if it's not in stock)

If you're on any sort of social media lately, you've likely seen unboxing videos for lovely products that are designed to make you ooooooh. Well, when the Forte 2.0 set arrived at Knitty World Headquarters (my house), opening it felt like a personal unboxing. Every aspect of the Forte 2.0 set is presented beautifully and the set is several steps above any needle set I've ever tested before.

The Forte 2.0 set (*see below for the origin of the name) comes in a man-made REACH-compliant case (think environmentally less harmful) with a strong, easy to use zipper. Inside, you have designated places for the included accessories: sharp steel scissors, a leather-encased measuring tape, a notions tin filled with cable stoppers, stitch markers, adapters to make longer cables; a pen, a needle gauge and swatch ruler. You get three sets of cables in the Forte 2.0 set: a SWIV360 silver set for small needles and one for large needles. And a TWIST red set for small needles as well! All ChiaoGoo cables are made of non-kink, coated steel that allows stitches to slide along easily. And the SWIV360 cables let the attached needles swivel freely! It's pretty obvious which cables are for the small or large needle tips because the connectors are different sizes, but they're also laser engraved with either S or L in case you're not sure. The cables come in three lengths per size: 14/22/30 inches | 35/ 55/75 cm.

The 5" long needles are attached to a sturdy board with magnets which hold it in the case. It can be removed from the case and slipped into your knitting bag if you want to take it along. Above you see the full-length zippered pocket that holds all the cables. The elastic is durable and the boards are labelled with each size in both US and metric. And the needle tips are also laser engraved with the size – that engraving won't wear off! I love that the set includes size 2.5US/3mm, which isn't common in most needle sets.

Some backstory: *The original Forte set was released and despite best efforts by ChiaoGoo, there were problems with the needle tips. The whole set was made with blackwood and stainless steel needle tips, and in the smaller sizes, the blackwood tips were not as durable as they needed to be. ChiaoGoo pulled the set and went to work to improve it. The new Forte 2.0 set now features slick, strong carbon fiber tips for sizes 2-8US/3.25-5mm, and shiny, super-strong blackwood tips for sizes 9-15US/5.5-10mm.

As always, I put these needles into testing, which means I used them on projects of every description for a few months to see how they'd perform. I also asked Claudia to test the SWIV360 cables with her woolly knitting (since I'm a non-wool knitter) and so we both got to see what we thought of the set.

Here's what Claudia said: I used the ChiaGoo Forte 2.0 needles for a colourwork-heavy project. I knew I needed something that was light and flexible and wouldn't snag the yarn (I was using a merino, cashmere, silk blend). So, I decided to try the SWIV360 cables, and I'm glad I did. They performed beautifully. I never once had to retighten them, and as I knitted along, I didn't have to give them a second thought, which is what I want from circular needles. The tips didn't split the yarn and were comfortable in my hands. I wouldn't hesitate to use these needles again.

As for me, I've used the small tips and large on several different materials from hemp to linen to silk to cotton, thicknesses from fingering to sport, as well as a project with two plant-based yarns held together on a size US10.5 and the SWIV360 cables. In order to swivel, there is a tiny space between the cable and the connector (the part that attaches to the needle). In the original Forte set, some knitters were bothered by this space, and that's why there are TWIST red cables included now, which don't have the space. However, both Claudia and I found no trouble with the space with any fiber and at any gauge, and enjoyed working with the SWIV360 cables very much. As with Claudia's experience, I didn't have any tips come loose while knitting either.

An aside: I had one faulty TWIST red cable in the set that wouldn't allow a tip to screw into it. ChiaoGoo replaced it right away, because they stand behind their products.

As for the materials of the needles, they're just luxurious and smooth and lovely to use. The point is pointy but not yarn-splitting sharp (see photos above). The places where the blackwood or carbon fiber attach to the stainless steel ends are so smooth, you almost can't even feel them. Your yarn will just slide past the joins. I had a pair of carbon fiber DPNs years ago which were unpolished rods with noticeable texture that were cut to length and shaped into points at each end. A neat idea, but not so enjoyable to use. For the Forte 2.0 needles, the carbon fiber is polished smooth as glass, the same as the thicker blackwood tips. They're super sexy, if you ask me.

Are they strong? Last night, at my knitting guild meeting, I accidentally dropped the pair of US4/3.5mm carbon fiber needles with about an inch-wide, short piece of knitting on the cable, on the hard floor. Nothing happened. They were perfectly fine.

There's no question that this is a luxury purchase. However, if they fit in the budget, this could easily be your needle set for life. The only other thing you might want to add would be extra cables, because you're going to use them for every single thing you knit. Working with the Forte 2.0 set is a pleasure that elevates my favorite pastime and makes the lovely yarn I get to knit with feel even better with every stitch.

AS + CBM