Classic Elite

Recently I was able to acquire a review copy of one of Classic Elite's new book, Quick Knits. Usually when I review a knitting or crocheting book, I like to be able to share lots of photos of projects from the book so you can enjoy them along with me, but this book is yet on ravelry. The book comes out next week on Oct 18, & is available for sale through amazon. A bit of googling only led me to one other review for the book here, though there are several reviews on goodreads.

Let me start by saying, I love Classic Elite, I love their patterns & yarn, & I love the fact that they are out of Lowell, MA, which is a couple of hours away from me & is the classic, New England, fiber town. The book has several catagories, such as hats, gloves, mittens, & socks. Most are very basic patterns, like the striped hat or the garter stitch hat, but there are also pretty patterns such as the Child's Fair Isle hat, using Wool Bam Boo. There's a very beautiful crochet hat (called Crochet Hat; you'd think they'd come up with a name a little nicer). The knitted patterns all are charted, though the crochet patterns are not, and most of the patterns I'd rate at easy/beginner level. There's a ton of lace hats that I really want to knit up, & a beautiful fair isle hat I'd love to make called Fresco Beaumont. I'm not a fan of cabled work, but there are several very nice cabled hats in the mix.

There's a cute fair isle mitten pattern called Fluffy Mitts that I think would make for an excellent scrap project, as would the Veritas Fair Isle Mitts, a pair of fingerless gloves in two sizes. The book also includes 8 patterns for socks, all of them very nice but nothing that screamed "knit me".

My favorite section should be no surprise to anyone who reads this blog or is friends with me on ravelry: the scarves, shawls, capelet & cowl section. There's a good mix here, from the super cute "Little Leaf Scarf" to great looking but still functional shawls.

My only negative is I wish there were more crochet patterns in the book, but for knitters, this book is worth adding to your library.… (more)

My Opinion: Classic Elite yarns are some of my all time favorites to work with, and I love anything that is quick to make (I get distracted easily so long involved patterns are sometimes hard for me to stick with until they are finished!), so saying this is the perfect book for me is indeed an understatement! I also crochet and there are some crochet patterns in the book so that was a bonus for me.

The description above describes the book perfectly so I'm not going to go over how many patterns there were, how many photos, etc. What I am going to say is that I loved this book! They have patterns that range from beginner to experienced and the photos are spot on! I love making lace projects and they had plenty of those in the book, and I've been wanting to try some more advanced sock patterns, which they also had plenty of. Hats, scarves and mittens are always needed in my house, and are great quick projects to make for friends and family.

In summary, this is now one of my favorite quick knits books and I can't wait to delve into some of the projects! I would highly recommend it for beginning knitters all the way up to advanced knitters, with a touch of crochet thrown in to keep it interesting for people who enjoy both. This is a great book to check out when you have to make a gift quickly for someone you care about, or just to treat yourself.

I give this book a very enthusiastic 5 stars :D

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.… (more)