Woolly Wormhead

Many thanks to Netgalley, Stackpole Books, and Woolly Wormhead for receiving and ARC in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

For those of us in the knitting world, Wooly Wormhead is a recognized name in the industry. She is known for her unique hat shapes, beautiful yarns and gorgeous design. Her knitting pattern skills are impeccable. For those of you who aren’t familiar with her work, this book is a treasure. Wooly Wormhead was decorated with the British Crafts Award in 2018. She describes herself as a hat architect. This is what she has to say about hats

“Hats are fascinating. They are relatively quick to knit, but they are also endlessly versatile. I think of my Hat designs as sculptures and 3D objects. I build them in my head, then contracts them with my hands.” From her website woolywormhead.com

What you will find is an amazing array of beautiful hats is all shapes and sizes. There are patterns for women, men and children. The patterns are extremely well written. There are charts as well as written instructions. She has a skills required section before each pattern with a reference to later chapters where she has explanations of different techniques like provisional cast on or how to join live stitches. Each pattern is written as if you are having a direct conversation with her, like sitting in her class and she explains each part of what you are doing and why.

What you will find in her book that you won’t find anywhere else (other than the beautiful designs) is a whole section on the basics of knitting a hat. Here are some of the issues she discusses - the right hat for every head, how much ease, the thing with hard and even takes into consideration and writes about hats and glasses. I haven’t seen anything like it!

In case I’m not being clear, I love this book. There are many wearable designs and each hat is a work of art. Also just going through one pattern of hers is an education itself. If you want to knit hats, this book is a must have.… (más)

There are a lot of hat patterns and knitting instruction in this book and if you don't have anything like it then you might like this book very much. I found the instructions a bit hard to follow at times, though.

One of this things this book goes into at length is sizing, including discussion of negative ease
and why one size does not fit all. I learned that I have probably been making hats too big, by not considering negative ease. Using ribbing for the band helps with sizing, but still I may be measuring wrong.

I like to work hats in the round. Many of these are worked flat and then bound up with kitchener. It probably gives interesting hat designs, but it seems to be a pain in the ass to work. I can deal with kitchener for 12 st at the end of a sock, but not 96 st up the side of a hat. So, I would probably not make most of these patterns.

The men's hats look like skull caps and I would not make any of them. Some of the kids' hats look fun and interesting. But maybe not worth the effort in the complicated stitch patterns unless the hats will be passed on.

I really liked the look of the hat called "Infilare", but I could not understand the pattern description for reaching down five rows to the wrong side and then knitting from the back and front needle, all while working in the round. I know how to tuck and don't think it is very hard once you understand the mechanics, so I'm pretty sure that the instructions were less clearly written than they might have been. If there were a tutorial for the 'tucked' pattern used for Infilare, I would like to see it. But I can't do this pattern from the written instructions.

Given the large amount of info on line and the ability to adapt stitches and patterns and colors to make an infinite number of hats for a finite number of friends and family, I would not pay money for this book of hat patterns.

I received a digital review copy of "Knit Hats with Woolly Wormhead" by Woolly Wormhead from Stackpole Books through NetGalley.com.… (más)

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Knit Hats with Woolly Wormhead ~ Styles for the Whole Family written by Woolly Wormhead is an eclectic collection of beautiful hat patterns for both adults and children. The patterns are suitable for beginning to advanced knitters, and the more complicated patterns are so well explained that it's like getting an advanced class on technique as a bonus. The instructions and charts are clear and concise, the photographs are lovely, and this book is definitely one for my keeper shelf. Publishing Date: August 1, 2021. #KnitHatsWithWoollyWormhed #WoollyWormhead #RowmanAndLittlefield #StacpoleBooks #KnittingBooks #KnittingPatternBooks #KnitHats #HandKnitHats #NetGalley #bookstagram #bookstagrammer… (más)