Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics, Debbie Stoller (365 Books, Day 187)

[rushthatspeaks]

So why am I reading an advanced knitting book when I have done, ever, two knitting projects?

Because as far as I can tell the key to knitting is not to be afraid of it. My first knitting project was relatively simple: a scarf. (For those of you who care: Noro Silk Garden, garter stitch rib.)

But my second knitting project was this shawl, in a different colorway, yarn weight, and needle size than specified in the pattern. It has nupps. It has beads. It had a provisional cast-on which wanted a crochet hook and the only previous time in my life I'd picked up a crochet hook I had come damn close to needing stitches, and had left permanent scars on the psyches of the people around me because they could not figure out how I could do that much damage to myself with a really large blunt plastic thing without sharp edges.

The shawl came out beautifully.

And the way I went from k2, p2 and repeat to that shawl is the reason I recommend the sort of knitting book that Debbie Stoller has provided here.

I looked everything up, when I got to it in the shawl pattern, which is what I suggest, looking up everything. Everything. Provisional cast-on? Look it up. If it still doesn't make sense, look it up somewhere else. If you have to take it one loop of yarn at a time to make it make sense, fine. If you need to put a marker in every single stitch, cool. If you have to sit down with graph paper and convince yourself about the topology, go for it. I did all that. I cast the thing on nineteen times. The twentieth was right. I forgot the abbreviations in the pattern over and over and over. That's why the pattern's on a sheet of paper, so I just kept looking it up. Doing this works. It will never be quick but it works.

I am not talented, per se, at knitting. I am stubborn and I refuse to be afraid. That is what this book is for: it is a collection, in the same place, of a great many advanced techniques of the sort that you might want to look up. It's not a book on any specific mode of advanced knitting, so it isn't absolutely comprehensive on lace, it isn't absolutely comprehensive on intarsia, it isn't definitive on how to knit with beads. But it has a bunch of useful things about each of them, and about several other things you might want, including, and this is important, how to design your own projects.

It assumes basic knitting knowledge; if you don't know whether you knit Continental or English, this is probably not your book right now, but that's about the level you need. It's pretty dry, because it basically is a list of techniques-- this is not one of those knitting books à la Elizabeth Zimmermann or Stephanie Pearl McPhee which one can hand cheerfully to people who don't knit. It could have more diagrams, and if you don't understand an explanation when you're sitting there with yarn in hand trying to follow along you will of course need to look things up elsewhere as well. And it has a section of projects at the back, which are as variable as all multi-author knitting project collections and which mostly don't appeal to me at all, but, you know, if you like it go for it and they seem like fine examples of how to do the things in the book.

So this is not a literary experience, but it would have saved me so much internet time during that shawl, and I am considering getting a copy to scribble all over so that it can save me that internet time again during the next thing.

Because inexplicably the internet has failed to yield me a pattern for the bathrobe I need to make for B.-- nothing says 'I appreciate you' like the Master's robe from Manos: The Hands of Fate, right? So clearly I will have to design it myself. I am pretty sure I can adapt some of the arithmetic in here into doing that. The key thing is not to let myself be frightened, because arithmetic is scary. But my cause is noble, so I'll let you know how it goes.

So many thanks to khyros for pointing me at the Aeolian shawl pattern. It was just what I wanted.

Yes, this book review is basically me bragging about my knitting. Sometimes these things work out that way?

Comments

[green_knight]

That shawl is beautiful indeed. I am full of admiration for casting on until you got it _right_.

[rushthatspeaks]

Thank you!

[vehemently]

Knitting for me requires an element of faith: I struggle to imagine the 3-D results of what I'm doing till they happen. I just have to do it, and get to the end, and then I know what the recipe meant by having me do what I did. After that I can work on analogy and memory, but the first time I did a turn in a sock, I was like, "This is the stupidest idea in the world. How on earth will this make a sock??"

Short version: internet video tutorials are the best thing that ever happened to my knitting. I keep a supplemental book myself -- I transcribe successful recipes, with annotations, and then I tape labels from yarns I liked into the back -- but for techniques, I always rely on video.

[rushthatspeaks]

Ooh, that supplemental book is a great idea. I'm a kinesthetic learner, so I actually have an easier time figuring out the results by poking at it, but I should try video more as being shown things from different angles might be helpful.

[hobbitbabe]

That shawl is both beautiful and impressive. And that style of learning and problem-solving works great for knitting, for people who don't panic, because it's not time-critical. You can put it down while you look it up. And if you're careful enough, you can almost always sort stuff out without wrecking the part you already have done. I've done a lot of knitting, but I've only recently started trying new/scary things, and it's kind of a revelation to me how well I can do at just looking stuff up as I go.

[rushthatspeaks]

Thank you!

One thing I love about knitting is that honestly, if you don't self-impose deadlines, you can just go at your own pace. Very freeing.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

The shawl is exquisite. You went straight from "Twinkle twinkle little star" to "Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves."

Nine

[sorenlundi.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've been knitting for years and that shawl's in my 'someday when I aquire some patience' file. I think my problem is that I'm not a pattern follower. It's much easier for me to just make the shape I need than keep track of stitch counts, and even when I do lace I mostly go by what the preceeding rows look like.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

One of the actually awesome things about not knowing that much about knitting yet is that I have the patience for patterns because without following them I don't know how to make the shapes yet. I expect to have a lot less patience when I've got some more technique under my belt.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

You knit *that* as your second project?

*picks jaw up off floor, is not worthy*

Seriously, that's amazing.

I have this book and the original Stitch and Bitch, and have found them the most useful knitting books I've owned so far. I am a bit of a visual learner, so I combine this with online video tutorials of certain techniques. I'm trying to knit a shawl right now that has me tearing my hair out, but now I'm inspired to go back and tackle it with much determination. And no fear. :)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I am *not* a visual learner, I'm a kinesthetic one, but the Stitch and Bitch book still work pretty well for that.

Have good shawl-- I am sure it will come right eventually, and there is nothing like the moment when it does.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am not convinced that knitting is a reasonable tool for making that robe, myself, but I will watch with boggled glee as you accomplish amazing things again.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

It will be intarsia. I may felt it! There will be a hidden zipper so it can be an actual bathrobe.

People knit afghans, there's less fabric in this (is what I am telling myself).

[mobiuswolf.livejournal.com]

Oooh, a Stitch'n'Bitch book I haven't read yet. That robe looks rather like a large blanket with a spot left open for the head, so possibly not too complicated beyond the sheer size of the project? This could of course be a trick of the image resolution on my phone, so ymmv :3

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

It pretty much is a blanket with a spot left open, so it will avoid a lot of the things that one has to think about in designing something with sleeves. But I want it to have a hidden zipper so it can be a useful bathrobe, and that may be something of a circus.

A new Stitch and Bitch book is always grounds for happiness.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

That robe... needs to be. You are called upon to make that robe. Wow. So simple, yet so elegant; and it teems with hidden meaning.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I know, right? B. has promised that when I finish it he will put on an intentionally terrible fake beard and swan around at cons with it being Eeeeevil.

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

they could not figure out how I could do that much damage to myself with a really large blunt plastic thing without sharp edges

As the person who handed you that crochet hook, I still can't figure it out, and I was there watching when it happened.

I'm glad knitting has been better for you. It looks, wow, like it's been, wow, much better for you, wow.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I was there too, and I have never been clear on the entire incident. Like that time with my crutches and the Denbigh stoop and the chipmunk. No idea.

Thank you! Knitting appears to have taken for me, somehow.