Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting and Crocheting Illustrated, 2ndEdition (The Complete Idiot's Guide) [Mass Market Paperback]

Barbara Breiter (Author), Gail Diven (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide | Publication Date: October 7, 2003

Now with hundreds of illustrations!

Updated and completely revised, this guide has been a bestseller ever since its first publication. Plus, it's the only book to include knitting and crocheting, with both comprehensive instructions and exciting patterns.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gail Diven is a freelance needle arts designer specializing in knitting, crochet, and fabric designs. She is the former knitting editor for Vogue Butterick Co.

Barbara Breiter is the knitting guide at about.com and the owner of Knit a Bit, the only website offering downloadable patterns for sale. She also crochets and does needlepoint.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 2nd Revision edition (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592570895
• ISBN-13: 978-1592570898
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth buying., January 24, 2004

By 

Mindy (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting and Crocheting Illustrated, 2ndEdition (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Mass Market Paperback)

I purchased this book when I decided to learn how to knit. I already knew some basics in crochet so I thought it would be nice to have a reference for both.I was sadly mistaken and now regret spending money on this guide.

I suppose I should have known better. Crocheting and knitting are such multi-faceted and versatile crafts that there is no way one book under 300 pages can address BOTH adequately. I found the book frustrating because it would spend many pages talking about things that were quite easy. (like yarn and the different types.) But when it actually comes to the stitches, I thought it did a poor job. Especially explaining the Purl stitch. With the description and the illustration, it was hard to actually see what they are trying to do.

I breifly glanced at the crochet section but realized that even with my rather sparse knowledge of crochet, I knew almost everything that the book had to offer. (Which was not much.)

If you do want to geta good guide for knitting, I suggest the Dummies Guide to Knitting. If you want a good guide to crocheting, I suggest Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia for crochet. They cost more, but are well worth it. If you are still set on getting this guide, I suggest you get it from the library first or at least browse through the pages at your local book store before you take the plunge.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful book, but could be more detailed, February 28, 2005

By 

Sonja Kueppers (Takoma Park, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting and Crocheting Illustrated, 2ndEdition (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to knit, and I did succeed in learning the basics from it. I really like that the book covers both the Continental and English styles of knitting, and found the illustrations to be helpful and clear. It covers a wide range of subjects, so whether you want to know how to make the basic knit stitch or how to block your finished work, the information you need is probably included.

However, I think this book would be greatly improved if it contained more detailed information. For example, I'm not sure it's possible to cover Intarsia knitting adequately in 3/4 of a page. While I did understand the idea after reading about it in this book, some additional illustrations would have been helpful, along with additional tips and tricks. There's also an entire chapter on fixing common knitting mistakes, which never mentions that it's possible to correct a stitch that was incorrectly knitted when it should have been purled, or vice versa, without ripping out rows back to the error.

In summary, while I did find this book helpful in learning how to knit, I suspect there are probably other books available that would provide more details to the novice knitter, thus reducing the amount of trial and error in the learning process.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars KEEP LOOKING THERE ARE BETTER BOOKS!, March 30, 2005

By 

$implicity (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting and Crocheting Illustrated, 2ndEdition (The Complete Idiot's Guide) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is okay but if you are looking for a good how to knit or reference book I highly recommend: The Knitters's Companion or Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Reference