Not Your Mama's Knitting: The Cool and Creative Way to Pick Up Sticks (Not Your Mama's Craft Books) [Paperback]

Heather Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Not Your Mama's Craft Books | Publication Date: September 19, 2006

This is knitting with attitude. Choose from nearly thirty designs, follow the simple directions, and knit fun, trendy items to dress yourself, your friends, your home, a baby, or even a pet. This guide covers must-know techniques, tools of the trade, customizing designs, and more. Get clicking and express yourself with hip, hyper-chic designs any fashionista would covet.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This is knitting with attitude—your attitude. We hit the basics, bypass the boring stuff, forego the granny cardigans of old, and show you how to knit cool creations that will be the envy of all. Choose one of nearly thirty designs, follow the simple directions, and knit fun, trendy items to dress yourself, your friends, your apartment, a baby, or even a pet or two. If following directions isn't in your nature, use the hints provided to make the piece entirely unique.

Get clicking with:

• Must-know techniques, including basic knits and purls, cables and bobbles, multicolor knitting, and more
• Info on needles, yarn varieties, and tools of the trade
• Suggestions for customizing every design and personalizing every project so that they're truly yours
• Quick references that explain Greek-looking knitting abbreviations and let you inventory your needle stash

Don't follow the crowd. Crack open Not Your Mama's Knitting and learn how to express yourself with hip, hyper-chic designs any fashionista would covet.

About the Author

Heather Dixon taught herself to knit at the age of six and never looked back. She studied knitwear design in Nottingham, England, and has had several of her pieces featured in the British press. After working as a freelance designer in Italy, she moved to New York City to become the designer of RELAiS Knitware, a line of contemporary ladies’ sweaters. In her spare time, Heather designs a line of accessories, the patterns for which can be bought from her website, www.armyofknitters.com. She teaches a weekly knit clinic, is a regular at the Tuesday evening meetings of the New York Stitch ’n Bitch, and has patterns featured in Stitch ’n Bitch Nation, The Happy Hooker, Inknitters magazine, and the online magazine Knitty.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471973823
• ISBN-13: 978-0471973829
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Informative Book and an Enjoyable Read, September 28, 2006

By 

bridgettemsu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Your Mama's Knitting: The Cool and Creative Way to Pick Up Sticks (Not Your Mama's Craft Books) (Paperback)

I just purchased this book for my knitting book collection as it seems you can never have enough books on knitting! I would compare it with Stitch N Bitch as it is a good way for a beginner to learn how to knit and the wit in it is really funny.

Although I am more of an intermediate knitter, I still love the patterns and really picked up some good tricks in this book. I love that she mentions the magic loop method and actually describes how to do it (which is lacking in a lot of books that mention magic loop). The patterns are gorgeous and somewhat funky I would say, and some of the stitches that are explained are really well written out and understandable.

It really is a good read as I just sat down and read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is learning to knit. But I would also recommend it for the more experienced knitter for the patterns, techniques and also just the plain wit and joy of a good knitting book.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly self-inclusive., January 3, 2007

By 

Meghan "the Riling" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Your Mama's Knitting: The Cool and Creative Way to Pick Up Sticks (Not Your Mama's Craft Books) (Paperback)

I've been knitting scarves with the garter stitch and stockinette stitch for awhile, so although I'm comfortable with needles in my hands, I don't know too many tricks. I was excited to see the different stitches and lace patterns in the book, but it took more time to work them out than I think it should have because the abbreviations ('yf' 'yo') are not quite explained in the same way in which they are to be used. Also, some abbreviations aren't explained at all. As someone who hasn't encountered stitch patterns before, I found this pretty confusing. Also, I found some errors, most notedly in the instructions to make a six-stitch cable (in case anyone wants to know, the instructions for row four should actually be used for row FIVE; for row four, simply repeat row two). Basically, it has some cool stuff, but if you're pretty new to knitting, make sure you have somebody more advanced around to help you out when the instructions hit a snag. Also, they should have probably hired a proof-reader.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of useful knitting tips & tricks!, December 5, 2006

By 

libris maximus (new york city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Your Mama's Knitting: The Cool and Creative Way to Pick Up Sticks (Not Your Mama's Craft Books) (Paperback)

If you look past the goofily-styled photos, there's a lot of useful information here that goes beyond the usual beginners' books. Besides the how-to basics, the author covers both English & Continental methods of knitting, how to make your own knitting needles, the basics of techniques like Magic Loop, the "jogless jog" for stripes, and tricks like how to know if you have enough yarn to finish a row. There are also a couple of crochet basics which are useful to know (and instructions for a simple crochet flower, a nice extra). Each pattern concludes with ideas for adapting or personalizing that particular design, which is also helpful.