etc.

Stitch n’ Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook, Debbie Stoller
Published October 2003

I have limited knitting experience and a bit more book experience, but I think it’s justifiable for me to say that this book is a veritable bestseller as far as craft books go. Debbie Stoller is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bust, so her take on what it means to be a rabid knitter and a feminist, outlined in the first chapter of the book, is interesting and compelling, and gives hope to the rest of us knitters and feminists. I say “us knitters” with a sheepish chuckle because while I first learnt to knit when I was a teenager, I’ve only just become a committed knitter so using the “us” in this context feels a little disingenuous. Still, I’m going to use it and get used to it because, thanks in large part to this book, I’m hooked (terrible pun, sorry).

The book is split into two equal-ish parts: all the basics and how-tos up front and funky patterns in the second half. Again, my experience with knitting is nascent at best, and this is the first book on the topic that I’ve read cover-to-cover, but some of the things I really appreciated in the first half of the book: the instructions and handy illustrations of things like how to hold the needles, how to distinguish a knit from a purl stitch, how to weave in yarn ends, and other such helpful tidbits that the experienced knitter wouldn’t need and perhaps wouldn’t think to point out. Oh and, did I mention that it’s all smart and humourous? And that after waiting months and months for a copy off the hold list at my local library, I went out and bought my own copy a mere handful of days after I’d already fawned breathlessly over the library’s copy? Yep, it’s that good.