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Color Block Knits: 35 self-striping designs knitted with cake yarns and color wheels
Create 35 beautiful projects with Nicki Trench's vibrant knitting patterns.
Suddenly cake yarns and color wheels are everywhere, and their popularity is no surprise. Not only do they make sewing in yarn ends at every color change a thing of the past, they are also available in every shade of the rainbow. And because they usually contain two or three large stretches of contrasting colors, the effect is more dramatic than the repeated shade changes in variegated yarns. But knitting with cakes and color wheels lends itself better to some makes than to others—throws and shawls can often be made from one large cake, while scarves and hats are perfect makes for smaller and finer yarns. To make the most of these exciting products, Nicki Trench has specially designed 35 projects, including homewares, accessories, makes for babies, and things to wear, and many of them will only take one ball of yarn to make.
Suddenly cake yarns and color wheels are everywhere, and their popularity is no surprise. Not only do they make sewing in yarn ends at every color change a thing of the past, they are also available in every shade of the rainbow. And because they usually contain two or three large stretches of contrasting colors, the effect is more dramatic than the repeated shade changes in variegated yarns. But knitting with cakes and color wheels lends itself better to some makes than to others—throws and shawls can often be made from one large cake, while scarves and hats are perfect makes for smaller and finer yarns. To make the most of these exciting products, Nicki Trench has specially designed 35 projects, including homewares, accessories, makes for babies, and things to wear, and many of them will only take one ball of yarn to make.
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 10, 2019
About the author
Nicki Trench
76 books8 followersNicki Trench is one of the leading figures in the revival and promotion of home crafts. As well as teaching, lecturing and feature writing on knitting, crochet, sewing, cake decorating and hen keeping, she is the founder of Laughing Hens, the UK's leading online yarn store, and Rooster Yarns. Her most recent books include Creating Your Garden Farm and 201 Knitting Motifs, Blocks, Projects and Ideas. Nicki also runs Dancing Hens (www.dancinghens.com), a craft studio.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 9, 2021
Wow. That embarrassing moment when the sewn linings look more professional than the knitted item...in a knitting book.
I've complained about patterns like this for a long time, but this is by far one of the worst examples I've seen. The problem with patterns written for self-striping or variegated yarn is that the patterns are typically extremely simplistic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since there is a time and place for simple projects (and complicated stitches usually don't look great with colorwork anyway), but it makes books like this such a snoozefest because there is literally NOTHING original in this book at all.
This book is an especially bad example of this trend because Trench did not even do a good job of matching patterns (simple as they are) with her yarns. The cabled aran sweater with block stripes...just why. That doesn't look good.
Final note: don't tell people to make washcloths with an acrylic yarn...acrylic is stiff and weird when it gets wet.
Not recommended.
I've complained about patterns like this for a long time, but this is by far one of the worst examples I've seen. The problem with patterns written for self-striping or variegated yarn is that the patterns are typically extremely simplistic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since there is a time and place for simple projects (and complicated stitches usually don't look great with colorwork anyway), but it makes books like this such a snoozefest because there is literally NOTHING original in this book at all.
This book is an especially bad example of this trend because Trench did not even do a good job of matching patterns (simple as they are) with her yarns. The cabled aran sweater with block stripes...just why. That doesn't look good.
Final note: don't tell people to make washcloths with an acrylic yarn...acrylic is stiff and weird when it gets wet.
Not recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review