Twelve Months of Knitting

Twelve Months of Knitting: Improve Your Knitting skills Month By Month With 36 Seasonal Projects by Joanne Yordanou is a unique knitting book because not only does it have some great projects it also helps you plan on starting and finishing them.

Have you ever started a sweater in March and April and ended up finishing it but it was to warm out to wear? Waiting a few months to wear something I've spent weeks and possibly months on, is disappointing.

But with Twelve Months of Knitting, Joanne Yordanou, takes the guess work of project planning so that you can start and finish projects to use and wear right away.

The book is divided by month with garments each month. These are the months that they should be completed for. And there is a weekly planner that tells when you should start the project and the approximate length of time it will take to complete.

So for January, there is a Ski Lodge Scoop (one of my favorites), on page 17. On the planner it says to start the second week of December and the vest should take 1 to 2 weeks to complete if you are an average speed knitter.

Another favorite of mine, the Girl's Valentine Cardigan on page 27, should be started the 3rd week of January and take 2 weeks to complete. Just in time for Valentine's Day!

I also like the Boat Launch Cables on page 94 which is a sleeveless wrapped top made from 100% bamboo. Joanne has it placed in July and says I should start it at the beginning of May for it to be done in time to wear it.

The planner could also be used for projects similar in design that aren't in the book. So if you see a sweater pattern with cables like the Stitch Therapy Turtleneck (page 57), you could check the planner and see that it should take about 3 to 4 weeks to complete it.

This book was big hit when I took it to my weekly knit group. There are so many items that were popular including:

Kiss Curls Sunggles Wrap for February, page 30, 2 - 3 weeks
Summer Chill Shaw for August, page 107, 3 weeks
Kimono Wrap for October, page 125, 1 -2 weeks
Red Cable Cardigan for December, page 151, 3 - 4 weeks

Although I don't necessary agree with months that some items were placed (ie. a long sleeve llama/wool sweater in August), most of the projects are appropriately placed. And the time to complete some of the projects seem to short, at least for me anyway (ie. the cable sweaters and cardigans would take me much longer then 3 - 4 weeks to complete). But I also like to have several things on the needles.

Overall, I really like Twelve Months of Knitting by Joanne Yordanou. It has some great projects for all level of knitters and the helpful planner and placement of patterns in months, makes it a great book to guide you to completion.