The Scourge of Upside Down Knitting Needles: 2025 Edition

Ya ha, me maties! Tis me! The uptight librarian who, for reasons that have never been adequately explained, is weirdly obsessed with one (and, really, only one) inaccurate form of visual representation in children’s picture books: Stories where the knitting needles are depicted inaccurately. I’m always keeping track, and today I’ll show you my results (just as I did in 2024, 2023 and 2022).

Let us dispense with the usual objections to this post right off the bat:

1. Question: Has anyone ever knit with the bottoms of the needles pointed sky high? Answer: Yes, but it literally makes no sense. Why fight gravity? And, quite frankly, even if your Scottish great-grandmother from 1910 knit this way, that’s no reason why anyone should make knitting needles look like that in a contemporary picture book.
2. Question: Does it matter? Illustrators know that it just looks better to have them pointed up like old rabbit ears on television sets. Shouldn’t simple visual aesthetics get a hand in this? Answer: No. We live in an era of misinformation. I will not compromise my morals just because an illustrator was incapable of doing a simple Google search on “knitting”.
3. Question: Why are you like this? Answer: On with the show!!!

But before we begin, I’ve some knitting related news to impart first.

If you are familiar with the life and work of Hank Green then you know that he occasionally flirts with controversy. While the man has done many notable and noteworthy things in his life, just a month or two ago he got in trouble with the knitting community. He wrote this and then apologized here. He learned a lesson I’ve known for years. Knitters: Don’t Muck With Them.

Now let’s see who got those needles right and who literally didn’t care a jot! We’ll have a final count at the end.

These books shall appear in the order in which I saw them.

Nop by Caroline Magerl

Technically, Nop was first published overseas in 2019. But since it really only ever appeared in America in 2025, we’re going to include it. How can we not? After all, that cat clearly knows how to knit properly. Well done!

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Again, 10 out of 10. No notes. This wolf has a nice sense of where knitting needles should go.

Let’s see if we can get 3 for 3…

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I dunno. That’s pretty small. Kind of hard to tell if the needles are correct or not. Really it could go either way…

Dagnabbit, Frank! You’re a penguin! Shouldn’t you have a natural sense of how knitting needles work? You expect me to believe you outfitted an entire troupe of walruses with that needle positioning?

Ugh. And we were doing so well until now…

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Okay. Cute. No question. You definitely know how to cast on. But is that any true indication that you know which way the needles are supposed to point?

I stand corrected. Carry on! You clearly know your stuff.

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Shoot, dang it. This one really broke my heart. Because when you sit down and look at it, it wasn’t a one-time thing.

Ugh. Seriously? It’s SUCH a good book. Why get this wrong?

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And just like that, my faith in European children’s book imports is restored. This book, by the way, is a TRIP! Expect to see it in my Unconventional Children’s Books list next month.

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A first! A book of knit creatures knitting! I mean, one would hope the creator would get it right…

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Hmmmm. A bit unclear if this is knitting at all. It might be crocheting. Hard to tell from the image. In any case, the needles are still pointed down. I’m gonna count this one as a win.

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Ach! Breaks my heart, this does. Jacques Goldstyn is usually SUCH an accomplished illustrator. What even happened here?

By the way, this book is far more accurate when it comes to cat sex. I’d say this is probably the ONLY book for kids I’ve seen that even is this accurate on this particular subject.

I just love how shocked they both look.

VERY nice work! Look at how she’s even looped the yarn around her finger. Precisely what I like to see!

Well, I guess we just answered the question of why it is that turtles don’t wear sweaters. How could they with SUCH poor knitting needle technique? Nobody’s knitting nothing here.

According to the press for this book, this title was shortlisted for Illustrator of the Year in the British Book Awards 2025. You know why? Because those knitting needles are dead accurate!

I actually gave this book to my sister this year, since she just had a baby and this looked very accurate. Would I have given it to her if the knitting needles were all wonky? Unlikely!

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As established in previous installments of this series, Sophie Blackall is one of those illustrators who ALWAYS gets knitting needle placement correct.

Okay. This one is so weird that I’m not even entirely certain that “knitting” is what this little guy is supposed to be doing. Cheerful stabbing, maybe? The implication here appears to be that it just knit that ladder. So… wait, what?

It was Ms. Yingling who alerted me to this one. Oh dear, oh dear. Buddy buddy. That ain’t knitting.

For half a second there, I thought that this one might be inaccurate too. However, if you look closely at Evelyn knitting here, you can see that it’s the tips, not the ends, of the knitting needles that are pointing up. Which is totally fine. That’s how you do it, after all.

This is another one that we see thank to Ms. Yingling. As you can see, she wrote, “Crochet is mentioned but so are two needles, and there could be two in the picture. She’s not wrong. So what is it? Crochet or knitting?

Super sweet book. Super sketchy knitting technique. I guess that’s how you can tell that he isn’t actually Santa. Santa would know how to knit correctly.

The fierce and ACCURATE little woman, I’d say!

Even Vikings have a rudimentary understanding the physics of knitting. Thank you, Gunnar.

Clearly the intentions are good with this, but I’ve been staring at this image for the last 5 minutes and I still cannot quite figure out how this sock came to be.

Oh dear, oh dear. Very classic confusion here. The way the hands hold the needles. The fact that the scarf seems to have woven itself out of thin air. And note how the balls of yarn are in no way connected to the knitted object itself.

As with Sophie Blackall, Erin E. Stead’s one of those illustrators you can count on to be accurate when it comes to the craft arts.

People may be weird but that knitting is normal as it comes.

Okay then. Let’s look at the final count:

2025 Children’s Books With Correct Knitting Needle Placement: 17

2025 Children’s Books with Incorrect Knitting Needle Placement: 9

Not too shabby! I feel like we’re making progress!

And now, let’s look at this…

MYSTERY IMAGE!

I took this photo earlier in the year, but I didn’t record the book it was from. Anyone have any ideas?

As for the year 2026, I’m looking forward to seeing more titles. For example, early in 2025, I received the following message:

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Hi Betsy,

True story: I am not a knitter. But in early 2024 I came across your 2023 Scourge of Upside Down Knitting Needles article just in time to give my illustrator explicit instructions on needle protocol for our new book, Freya Takes Charge. The result: compliant knitting in every instance! Well, almost every instance. The one delinquent needle pose was created intentionally.

Because I am so proud of my contribution to the proper depiction of knitting needles in children’s literature, I would be honored to have Freya Takes Charge included in the 2025 edition of “Scourge.”

Knit one, purl two!

Also, a shout out to the Right Side Up Worldwide Knitter Fandom who, Ariane tells me, “greets this silly little post with much anticipation and reverence every year. Thank you for providing this invaluable service!”

-Ariane Erickson

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So I looked into the book in question and yes. Just as Ariane says, it IS accurate!!

Not a bad way to kick things off, eh? As you can see here, the ends of Freya’s needles are pointed in a downward position.

Then there will be this:

How will Peter Brown do? Only time will tell…

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