Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Companion Book
Review: As many have said before, this book is NOT a how to guide to teach you how to knit. I recommend Stitch 'n Bitch for that.
This book is an excellent *companion* book however, and I know since I bought it along with Stitch 'n Bitch, the two of them being my first ever knitting books as I taught myself this wonderful craft.
Hip To Knit has great beginner projects, starting you out with a scarf, and working your way through various hats, bags, a pair of socks, and then into sweaters. Though the sweaters aren't all that enticing as far as glamour goes, they do look comfortable and easy to make. I especially like the long sweater coat.
I am currently 2/3 of the way through the "Most Basic Hat", which was EXACTLY the kind of hat pattern I was looking for. Simple, basic, and with a nice decorative twist (swirling decreases at the crown). I'm using a slightly eyelashy yarn imported from Spain, so I wanted the yarn to shine through instead of a fancy pattern. The instructions are VERY simple, the tips and tricks useful and well written.
This book will not please every palette, but it does have at least a handful of patterns I'd like to try, including two more I have already bought the yarn for. I'll keep both Sitch 'n Bitch and Hip To Knit in my craft tote for a long, long time. They're my new "girls' best friend"!
Rating:
Summary: Great beginner projects
Review: Easy projects but not all boring. You know the new knitters curse: row after row after row of stockinette stitch. You can find it, but there are a variety of items, and stitches to try; all clearly explained via drawings and direction.Swartz does a nice job choosing yarns that pique your interest and shows swatches of different yarns for the same project. Particularly nice is the sock pattern. It is easy to do,and has clear directions for something that often make new knitters nervous. The roll neck cardigan is very stylish, as is the ribbon-yarn funnel neck sweater. You get several sweater projects, including a boyfriend sweater, a couple pair of mittens, socks, scarves, hats, and a large "coat". The book is layed out in two sections with simpler projects first in each section. Swartz will teach you circular knitting on circular needles, and double points. You'll learn cables, how to read a cable pattern, Kitchener stitch for seaming, and a variety of other techniques to make your knitting lovely. I'd strongly recommend using it in conjunction with a "knitting bible" style publication (I like kathrine buss' Big Book of Knitting). Swartz occasionally assumes you know how to properly decrease for necklines etc. A reference would help out a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific instructions on sock knitting!
Review: I am a self-taught intermediate knitter as well as a leftie with ten thumbs. I have been trying without success to knit a pair of socks but could never seem to find a set of instructions that explained in very basic steps how to do it! And believe me, I have scoured through many knitting books and even purchased a sock-knitting video (but every time I put it in the VCR I went to sleep!)
This book has a WONDERFUL set of very well-written and easy-to-understand instructions for knitting a basic, no frills sock and I am happy to say that I have finally been able to get the hang of it. Granted, I have to agree with several other reviewers here that this is really not a book for those who know nothing about knitting. That's not to say that it doesn't have patterns that beginners could certainly make, but you will probably need a more detailed knitting manual as a companion to guide you through some of the knitting terms.
Overall, the book is very colorful and has some nice patterns but I am giving it five stars primarily for the sock instructions. Those alone are well worth the price of this book for me!
Rating: 
Summary: Not as great as it could be
Review: I bought the book in a store for instant gratification and I wish I had waited. The basic kniting instructions are spread randomly throughout the book with only occasional references during patterns. The patterns are not easy to follow and I'm glad I had a couple of other books to cross reference. I did make my first sock and mitten, but now need a better book for both. I don't dare try any of the clothing after reading the jumbled patterns. If you are a beginner, I would hold off on this book. If you are more skilled, maybe checking it out of the library first would be a better idea.
Rating:
Summary: Instructions not user-friendly. Not for real beginners.
Review: I bought this book because I liked the projects pictured in it. I've been knitting for a couple of years, but mostly I've made socks, and I was going to use this to branch into making hats and sweaters. It seems to me that the patterns themselves took a distant second place to making the layout and design of the book "hip" looking. All the patterns are lumped together in paragraphs instead of stepped out into easily discerned rows. There seems to be plenty of room for pictures, white space, and whimsical design, but I bought the book for the patterns, and they're hard to read. In order to make the instructions clear, I have had to take the paragraphs the patterns are lumped into and turn them into steps that make sense and actually have a beginning and an end. For a more advanced knitter, this might not be a problem, but when I'm doing something new to me I like the instructions to be clear and stepped out. (I write documentation for a living, so this may be a personal quibble.) I also think that the designer makes assumptions that the knitter using the book can read between the lines and fix things or understand things that are not expressly stated in the pattern. In my case, at least, that led to having to rip back several hours worth of work because I did exactly what the pattern said without reading between the lines to something it should have said. I still want to make the things in the book, and I'm going to keep trying and working with it, so I'll give it three stars. I don't hate it. I would just warn anyone who is a very beginning knitter not to approach this book without the help of an experienced knitter to make the unwritten instructions clear.
Rating:
Summary: Great Project Book, But NOT a How-to Book
Review: I just got this book a few days ago, and I love it. It has so many mouth-watering projects; I can't wait to try them all. Knitters will find gorgeous things to knit for themselves and great gift ideas for friends and family. I do have to echo, however, what many others here have said -- this is not the book to buy if you are starting out from square one and don't know how to knit at all. You really need a more basic, how-to book. The author of "Hip to Knit" does include some basic information, but she puts in certain information while, curiously, leaving other useful tips out. I, for example, am in the middle of knitting the "seed stitch scarf", the second project in the book. I started and unraveled the darned thing three times; it became a horrible, tangled mess each time, even though I *thought* I was following what seemed like a very simple pattern correctly. It wasn't until I looked in Sally Melville's "The Knitting Experience, Book 2" that I discovered I had to re-position the knitting yarn each time when knitting and purling in the same row. Now this step would be obvious to an experienced knitter, but if you've never done the seed stitch before, you wouldn't know that. It would have been nice if Ms. Swartz had included that little tidbit of information. So, this is a great project book as long as you have a basic instruction book or a more experienced knitting friend backing you up.
Rating: 
Summary: Dorky!
Review: I was given the book as a gift and was eyeing it on amazon thinking it might be good but its pretty lame and I've only had trouble with it. Swartz is trying to sound cool and 'hip' but failing miserably and her lack of detail when it comes to technique and instructions only makes beginner knitters frustrated and angry. The projects are O.K. but they're not great! if you're looking for cool patterns to inspire creativitity and your just starting out go for debbie stollers 'stich n' bitch'. Hip to Knit spends more time trying to sound cool than actually helping and inspiring young knitters.
Rating: 
Summary: Hip to Knit--not so hip
Review: LAME! The projects in this book are awful. The instructions stink, and I don't know any teenager who would want to make, let alone wear, the projects in this book. I would recommend Stitch n' Bitch if you're looking for hip, stylish and young knit designs.
Rating:
Summary: Hip to Knit--not so hip
Review: LAME! The projects in this book are awful. The instructions stink, and I don't know any teenager who would want to make, let alone wear, the projects in this book. I would recommend Stitch n' Bitch if you're looking for hip, stylish and young knit designs.
Rating:
Summary: A great place to start!
Review: This is a great place to start if you have basic knitting skills (can you make a scarf?) and want to bump it up to more complicated patterns. In addition to just being cool-looking, the patterns in the book aren't written in cryptic knitter-code, but written out (VERY WELL) in normal, regular, plain old English. I was scared to death to make a pair of mittens on double-pointed needles, but found the instructions to be so well-written that my first pair came out perfectly... and I don't think I ever had to go back and correct mistakes.They also emphasize the knitter's ability to improvize and make changes based on what he/she wants. They give guidelines for a certain size needles and type of yarn, but there are all sorts of helpful tips for what else might look cool, or how to use something else...All in all, this is a great book for the young and hip knitter... or someone who just wants to be.
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