If winter’s chill has you confined to the couch with nothing to do, here’s the ideal way to keep you (and your icy hands) on the go. No need to leave home; knit up a treasure chest full of colourful soft toys for children’s gifts, home décor or Christmas stockings. My favourites are the bugs on page 24 – use them to make a colourful cot mobile, or even to hang from your car’s rear-view mirror.

With 20 options ranging from furry farmyard animals to quaint finger puppets, each project provides colourful photographs, detailed instructions and information about measurements, materials and tensions. Particularly useful is the skill-level indicator, ranging from one (easiest) to three (most difficult). For those of you who are just starting out, there’s also an introductory few pages covering different types of yarns, stitches, needles and techniques.

And if you’ve got children, jump at the opportunity for collaboration on easier projects. A perfect example is the teddy on page 72 – while you bring him to life, encourage your kids to learn by knitting him a scarf. Nothing could be easier, or more rewarding. And once teddy is finished, he’ll make the perfect winter companion.

Reviewed by Cara Visser

Published by New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd.

If you’ve got kids aged between six and nine years, they’d love to join Bob the wolf and his two talkative friends, Peg and Pip the mice, in learning how to knit. Kids learn to knit is fun, colourful and superbly entertaining! Even big kids (yes, adults) can take a page or two out of this one.

Published by Metz Press, the book introduces knitting in a fun, education way. It teaches basic knitting techniques including casting on, casting off, producing a slip knot and a knot stitch. All kids really need is wool and a pair of knitting needles to get started.

Once the basics are out of the way, your kids can move on to one of the six exciting step-by-step projects, all with their own charts and templates. What makes this a real page-turner is all the quaint illustrations, complete with commentary from Bob, Peg and Pip of course.

Towards the back of the book, there’s also a useful section tackling the likely event of things going wrong – holes in your knitting, dropped stitches, and running out of wool for example. There’s also a “how to” section where you can pick up on more techniques like stitching seams, sewing on buttons and stitching on felt shapes.

Makes a fantastic gift, guaranteed to bring hours of fun!

Reviewed by Cara Visser

Published by Metz Press