Funky Knits: Knitting Know-How for Hip Young Things

This book is great at showing and describing techniques, which I think is so important to new and young knitters.

I would've bought this book in a heartbeat if I had a teen to knit for. Yes, it has the expected patterns you can find anywhere like beanies, ipod covers and fingerless gloves, but the more unusual ones include a guitar case (a guitar case!), a pillow with a musical staff and buttons for notes, knee-pads that go over jeans for skaters, chunky sweaters with thick "ripped" ladders of dropped stitches, sweaters with big holes that are kept together with safety pins, and quick knits like decorative cacti, patches ("art badges"), pixie hat egg cozies and banana and apple cozies.