Nancy's adorable patterns are based on nineteen variations of two hats (rolled-brim and earflap), two booty and two mitt patterns. Her mitts include a closed thumbless version for babies, fingerless mitts with a thumb for older kits, and even a glove-based fingerless mitt. Her booties are shaped to suit the animal represented on the hat, and are cunningly crafted with or without toes, flippered and clawed and even include a flat-bottomed elephant foot.
Her critter creations represent jungle animals, farm animals and forest creatures. The textured details on the turtle and toad are very intriguing but the beaver and owl hats might be first on my list. I don't have enough children in my life to use all the patterns that I want to try, thank goodness there is a nearby pediatric hospital who will welcome donations. The hat patterns are written to fit from 13.5 to 22 inches, so those who are children at heart no matter their age can also have their own. The mitts are written to fit from 6 to 8 inches circumference. The booties are in pre-walking size.
GRAMMA NANCY'S ANIMAL HATS (and Booties Too) has an index to help you find your way around and has a very thorough section on how to use Nancy's methods to create the details that make each set very special, as well as a basic but well-illustrated collection of instruction in knitting techniques. About those methods: purists be warned, Nancy suggests styrofoam and hot glue gun among her tools as being a sure and swift way to produce sturdy hats full of character. You can of course use more traditional sewing and embroidery techniques to add features to faces and those cunning paw prints to the booties but after reading her book, I am considering whipping out my dusty glue gun to attach plastic animal eyes to acrylic yarn (hot glue does not work well with animal fiber) as it is much safer and longer lasting than using the standard post eyes in a knitted fabric.
Whether you stick with your tried and true techniques or give Nancy's a try, I highly recommend GRAMMA NANCY'S ANIMAL HATS as an addition to your library. The care she has taken with making each hat represent the animal it is based on is very informative (the grumpy owl construction is sheer genius!) and I will be glad to have this on my shelf as a source of gifts that will be welcomed and loved for years.
Title: Gramma Nancy's Animal Hats (and Booties Too)
Author: Nancy Nielsen
ISBN: 978-0804185190
Publication Date: October 2014
Publisher: Potter House
Format: Paperback and Ebook
Available From: Amazon
Price: $14.45
Pages: 159
Genre: Crafts, Knitting
Details: Indexed, with basic skill tutorial.
(Blogging for Books has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.)
