Now you can follow along step-by-step with Meg as she knits (and explains) one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's most unique and ingenius designs. Meg guides you through each phase of the jacket's construction, including:

• long tail cast on
• double decreasing/increasing
• adding colors
• baby buttonholes
• casting off in purl
• sewing a seam/darning in ends.
  

As a bonus, Meg also shows us some variations on the original design, including jacket the addition of collar, “continuous line” throughout the jacket, a Baby Surprise matching bonnet, knitting small circumferences on 2 circular needles, invisible cast on, and I-cord techniques.

We recommend both Blue Face Leicester DK (1 250g skein), Fleece Artist Organic Wool (1 250g skein), or Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester 2/8 (1 250g skein replaces the Shetland in the DVD) as being "just right" for the Baby Surprise Jacket.

If any one design can be said to embody Elizabeth Zimmermann's creative gifts and twinkling eye, it is this one - the Surprise Jacket in all it's possibilities. Cully's explication of Elizabeth's original pattern is wonderfully clear and the added photos and technique tidbits are both elucidating and inspiring. Joy, sheer joy, awaits those who follow these footsteps.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket has become near legendary since its conception in 1968. The jacket is knitted back and forth in garter stitch, then cleverly folded and completed by weaving the shoulder seams. This updated pattern includes Elizabeth's original Baby Surprise Jacket instructions, original Adult Surprise instructions, and instructions for the new Child's Surprise jacket. Cully has also added row by row instructions for the Baby Surprise Jacket, so that your initial encounter with the SJ is along a well-marked trail. Both the Adult and Child's Surprise are based on the construction of the baby jacket. Cully has included numbers to knit the Baby Surprise Jacket at different gauges and a chart to enable you to knit different sizes at different gauges. The pattern also includes an options section for adding hood, collar and other features such as EZ's Afterthought Pocket and more. Technique instruction is also included.

Here's a book to love -- it brought back so very many memories of the time when our children were new to the world and I began my exploration of knitting and dollmaking. Tara Manning has presented parents of small children with projects both useful and delightful. Here you will find hats, socks, vests, sweaters, even bathrobes and wash cloths. You'll also discover how to make the sweetest, simplest natural-fiber dolls and toys, and how to recycle old sweaters into new jackets and more for our little ones. Nature Babies is a feast of earthly treasures - sheer joy, and all of it good for children and the rest of us.

Note: The Baby Bath Suite Bathrobe and Washcloth set features Vreseis Ltd Colorganic Boiled Chenille - available at www.naturesongyarn.com. Click here to see it.

I have had a copy of this little book for over 20 years - and have regretted more than occasionally that it was no longer in print. When I bought mine (for the same price as this new edition!), our oldest daughter had just started first grade and I was part of a craft circle whose members were also mothers at the same school. Everyone just loved the book and soon we all had copies and were knitting away at chickens and pigs and horses. I know that none of us actually finished a whole farmyard, but that all of us still have the little animals we made together and cherish them as reminders of precious times with each other and with our own children.

Anyway, the little farm world that Hannelore Wernhard has created is filled with rich imagination and love. She gives complete instructions for creating all the animals, people, buildings, streams, ponds and fields that make this knitted farm such a treasure. It is a joy to see it spring to life again for new children and the knitters in their lives.

Delight a child while using odds and ends from your stash!

Here is an irresistable collection of animals to knit in soft, natural materials: ducklings, teddy bears, lambs, piglets, hedgehogs, a handsome rooster and clucking hen, mice and more and more. Most of the projects can be quickly and inexpensively knit with odds and ends of yarn, and many can be completed in an hour or two. Not to mention that then you can present them to a beloved child and watch their eyes light up at the sight of their new friend.

Knitted Animals includes:

• Step-by-step, clearly written instructions for making over 20 dear little animals
• Beautiful full-color photographs throughout
• Many projects that are suitable for older children to make themselves

Beginning and experienced knitters alike will love this charming book.

Organic yarns, knitting, babies and moms - hard to imagine a combination more 'made for each other' than that one. And what a beautiful, warm, loving collection of knitwear Louisa Harding has given us - an unabashed celebration of nature, our wee ones and mothering!

Inside you'll find inspiring designs for everything babies and moms need: sweaters, blankets, pillows, hats, booties, mittens, cuddly stuffed animals, a jacket, vest and dress, even nursing sweaters (two of them!) and a lace shawl. All of them are really attractive designs, the kind of thing anyone would want to dress their baby or themselves in, and all of them are made with organic yarns, of which there are a now a pleasing abundance to choose from.

Natural Knits embraces and showcases so much that is good in this world of ours -- it is truly a joy to see and an inspiration for heart-filled knitting.

There is just nothing that is not to love about the designs in Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids. Whether you are knitting for girls or boys, these designs will please the children as much as they please their parents. The clothing is as adorable as it is durable and play-in-able, and whether your child is a rough and tumble sort or a quiet, shy type, I can guarantee you'll find something just right for him or her in this great collection. In general, the knitting skill level is somewhere between beginner and intermediate, so everything will knit up with happiness and ease. There are flowery dresses, dinosaur sweaters, a "my house" blanket (really sweet!), a steam shovel sweater (brought back memories of a favorite book from my own childhood - Mike Mulligan's Steamshovel), the Happy Hen Sweater, hats of all descriptions, scarves both elegant and playful, and -- this is just the nicest bonus ever - patterns for stuffed mice (you'll want some for yourself, honest!), cats and dogs. Like I said, there is just nothing not to love!

This is just the dearest collection of knits for children. Each and every piece is chock full of goodness and love - what child wouldn't have sweet dreams when they go to bed with their knit dolls or stuffed animals, wearing a robe that is sheer happiness, flower-adorned knit slippers, a nightcap (!), and pj's just right for the season (several choices here)? Even the dolls, bunnies, and owls get their own special clothes and some of the children's pj's can double as vests or tops for the daytime.

This is a book to love, stitch by stitch.

Click here for the full review, but this book has bibs and baby blankets mothers and babies will love - you'll love making them, too.

This is a joyous collection of various and sundry delights to knit for the children in your life. In fact, it's hard to imagine not being able to find something even a picky child would love in this happily creative collection of non-typical knitwear. Forget things like sweaters or mittens; instead, the Vickie Howell has offered up great gifts that children will really love: wizard & princess hats, a Mermaid costume, a Unicorn hat with rainbow-colored tail (my personal favorite!), and many, many more.

Dive in, have fun, and share the joy with a child.