Pattern Book Reviews.

Published in 2008, this book is structured around pregnancy trimesters — simpler projects for the first and third when you may be exhausted or uncomfortable, more ambitious ones for the second when you feel human again. That structure is genuinely smart and I appreciate that the author thought about it that way. There are also brief pregnancy anecdotes alongside the patterns, which gives the book a warmth that a lot of knitting books lack.

The designs are relatively modern for their age — more so than a lot of knitting books from the same era. That said, they do feel dated, and the lifestyle photography is not what you'd expect from a knitting book published today. My one consistent frustration is shared with a lot of knitting books: I wish there were simple flat front-and-back photos of every garment rather than prioritizing lifestyle shots. Standard schematic diagrams are included, which helps, but the flat photo would help more.

I've only knit one pattern so far — the Girl's Summer Suit, which is a genuinely lovely find. There are probably one or two more I'll get to. The best discovery from this book wasn't even the pattern itself but the yarn it called for: Blue Sky Fibers Organic Cotton, which I hadn't used for garments before and now love. That alone was worth opening the book.

This is the book I'd hand a knitter who just found out they're pregnant and has never knit a garment. Every single pattern uses garter stitch — the most basic stitch in knitting — which removes the technique barrier entirely and lets you focus on the actual construction. And the construction is surprisingly thoughtful. Kimono-style jackets that don't have to be pulled over a newborn's head. Drawstring mittens that stay on. Val Pierce wasn't just filling page count — she thought about what actually works for babies and built patterns around that.

I read this during my first pregnancy, when I was still a fairly new knitter. The skill level is coded by color on each pattern, so you always know what you're getting into before you start. The range is wider than the garter-only premise suggests — there are patterns here that will genuinely challenge a newer knitter, including construction types and shaping that take practice to execute well. The photography is clear and the instructions are clean. It's the most forgiving technical start to baby knitting I've found in book form.

This is the cleaner, more modern version of the trimester-organized pregnancy knitting book. The structure is smart: the patterns assigned to the first trimester are more ambitious, because you have months to finish them. Third trimester patterns are fast by design, because by then you just want something you can cast on and finish before the baby arrives. The author lived this — she knit through her own pregnancy and then sorted the results into what she actually used versus what sat in a drawer.

The patterns are well-written and the instructions are clean. People who've knit from this book consistently note the absence of errors, which matters more than it sounds — bad pattern instructions in a book with no errata page are a genuine obstacle. The range is practical: booties, hats, blankets, cardigans, bibs, a few toys. Nothing so complicated it'll stall you, nothing so simple it feels like filler. The one limitation is the age range — it stops at 12 months, so it won't carry you through the toddler years. But for a single-pregnancy companion book, it's the best trimester-organized option I've used.

Jody Long is a prolific knitwear designer and this book shows it. Thirty patterns, clean instructions, modern aesthetic — this is what a baby knitting book looks like when it's designed by someone who actually cares about the visual result. The range goes from cables to lace to fairisle, which means there's something genuinely challenging in here alongside the accessible beginner patterns. The sizing runs from newborn through age three, which is rarer than it should be — most baby knitting books stop at 12 months and leave you on your own for the toddler years.

The one honest caveat: the book was designed around Long's proprietary Ciao yarn, a 100% merino superwash DK. That's a great yarn, but it's not universally stocked. The substitution math isn't complicated — you need a DK weight superwash merino with similar yardage — but it does add a step. If you're already sourcing yarn independently this is a non-issue. If you're newer to substitutions, budget time for it before you cast on.

This is a beautiful book and a genuinely impressive collection — over 60 patterns organized by color scheme, covering everything from booties and bibs to coats, dresses, and stuffed animals. The photography is excellent. The diagrams are clear. If you're shopping for a baby knitting book based on cover appeal and sheer pattern count, this one wins. Originally published in France in 2012, it was translated and adapted for an American knitting audience in 2014, and for the most part the adaptation is competent.

The color-scheme organization is the book's most distinctive feature and also its most polarizing. On one hand, it makes gifting easy — you can build an entire coordinated set by flipping to the right color section. On the other, if you're looking for a specific garment type and don't remember which color section it fell into, you're hunting through the whole book. The translation leaves some yarn weight labeling inconsistent — not wrong, exactly, but imprecise in ways that require you to do some interpretation before casting on. Browse this one before buying if you can.