French Girl Knits, accessories; book review

French Girl Knits, accessories, modern designs for a beautiful life, by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes, a 2012 book from Interweave Press.


This is a sequel if you will to Kristeen’s first book French Girl Knits, which I am now dying to read especially if it was written similar to this one.  This book is so eloquently written.  It almost makes you want to brush up on your high school French.  But never fear, you won’t need to.  While the phrases are peppered throughout this book, you will be drawn in by her designs as well as her passion for the French lifestyle.

It starts off with her commentary on French life and takes you through what she calls “a typical French day”, breaking it down morning, afternoon, and night.  I was hooked, and not expecting this.  I saw the title and thought, wonderful, here is a book about knit-ware and it is catered to my love of accessories.  But honestly, it is so much more.  Every pattern comes with a story.  You almost don’t buy the book for the patterns.  It becomes a good read.  I was going to just peruse the book and pick out patterns I love, but I found myself sinking into my comfy chair and reading it like a novel.  I cannot imagine the amount of time and love Kristeen spent on making this book.  Obviously it was worth it.  I can’t put it down.  Yes, I do want to make the Boheme Baret for my mother, the Plume Anklet socks for myself, and the Gitane Lacy shrug that would knit up so easily and look so elegant on my best friend.   But it’s the way she talks about her love of knitting and French culture that has me hooked.  I can get to the patterns later, and I will.

Basically, the book is broken down into three parts.  Hats and Toques, Mittens and Socks (this being my favorite), and finally Shawls and Wraps.  There are sixteen patterns which really look like they belong on the cover of French Vogue.  The pattern are just hard enough to keep my attention, but easy enough so that I won’t give up and throw them in the UFO bin.

This book has me wanting to put a Brie en Croute in the oven and pop a cork of bubbly, but right now I’m going to delve into those delicious patterns.