Customer Reviews

Hollywood Knits Style

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Suss's first book Hollywood Knits had some of the best designs I'd ever seen, this new book is no different. great patterns that seem very modern and arty and now she added recipes and knitting group ideas. Obviously she is inspired by the stitch n bitch craze and melanie falick's excellent book "weekend knitting". my favorite patterns are the bags, the sweater with the clever zippers, the blankets and the cute dachshund sweaters. However,

This book suffers from the same problems as before, there is a lot of name dropping, which I didn't mind and even enjoy but many others were annoyed with. She is still knitting things flat instead of in the round which may frustrate experienced knitters. Her sizes are still tiny even for the dogs. She almost always uses her own yarn line and accessories which you can only get from her store and this time does not offer alternatives.


I gave this 4 stars because I love the designs and that is the only reason I buy her books. Her use of color and clever shapes is very original and I can always incorporate her ideas into my knitting

I would not recomment this book to beginners because of the frequency of mistakes. I'm an experienced knitter, and had a hard time with some of the patterns. For instance, the cast on and number of stitches weren't even mentioned in one of her hat patterns. I eventually figured it out by counting the stitches that were in the rounds.

Suss Counsins...Knitter to the Stars! Please. This book looks all shiny, pretty, and hip. Upon closer inspection, the patterns are a bunk. I've tried to make several items in this book, and just about every pattern has a correction to it. To find the corrections for the pattern one must visit Suss Cousins's website. I find this frustrating, because I was expecting a level of quality that wasn't there. I will, however, grudgingly admit that the book does make knitting seem glamourous with photography. In the end, save your money, and check this book out of your local library.

I agree with the reviewer who said that anyone who thinks a 32 inch bust is a Large has been in Hollywood too long.

I bought this book after flipping through it quickly at the bookstore. I liked the designs. Some are quite cute, for example: the bamboo-handled purse, the heart-shaped pillow, and the fuzzy baby booties.
I'm now kicking myself. I should've read some of the patterns more carefully. A skirt that I thought I could make for myself goes up to a size Large - a whopping 33 inches (and remember - that's the size of the FO, not the person wearing it)! GET REAL, SUSS!

Don't make the same mistake as I did. Take a pass on this one.

I bought this book and dutifully knitted away my first poncho. Praising this book to all my fellow knitters. I decided to start on my next project but needing a couple of supplies I refered to www.sussdesign.com only to find FOUR pages of errors regarding the printing of the book. I am half way through another Suss project and come to find out there was a little misprint. She left out a major detail. You will find that you need to print out the additional information and use it along with the book if you intend on knitting any successful project from this book. The designs are great- just make sure to keep the cheat sheet with you at all times!

Suss is a knitwear designer from Sweden who now lives in LA and runs a shop in Hollywood. I have been to the shop, and it was nice, but not a welcoming atmosphere with very little assistance. That basically describes this book: extremely unhelpful.

For one, she uses many over simplified designs, which is aggrevating especially since a lot of her knitwear that she sells is more complex. Like many other knitters have said, she uses a lot of flat knitting, which can require bulky seaming. Furthermore, if you look at her designs she sells, she has a lot more unique ponchos and stuff. When I bounght this book I expected some neat ponchos, but only found one.

AND THE WORST PART IS THE ERRORS. BEWARE!!!!!!!!!! On her website is about 3 pages of errors in the book. This is appaling since most knitting magazines that release 4 issues a year have less errors. Extremely unprofessional.

Overall, nice designs, which is why I didn't give it 1 star. However, the frustration with knitting with this book far outweighs the nice designs. I am also very dissapointed that she did not make improvements from the first book. This is a fun book for experienced and higher level knitters (especially if bought used), but NOT for beginners.

I have mixed feelings about this purchase. Some of the designs are very cute and look like they will be fun to complete; however, most of the patterns look identical to ones in knitting books I already own. In other words, not a lot of new material here. The sizing of the patterns is also disappointing. Many of the knitwear designs look like they would be well-suited to larger figures, but the sizing of the patterns does not allow for this.

I checked this book out from my local library and began to flip through it. By the time I got to the front door, I realized that I did not even want to take it home. The name-dropping of celebrities is annoying enough, but anyone who thinks that a woman with a 32-inch bust is "large" has been in Hollywood way too long. None of the patterns is unique enough to put up with all the alterations needed to fit a normal person.

This book suffers from the same irritating weaknesses as the first book-- self-involvement of the author, the directions are frequently unclear, the sizing unrealistic and the name dropping PATHOLOGICAL. On an anecdotal level, I have been to Suss Cousins's store in L.A. twice and found her to be rude, dismissive and unpleasant--apparently she saves her friendly demeanor for her fabulous celebrity customers. I wonder how THEY feel about her advertising her connection with them in order to increase her own sales...

Overall, This is the wost knitting book I own. That's not to say it's awful, but there are FAR better.

The patterns are adorable! A lovely afghan, heart-shaped pillow, and an excellent sweater jacket are highlights (at least for me.)

The issue is the patters have problems. A LOT of errors. Check her errata page big time here, and just keep your eyes peeled for things that just don't look right.

...It's also more of a coffee-table book, with a lot of extra nothing

I find many of the styles pretty bland and even for the simplest designs, there were errors. I feel embarrassed that this was the first knitting book I purchased when I was starting out. I remember I used to look up her website to order some yarn that was called for in her book but am very glad I didn't. I've visited her store once but didn't have any unpleasant experience. One of her assistance there was really sweet and I think she modeled one of the shrugs that were online exclusive. Other than that, I've touched some of her in-house yarn that they had and they weren't exactly the softest I've felt. Again, none of the designs are very innovative and if you're an intermediate and above knitter, it's just easier to eyeball it and make it up on your own. Glad I gave up my copy.