Stitch 'n Bitch Nation

Rating:
Summary: Knitting can be cool?!?!?!
Review: After reading this book I would have to say "Yes!" This book includes some great patterns (I love the butterfly scarf) and a few that I will never make (can you say "leg warmers") but are fun to look at!!! The level of this book is just above beginner, but if you are new there are descriptions and explanation in he back. I have also found this website helps a lot www.knittinghelp.com if you are still stuck on something. I would definitely say this book is worth buying!!!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but some of the patterns have problems
Review: Almost as fun as the 1st book, but some of the patterns have issues. You can get updates and fixes for some on their website, but I would hope the patterns would have been tested out BEFORE they were included in print. This review is for the 1st edition.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent follow-up to the book that started a phenomenon
Review: Eagerly awaited by so many, Stitch N Bitch Nation is a wonderful addition to any knitter's library.

More fun and funky patterns and lots of great information, many of the knitting books I own, don't seem to cover.

It was also great to see and read about the SnB groups across the nation.
I love that knitters are everywhere, KIP-ing and ripping together in coffee shops, buses, subways, bars and anywhere our needles will take us.

If you don't have the first book, buy both. It's a great deal!

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for its intended audience
Review: I borrowed this one from the library so I could see the newsboy cap. There were some other cute patterns, including fuzzy monster slippers, alligator mittens, bonnets with ears, and a basic sweater with flames on the sleeves. Of course, you will find ponchos, legwarmers, wristwarmers, cell phone covers, and scarves as well.
There is also plenty of basic knitting information and lots of helpful tips. Everything is written in a clear, fun style, and the pictures are snazzy.
Experienced knitters probably don't need this book. Most patterns are slight variations on basic shapes. The information about knitting is excellent, but if you own any basic knitting books, you already have it.
However, if you do not have a basic knitting book, if you find them hard to read, if you want a fun gift for a teen knitter -- this could be a very good choice.

Rating:
Summary: Great patterns
Review: I love this book and think it is perfect for the "not-so-new", but still learning knitter. This book is not intended to be a how-to manual as the first book covers that extremely well (I taught myself solely through the book), but has a good review section in the back. I just wish there was a better explaination on how to do intarsia, but even that doesn't bother me too much since the patterns are all awesome!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, Hip book, but it has its problems.
Review: I recieved this book as a birthday gift less than a month ago. I've been knitting for a couple years, but I'm self-taught and usually just make things up myself rather than following a pattern. But I decided this year I would take some classes and start trying to be a more technically proficient knitter.

First let me say what I like about the book:

-Good selection of fun, interesting patterns.
-Nice photos and page layouts.
-Enough non-clothing patterns to keep me interested. (I hate wearing sweaters and have no interest in knitting them, thankyouverymuch!)

But I have some definate gripes about this book, and here they are:

-The patterns I have tried are not written very clearly, or explained well. Now, if I alone had trouble with them, I'd be more forgiving, because I don't have much experience with pattern reading. But at the class I'm taking, the teacher has been stumped several times and had to figure things out by trial and error. And my instructor is a knitting goddess, she *knows* what she is doing! So the fact that she in confused by these patterns tells me something is wrong here. Things could be explained a LOT better, but it seemed like it was more important to keep the page count down.

-There are a LOT of errors in this book. As I read reviews and look at messages boards discussing knitting, it seems like it's just a given that most of the books out there will have a lot of errata that need to be corrected by finding the book's website and downloading corrections. It's not just this book, and I find the trend alarming and I think better editing needs to be done in all these books. I mean comeon people, test these patterns out before you publish them! I had a dreadful time with the "hurry up spring" armwarmers until I discovered there were errors in the pattern. I can't believe how many errors slipped through the cracks. I suggest going to the knithappens.com website and printing up ALL the corrections and tucking them into your book before you start anything. It will save you a LOT of grief, trust me.

-Like I said, I've had this book for less than a month, and I am very *gentle* on books, most of mine look brand new. But this book is already falling apart. The spine has cracked and a big chunk of the book has detached from the spine, so I expect that any day now the pages will all start falling out. What is up with that? I have NEVER had a paperback book do that, and I'm not being rough with this book or folding the pages back or anything. In fact, I've been making copies of the pages and working off of copies most of the time because it's easier to keep a piece of paper with me than to lug around a book to class. So I really don't understand why it's falling apart already.

As a side note, I don't have the first SnB book, but I did thumb through it quite a bit at the bookstore the other evening and there are my impressions: It's a lot more heavy on instruction, probably one of the best books I've seen as far as instruction, but I didn't read any individual how-to excerpts so I'm not sure how well things are explained. The pages feel like recycled paper and there is a noticeable lack of quality color photos showing the projects, which really disappointed me. It also seems like there's a lot less patterns than SnB Nation, and the patterns seem less interesting. I just thought I would note this since it seems like a lot of the reviews say the first book is better.

Finally, one pleasant surprise was discovering that the author and oftentimes, the original designers of the SnB Nation patterns, read and respond to posts on the SnB website (knithappens.com). If you have a question about a poorly explained direction in a pattern, you can often get an answer fairly quickly from the pattern's creator or from Debbie herself. That's really cool. I just hope in future books things are a little easier to figure out on your own!


Rating:
Summary: errors, but very cute
Review: I'm knitting my first sweater, "jesse's flames" from this book and found a "duh" mistake in the pattern. I assume that when she says to change to the main color, she really means contrasing color 2, to match the stripe in front with that in back.
There are more mistakes, like in the razor's edge poncho lace pattern, which was completely rewritten. There were some problems with her first books, but mostly stuff that can be worked out with a change of a word or two, but most of the corrections in this book are long. fix the errors, and you have a five star book. And check out her website before starting in on any of that patterns.

Rating:
Summary: cool but not essential
Review: if you are a beginning knitter get the first book. it's fantastic! there are a few really great patterns in here (ear warmers, leg warmers, cute cabled hat, loopy pillow) but there are also a lot that i will never ever make. given the fact that quite a few patterns, while interesting, aren't very "me", the tips and hints are what makes this worth it i think. readers sent in their own discoveries (using old nylons to hold a yarn ball together, etc.) that are fun and useful.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first, but...
Review: SnB Nation is another look at the fun and funky patterns that are very popular in the rediscovered world of knitting. The inclusion of patterns from all over the world make this book a well-rounded idea source, while keeping the patterns simple and interesting enough for most new to intermediate knitters. I picked up this book mainly because I was in one of the photos, though.

Pros:
- Lots of patterns. Lots and lots of patterns.
- Interesting stories and tips from knitters all over the world.

Cons:
- No cohesion or balance to the types of patterns. It's a mish-mash.
- Too much filler.

On the whole, I would recommend this as an inclusion to your knitting library, but don't expect it to be the Ivory Tower that holds all your answers.

Rating:
Summary: Many projects, some will do for me.....
Review: STITCH AND BITCH NATION is a great complement to Debbie Stoller's earlier book STITCH N' BITCH. In the more recent SBN Stoller offers many more `baby' projects, some practical, some pure whimsey. I particularly like the child's `bunny' hat and the dog jacket, but don't think I'll ever take the time to knit my friend's cat something to destroy. SBN shows you how to make everything from beaded cuffs displaying Jolly Roger, for the punk in your life, to a tea cozy or two. I have been looking for a good tea cozy pattern and this one looks promising. I can add or omit the `Coffee, Tea, or Me' from the side.

I don't like knitted or crochet bags because they..well..bag. Nothing like finishing the evening dragging your bag on the ground. SBN includes a half dozen variants of this item. The `Totally Tubular Miniskirt/boob Tube' is far more appealing than you would think from it's name. Remember when those boob tubes were all the rage a few years ago? Can you believe you ever wore one? The item pictured in SBN can be made larger and used over your shoulders like a continuous shawl (no, the model does not appear to be hog-tied).

There are no scarves as such but a shawl or two, and a sweater knitted in blue-red-white to form the Union Jack for those feeling nostalgic for the `Old Country'. As I said earlier, I particularly like the knitted bunny baby cap and the hats for adults too. I could do without some of the other items, but who knows, maybe they will make funky gifts.