I love to see the interesting projects and creative techniques that crochet designers come up with. Recently I had the opportunity to review Hand-Picked Gloves & Mitts by Karen McKenna, published by Leisure Arts. You may recognize Karen's name from the Crochet Guild of America board of directors or her I Hook Design blog. (Disclaimer: I was given an electronic copy of the book; as you probably know from reading my prior book reviews, that doesn't influence my assessment.)
Karen takes a modular approach--so clever! Crocheters who want to make mittens or mitts can choose from three hand styles and eight cuffs; for gloves, there are three finger styles and the same eight cuffs. This allows for custom mixing and matching.
Various finger styles and cuffs for gloves
Make mittens in different sizes and styles
I chose the Basic Rib bottom-up cuff and the fingerless mitt. The instructions are clear. Here's how it looks so far:
Basic Rib bottom-up cuff and Fingerless Mitt in progress
What I love about this book:
- Modular approach. Eight cuffs to choose from, three mitt/mitten styles, three glove styles.
- Nice variety of sizes--toddler, child, medium adult, large adult. Instructions are color-coded to make it easier to stick with the size you choose.
- Cute options in hand-coverings. Crocheters can always use more of these!
- Quick projects, especially the mittens in the smaller sizes. Those would make great gifts.
- Cuff styles range from basic to quite fancy and pretty! Check out the Long Shell.
- Along with illustrations at the back of the leaflet, video links are provided by Leisure Arts for specific techniques.
- Clear close-up photographs.
I did find a typo in the pattern I tested: on p. 12, the Child Size Right Thumb says to "slip next 8 sc" when it should say to "skip next 8 sc." I didn't scrutinize the other sizes and patterns to see if this error is repeated.
(One thing I question is the decision to have instructions for each cuff style twice (once for mitts/mittens, and then again for gloves). There's nothing wrong with doing that, I just wonder why Leisure Arts would dedicate extra pages to duplicate the same information.)
For me, I think it would be easier to work from the written pattern than from the electronic version. There are a lot of places where changes in size and style mean you have to jump to another section; marking up a printed copy to map out all of the steps for the project would be helpful. Other people might not need that.
I understand why each sample is crocheted in a solid color, but I'd love to see some of these done in variegated yarn. I'm not a huge fan of rows and rows of single crochet (personal bias!), especially in the adult-sized projects where you really notice it; bringing some color to these hand-coverings would add another note to the projects. I'll bet it would look great to crochet one of the fancier cuffs in a solid color to show off its intricacy, with the body of the mitten or glove done in variegated yarn for additional interest.
Kudos to Karen for giving crocheters some new options for gloves and mittens! You can purchase the book from Leisure Arts here or from Amazon here.
Author Karen McKenna
Enter for a chance to win a copy of Hand-Picked Gloves & Mitts!
Here are the rules:
- The contest is open to U.S. residents only.
- To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment below. It must be posted by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 1, 2016. (One comment per person.)
- The winner will be chosen at random from all commenters, and will be announced below and on my Facebook Page (Sharon Silverman Crochet) on July 5, 2016.
- I WILL NEED THE WINNER'S EMAIL ADDRESS! He or she must respond (via the Contact link here or by sending me a message on FB) by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 8, 2016. If the winner does not provide an email address by then, a new winner will be chosen at random from the remaining entries.
- The winner can choose whether to receive the print or electronic version of Hand-Picked Gloves & Mitts. If the print version is selected, the winner will need to provide his or her mailing address.
Good luck!