My mother taught me to knit when I was 8 years old and the type of knitting patterns she introduced me to first were baby knitting patterns. I loved the fact that they were so small! The first piece of knitting I completed was a pair of mittens. They were in a beautiful soft white knitting wool and they were lovely. I was so proud of them even though I had a few holes in them that weren’t quite in the right places!
In hindsight the mittens were an adventurous first piece for a complete novice knitter like me as there was quite a lot of decreasing and holding stitches etc to be done however from that day onwards I was smitten (sorry about the slight pun)!
I then started to knit for any family and friends who had a new baby and so many of my parents friends were given hats and bootees and mittens for their new borns!
I also knitted matinee jackets and little knitted leggings which were very popular and I often used lots of different colored yarns and made them stripy and fun. Over the years I have knitted many garments for babies and I still love using baby knitting patterns and have a very large collection of them now.
If you are teaching your child to knit for the first time I think it is a great idea to look at baby knitting patterns as they are a perfect initial knitting project for a child. This is because baby knitting patterns are small and easy to handle and quickly completed, which is great for a child as it gives them a very quick result. Also if mistakes are made, it is possible to knit that part of the garment again quite quickly thus maintaining their motivation and so I would always recommend using baby knitting patterns as a starting point.
The advent of good quality cotton yarn has meant that a whole new range of baby knitting patterns are now available using cotton which can be so soft and cooler for a baby to wear in the summer. Also the huge array of colors that companies now make in both knitting wool and cotton are so lovely that they are inspiring people who have not considered knitting before to take it up.
There are very good baby knitting patterns for baby blankets and one that is easy to start with is a patchwork blanket. This is a knitted blanket made of small knitted squares of different colors. The squares are about 4 x 4 inches (10 x 10 cms). These squares are then stitched together in various patterns and you can really let yourself go on this and get creative. You can even design it first on graph paper and put in some longer strips of knitting as well as some smaller colorful squares. Either use cotton or wool however I wouldn’t suggest that you mix them as they behave a little differently when washed so as a starting project it is best to stick to either wool or cotton throughout.
There are some terrific places to look online if you are on the hunt for great knitting patterns, and if you are looking for baby knitting patterns in particular, there are many excellent sites which will have patterns for you to choose from.
Until next time happy knitting
All the best
Louise
