Nature's Knit-ch Book of Singlets and Light Covers
Nature’s Knit-ch Book of Singlets and Light Covers is an inspiring and accessible crafting book featuring twenty creative patterns for lightweight knits.
Canadian knitwear designer Carol Balogh’s Nature’s Knit-ch Book of Singlets and Light Covers is a charming and inspiring guide to knitting light tops with natural fibers.
The book focuses on lightweight, easy-to-wear garments for warmer weather, often made with regionally sourced yarns. It is divided into two sections to delineate between types of garments, though its distinctions are not always self-evident. Singlets here refers to lightweight tank tops, vests, and shirts that can be worn alone in warm weather, or with skirts. The light covers are somewhat heavier garments, like sweaters with sleeves and projects that are intended to be worn on top of other garments.
Twenty patterns are included in the collection, including four projects rated for beginners, fifteen for intermediate knitters, and one for experienced crafters. Most of the patterns have five or six size options. The projects emphasize details like lace, beaded knitting, and colorwork. Some of the patterns are understated and casual, as with the easy-to-knit and easy-to-wear merino singlet, a split hem tank top that’s one of the simplest patterns in the collection. Elsewhere, a runner’s sleeveless kanga (a hooded pullover vest with a kangaroo pocket) uses a contrasting braided cord to help cinch the hood. But there are designs with dramatic details too, including the Lovely Locks Shell, a basic top completed by a wide-draping collar band of lace that’s worked with curly yarn made of core-spun locks. And the In the Garden pullover represents a multitude of techniques, including eyelets, stranded knitting, and duplicate stitching, to paint a flower garden on the body and sleeves of the sweater.
Most of the designs lean into simple shapes, relying on details within the fabric to make them more interesting. Multiple photographs of each garment are shown, revealing different angles and details in advance. Beginning charts detail the skill level required, sizing in inches and centimeters, the yarn used, needles and other notions required, and gauge and care instructions for the garment using the given yarn. The schematics are clear in detailing the size of each part of the garment, and those that include diagrams render them in large, easy-to-read format, if also with the appearance of having been hand-drawn on a spreadsheet.
The techniques section covers special skills including shoulder seaming, long-tail cast-ons, suspended bind-offs, buttonholes, and beading with clarity. And the book’s pattern notes tell the interesting stories of each design or of the yarn used in the project. Most of the yarns are Canada-based; though there is a sourcing section at the back of the book, knitters in other countries will likely need to substitute yarns, including because some of the listed producers are referenced by address, phone number, and email address, rather than by website.
Knitters looking for inspiration for warmer-weather garments and layering pieces using wool, alpaca, hemp, cotton, and other natural fibers will find fantastic options in the crafting book Nature’s Knit-ch Book of Singlets and Light Covers.
Reviewed by
Sarah White
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
