Jean Greenhowe Designs Knitted Toy Patterns

I bought my copy of this lovely book from a charity shop and it has been well-used. I have grandchildren plus lots of nephews and nieces and other children to buy Christmas and birthday presents for, and I find that, no matter how young or old they are, they all love a hand-knitted gift, toys being the favourite of all. Jean Greenhowe is a very talented knitting pattern designer. She has several books of patterns and I have almost all of them because I find them irresistible. The bonus is that the designs are unique and very inventive yet the instructions are very easy to follow, even for a beginner. At the front of the book is the introduction ...  Read the complete review

This might appear that it is going to be a bit of an old fashioned review as it's all about knitting which seems to be a dying art although I think it is making a bit of a revival amongst some young people. My mother hs always knitted and she taught me when I was quite a small child starting off with the typical doll's blanket. Once I had mastered the basic stitches I really loved knitting as it can be very therapeutic and it's lovely to see something grow out of a ball of wool. I am also one of those people who hate to sit doing nothing and knitting is a great thing to do while you are sitting and watching TV. However, although I enjoy knitting I don't really ...  Read the complete review

My Mum & Gran were both avid knitting ladies & taught my brothers & I how to knit when we were quite young. They both knitted socks for the war effort & then cardigans, jackets & sweaters for all the family. When my brothers & I started to have babies our Mum made tons of matinee jackets, shawls etc & as our family grew & grew her knitting needles were almost on fire! I used to love making jumpers & socks with toes, then I found a pattern for toys by Jean Greenhowe & I became addicted to knitting toys - but much more! Her patterns are easily available - some are thin booklets, others are ...  Read the complete review

I don't think there are many church bazaars or fetes that don't see a Jean Greenhowe knitted toy on one of their stalls. If you can knit and purl, increase and decrease then you are in business. All of Jean`s Patterns are suitable for beginners and accomplished knitters alike and each pattern has step by step instructions to guide you through the whole process. The Royal National Institute For The Blind has translated some of the doll patterns into braille so that the partially sighted or blind can enjoy them too. Every year our local church has a fete and our knitting circle always try to provide a selection of knitted toys, they ...  Read the complete review

I started knitting at the age of 12, and my first project was the Jean Greenhowe scarecrow, unlike hardcore knitting patterns that that can make solving the enigma code seem easy, Greenhowe's use of knitting language is present but not so overt that it scares off the would be knitter. Predominantly the patterns consist of combinations of knit and pearl stitches with increasing and decreasing stitches and gathering together row ends and cast on / cast off. The cleverness of the patterns being how these obscure pieces that you knit are sewn together to form this fabulous result. The number of patterns has now grown (see the Jean Greenhowe website), ...  Read the complete review