The Beatrix Potter Knitting Book

by Pat Menchini

A collection of forty handsome knitwear patterns features images and designs based on the original artwork created by Beatrix Potter

Genres: Knitting, Nonfiction, Animals, Crafts

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 1987

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful knitting projects and easy to follow patterns. I’ve made quite a few children’s jerseys as gifts.

[Bec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very adorable, but very dated. More patterns and motifs would have better.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Beatrix Potter. I love knitting. A book that combines both? This I had to see, simply out of curiosity.

Unfortunately, the book was published in the late 1980s, so the patterns (mostly for children -- which I expected, considering it's Beatrix Potter) are extremely dated. Instead of timeless or even "traditional" patterns, most of them are the type of garments you look back on as a child of the 80s and say, "I can't believe my mom dressed me in that." You know, boxy sweaters with bulky frill around the collars, in pastel pink with a big bunny cross stitched on the front.

Of course I wasn't really expecting to find any great patterns to add to my collection, but I thought maybe it would have some cute baby designs with a Potter aesthetic (you know, for the future baby I might one day have). Maybe if I were an accomplished knitter I could find a way to salvage some parts of the patterns, and update them to fit into this decade...but...I'm not. Oh well. Looks like future baby will be sticking to Baby Gap.

[Tonileg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my first literary themed knitting pattern book.
There are vintage style knits like the Tom Kitten Edwardian party sweater and sleeveless top for mother and daughter, is super cute but I have no idea where you could wear this outside of a Halloween costume. There is also the Taylor of Gloucester three knitted cushions that you can match to your sweater which is cute, but I don't like to match the furnishings in my general life.
I love just looking at the cute knits with a 1980's atmosphere, but I doubt that I would make anything, except for a couple of the child's pullovers.
128 pages and large format hardback book
2 stars

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read several reviews on Ravelry about this book. Several folks called it a "timeless classic". There is no way that I would ever knit any patterns from this book as they seem very dated. However, it was fun to see what was considered fashionable in the 1980s/

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet graphs for peter rabbit, Benjamin bunny and three rabbit grouping.
Nice rug idea with many rabbits.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the patterns. Due to the age of the book the adult patterns are not generous but the colours and illustrations are wonderful!