Book Review: Knitting Block by Block
When I came across Knitting Block by Block by Nicky Epstein, I became very excited. As a young crafter, I am beginning to expand my skill set and thought that this book would be a nice addition to my growing collection of crafting reference books. I would classify myself as a beginner knitter, and learning new techniques by knitting a single block is very appealing to me. At this point, I would say that only one chapter of the book contains blocks that I could successfully knit, because I just don't have the more advanced skills at this point to undertake some of the more "textured" blocks.
I do think that many of the blocks are quite beautiful, but they are simply beyond my abilities at this time, and for that I am disappointed. I really liked the pictures of the finished blocks, but to be honest, some of the blocks were made in ugly colors - almost pukey greens and browns. Most of the blocks are patterns that I would like to make when I am a more advanced knitter, and there are certainly enough different blocks for me to make when I do have the skills. In my opinion, a handful of the block patterns do not appeal to me, and I can't see them in a larger project (e.g., afghan, scarf, etc).
One thing that I would have liked to see is more projects with finished blocks. There were only a few options shown, primarily of scarves, a couple of ladies' blouses, and a few blankets. I realize that the idea is to be creative with the multitude of blocks available, but for someone who is new to block knitting, it is hard to think of really nice projects.
Overall, I am looking forward to learning new knitting skills over the coming months as I knit my way through the book. I really love the little one block animals provided as a "bonus" near the conclusion of the book!
I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review.