Knitting with teens

I am thinking of starting a teen knitting and needlework group in my library and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of projects or teen-friendly knitting books. I know of the Chicks-with-sticks series, and it's been pretty popular with my teens. Not so familiar with teen nonfiction knitting books (except for stitch 'n bitch.)

Well, you can't really go wrong with Stitch 'n' Bitch. There's a whole series of them, in fact: the original, a second book, a book of patterns for guys, a design jounal, and a book on crochet.

There's also The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns* and its sequel, The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. Both give bare-bones directions in chart form, allowing knitters to make things in any combination of a various sizes and several gauges. I've recommended A Treasury of Knitting patterns for the former: if some of these teens are oh, intermediate or so, why not encourage them to come up with their own ideas?

* Touchstone not working, and not showing up in "others". The link: http://www.librarything.com/work/2979

Hip to Knit would be a good one too, I think. It has easy-to-follow instructions and projects geared toward teen/college-age knitters.

Have you checked out The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting? It has some cute projects and it has a lot of information on yarns and tools for knitting. Good luck with your group!

If there are Harry Potter fans in the group there is Charmed Knits which has some simple projects. What a wonderful idea.

I have a book I was given for christmas called Chic Knits for Young Chicks and includes hats, belts, scarves, shrugs, water bottle holders, ipod case, pillow case and journal cover.

I like the project suggestions in #6 for teens. I'd also recommend a book called Teen Knitting Club: Chill Out and Knit, by Jennifer Wenger, Carol Abrams, and Maureen Lasher. And does Vogue still publish their small magazine called Knit.1? If so, you might want to have a look at that, particularly if you'll be working with older teens.

Another project you might want to consider is amigurumis, which are small, whimsical animals and other creatures (they originated in Japan). Though I think these are usually crocheted, there might be knitting patterns for them, too.

I have a book called Amigurumi Knits, by Hansi Singh, which is a really good book of amigurumi knitting patterns. It has patterns for knitted fruits and vegetables, and knitted animals. I knitted a hermit crab for my little cousin from one of the patterns, and he loves it!

I can tell you that my teen knitters took a look at Vogue's Knitting on the Go Teen Knits and thought it was terrible--they disliked every project. That combined with Vogue's reputation for over-fiddly projects and pattern errors makes me recommend skipping this one.

How has the group gone? I am thinking of doing something similar at my school. What books if any have proved to be good for this project? Any tips?