Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook - Debbie Stoller

Knitting is taking over the world! Well, maybe not quite. But it's sure as hell trendy again. This came as something of a shock to me. I first became aware of the newly fashionable status of knitting when I was working at a leading museum in London. When I head there was a knitting circle taking place down the corridor from me at lunchtimes, I imagined it would be populated by a few grannies and mumsy types (stereotypes, moi?). So I was pretty surprised when I saw a train of the trendiest wendies in the place, people literally dripping design chic, heading for the room to get creative. Stitch n Bitch is the knitting bible for this new ...  Read the complete review

So, knitting is suddenly fashionable again... when I was growing up, it was just something my Nan did. She did teach me the basics and I knitted a couple of simple things (all of which she cast off for me, cast off for me and sewed together), but suddenly it seems to be something that lots of people are getting into. I received a knitting kit for Christmas and decided that I should give it a go - the result was my first scarf, a fluffy, feathery creation where the dropped stitches and randomly increasing rows didn't really matter due to the texture of the wool. At this stage, I realised I'd been well and truly bitten by the knitting bug, and I decided to buy a ...  Read the complete review

Stitch 'n Bitch, the handbook and Bible of the wave of neo-vogue knitters (touted in magazines as knitting because it keeps their hands off food amusingly enough) has a certain kind of try-too-hard feel - knitting isn't cool so let's make it cool with instarsia and doggie coats with matching human accessories and use really hard to work with wool and...well, the list goes on. Try too hard is almost the mantra of this book. It's laid out in a very accessible way (like any other beginners knitting book but...well, hipper) with instructions on how to knit, purl and block for example with a little plug for crochet (Debbie Stoller has since gone on to produce a ...  Read the complete review

So a few years back I heard that knitting was really 'in vogue' so I decided to try it out, and every shop I went into seemed to be peddling 'Stitch 'N Bitch' by Debbie Stoller, and being the easily-persuaded shopper that I am, I decided to give it a go. I originally bought it for £10.99, but I've just seen on Amazon that you can get it for as low as £6.99 now. The General Idea: This book is supposedly designed for anyone who likes to knit, from beginners to pros. It goes through all the basic techniques and has progressively harder patterns. It also gives a background to knitting and resources (unfortunately only in the US) on where to go for supplies. It ...  Read the complete review

I bought Stitch 'n Bitch in Cardiff Hobbycraft, whilst browsing the books that have to offer and wanting to update my home making skills, that I came to this book, and laughed to myself about the title. Stitch 'n Bitch - The Knitters Handbook by Debbie Stoller has really really catchy title and funny front cover of a cowgirl holding knitting needles. After along thought about it, Knitting... Me? Well I'll give anything a go once J My mother has always been a fantastic seamstress, and what a great chance to follow in the footsteps, so I nabbed all her old knitting needles and wool and began to read the book. Stitch 'n Bitch is great right from the ...  Read the complete review