Customer Reviews

The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with more than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I only gave this book four stars strictly because of the lack of instructions. This book does great explaining the purl and knit stitches and basic methods. But beyond that you're not going to find much. It does include fabulous and beautiful projects that doesn't look like something your grandmother would wear (the whole reason I bought it). I would have liked more tips on troubleshooting and solving common knitting problems. But this book does do a good job explaining the basics. If you want to go beyond the basics and maybe venture into fair isle knitting, get another book.

I absolutely love this book! It covers some the basics; for example they'll show you how to do a garter stitch and the patterns after are garter stitch only. Then they'll show you how to purl, and the patterns after incorporate purling, adding onto the regular knit stitch.

Of course, if you're more advanced at knitting then this book probably isn't for you, but I, as a beginner, absolutely love it! The patterns are pretty neat too (I have yet to finish or start one).

I taught myself how to knit with this book. However, I found their diagrams somewhat hard to follow and had to supplement the instruction with other knitting books. I found the Stitch n' Bitch Knitters Handbook to have better, more complete beginner instructions and diagrams.

The patterns are very cute, though, which is why I selected this book for beginning my knitting habit. I've made three items so far, including the men's sweater, and have found the patterns fairly easy to follow. They are nicely broken down and they don't jump into the terminology too quickly.

The main reason I gave the book 3 stars is because although the patterns are cute, particularly the women's garments, they are made with very expensive yarns that are not easily substituted without sacrificing the style which makes them cute. For example, they use mohair for two sweaters, which really should not be substituted for another yarn. Mohair is also hard for a beginner to work with, but they don't discuss at all the difficulties of working with it. They also use very expensive handspun, hand-dyed yarns for some sweaters. The sweaters are very nice, but would not be cute without the unique look of the handspun and hand-dyed yarn. A cheaper, bulky wool could be substituted, but I don't think it would be worth making because the patterns by themselves are very basic and the finished product would be rather boring.

Awesome book! I am a first time knitter...never even touched a knitting needle before and this book had me knitting in one afternoon!

I love the projects in this book but the instructions for two out of three projects that I've done so far have been either confusing or missing important information. One of the washcloth instructions tells you to cast on 50 stitches for a 4x4 basket weave-- do the math-- it doesn't work! Another one lists the size options as "large" or "x-large" but the pattern gives options for small or large-- what did I miss here?? It also tells you to put your yarn onto double needles twice and the finished product does not look like the picture. The first part of the book does do a nice job of explaining basic knitting but the patterns could be a bit confusing and if you don't know what you're doing to adapt you could end up ripping things out and wondering what you did wrong.

GUIDE TO KNITTING is a guide for beginning knitters, covering all the basic terminology, instructions and providing guides to basic patterns through thirty simple, contemporary fashion projects. Diagrams, assembly instructions and more make for a compelling read.

I found this book hard to follow the diagrams. As far as casting on, I had a friend show me a way that worked for me. The book only shows one way while stating that there are many ways. Would not recommend for a beginner. It almost squashed my desire to learn knitting. I am an avid crochet fan and have been so for over 30 years.

I have been knitting for about a year and a half and considered myself to be solely a hat and scarf knitter until now. I got this book out of the library and had to break down and buy it since I immediately bought enough yarn to do half the projects in the book, and fell in love with the style. I found the instruction to be easy to follow, and the projects are beautiful and up-to-date as well as being easy to create and things you actually WANT to wear. LOVE it!

This book is awesome! It's just what I was looking for. I'm a beginner and I've had a hard time finding a book with patterns that are easy enough for me to make, but also cool enough that I would actually want to wear what I've made. It's methodical and takes you step by step building new skills with each project. It's a great way to learn.

It is hard to find a knitting book that actually has cool ideas in it that don't look so handmade or out of fashion. This book definately represents a new generation of knitting. It takes you through the easiest project to the harder ones, so you just do the projects in order to learn how to knit more advanced styles. Easy to follow, but the only draw back is they could have more directions on each project and more illustrations of where your needles will be for each new stitch.