Customer Reviews

Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker

5 star:		(141)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I am SO impressed with Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet. "The Happy Hooker" book is great. If you are a beginner, there is a comprehensive and very clear intro part with all the stitches very well explained and well illustrated. Nice guide to reading patterns, finishing your projects, blocking, etc. There are DOZENS of patterns, mostly wearables, all with nice photos, the background of the designer, each with a wide range of size adjustments and using a variety of yarns. Deb Stoller has written a very engaging introduction to the book, about her own needle-crafts likes and dislikes, as well as a nice little history of crochet itself, and the different pros and cons of knit vs. crochet. She gives us crocheters some well-deserved props for pursuing and expanding our craft in the face of disrespect from "the other yarn craft" -- the book is great all around. Only thing I would have liked is for it to be spiral-bound. It's a thick, square-ish book and it will be hard to keep it propped open to read the patterns -- you'd probably have to photocopy the pattern pages you are working on (FOR YOUR OWN USE ONLY, OF COURSE!) and work from that; plus so you could write notes or cross off rows as you go.

I got mine from Amazon for $10.85 and I think it is a bargain at that price. It is full of great information and patterns to keep you busy for years! : ) I think it is a great addition to any crocheter's library.

BE WARNED! there are too many mistakes in this book. if u dont believe me, look at the online "corrections and clarifications" page. my advice: dont begin ANY project in this book b4 looking at this corrections page. the ratio of patterns with mistakes to the mistake-free patterns is astonishing. i want to love the author and the book (nice style, great projects, pictures and instructions) but i've never used another book that contains this many errors. insult to injury: the corrections page is hard to read AND CONTAINS ERRORS!!!

Having crocheted for a few years, and having learned to knit from Stitch 'n Bitch Knitting, I was excited to see what Debbie Stoller had to offer the world in the way of crochet. This book has some nice patterns, which is why I went out and purchased it. The instructions are clear and, as with her other books, cute and fun.

However, if you're a lefty looking to learn to crochet, there is NO WAY you could learn to crochet from this book. Don't even try.

The one(!!) sentence of instructions for lefties says it all. On p.27, the instructions tell lefties to either learn to crochet right-handed (which seems like a real cop-out on her part and, frankly, irresponsible) or "reverse everything - and I mean everything - in this book." And that's it. No other instructions, tips, NOTHING. Learning to crochet with your right hand would be equivalent to learning to write with your right hand: not easy and not necessary. There are other books out there that actually show left-handed instructions, diagrams, and tips on how to convert patterns for lefties. This book has none of these.

If you already know how to crochet, this book has some cute patterns (do check for errata on the website) but lefties are on their own. If you're looking to learn crochet AND you are left handed, my recommendation is to look elsewhere and (possibly) come back to this book when you've got way more experience.

I'm an advanced crocheter and I've worked up several of the patterns in this book. While I love the hip designs and great explanations of the various stitches, the errata in the patterns leave me banging my head against the wall and spending lots of money on yarn for projects that have to be re-worked to get the desired end result. Debbie Stoller doesn't post the pattern errata online (maybe because she didn't write the patterns herself? I don't know), so obtaining corrected patterns is not an option. I'm rating this book low on the star scale as the purpose of this book is to successfully work the patterns and be proud with the end result, is not easily acheived with the errors.

This is a fun book; very inspirational. That being said, unless you are an experienced crocheter (or know one), put away your wallet and save yourself the time-- the hours-- you will spend ripping back and puzzling over instructions: VERY POORLY WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS and errors galore. (Sorry, the online Errata don't even begin to cover all the problems.) Deb Stoller, please hire a technical editor and someone to test-crochet the submissions for your next book.

I really liked this book at first. The patterns seemed great and the instructions in the first part of the book seemed clear enough too. I am not a beginning crocheter but once I tried to make the Short N' Sweet Bolero I felt like ripping my hair out. I finally just gave up until I saw the errata today. Perhaps I will try to finish it because it is a very cute pattern. However, I think more consideration to techincal mistakes should be made because it is very discouraging to have to deal with.

There are some great patterns in this book... but SO many of them are wrong, mis-printed, and have errors! Some of the illustrations are wrong too.
There are tons of updates on their website for the "correct" patterns (they call them erratas) - but what a pain to have to cross things out and re-write them. Isn't that the point of buying a pattern book, so that you have an easy reference?
I purchased as a gift for my sister who is learning to crochet. The first half of the book is written for the beginner, with detailed instructions. She was so frustrated, after spending hours on a project, only to find it wasn't working. (it was after investigation I found the erratas)

This book is headed for the recycle bin

I was so excited to get this book--Finally a crochet book with cute patterns. Here's the problem--I am not a beginning crocheter and I had problems understanding some of the directions. On the more complicated patterns, they just are not clear enough. On top of that, there are so many errors that you'd better check the errata page for this book before beginning ANY pattern. When you have pages on other websites dedicated to co-crocheters trying to help one another figure out how to work through a pattern, I'd say you have a problem. Still, several of the patterns are cute. So, if you have a very good handle on crochet and reading patterns--and you have a lot of patience, go for it! If you really are a beginner, go for something that was edited better!

I don't normally crochet other people's basic crochet patterns. I'm a crochet pattern designer and publisher and don't find basic crochet interesting or challenging. Well, I was wrong on at least one point. It was challenging. It's sad to see a book that made it into professional publication, so poorly written. The patterns are impossible to follow. If you keep trying to make the projects and are actually able to finish one or more, you will have had to re-write the patterns. This seems to be happening more and more in the industry. Leisure Arts is the best in the business for pattern writing. That's who I used as my mentor when I began to write and publish. I borrowed their style, with a some of my own modifications.

One of my students brought this book to me and asked me to help them figure out one of the patterns. In the end we just had to abandon the pattern and make it up as we went. This woman doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. If you don't know what a cluster stitch is (and she doesn't), then she is not a crocheter and has no business pretending to write a crochet book. She appears to just make things up. How this book got 119 positive reviews I'll never understand. She must have 119 friends, editors, publishers, co-workers, and more friends to lie for her. She should be ashamed.

Poorly, poorly, poorly done.

I don't care how cute the patterns look. If you can't understand the instructions, then it's just a picture book that will sit on your shelf till you finally try to re-sell it on Amazon.

Bottom line, don't buy this book.

I just got this book a couple of days ago and I am devouring it!
I already knew the crochet basics and wanted to expand my skills. Other "how-to's" I have found somewhat confusing, and the reason I like this book so much is because it assumes that you know nothing about crochet so you are starting from square one (how to hold the hook, etc.) I think so many newbies get frustrated because there is no comprehensive guide that starts at the VERY beginning.

There are several delightful patterns (cupcake shirt, unseamly sweater, one-night glam wire necklace, short and sweet jacket), some odd patterns (jolly roger sweater, skull potholder, welcome mat, fingerless lace gloves) and some that are plain stupid (the iPod creature thing is hideous). All in all, I think the good patterns more than make up for the ones you will NEVER use (crocheted bikini, anyone). Many of the patterns will be useful in making gifts for others.

I also have to agree with another reviewer that the wording "as presented by Debbie Stoller" isn't really needed as every pattern has the author's name and a blub about them. I don't think Stoller is trying to take credit for these designs, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered with crediting the designer on EVERY PAGE.

Also, another reviewer said that Debbie Stoller's face was "leering" on every page. Ummm...I don't know what book, she was reading, but the first half of my book is full of cartoonish type characters and the second half (the patterns) are modeled by actual models, not Stoller herself. I think that comment was a bit snarky.

So, why only 4 stars? 2 reasons: First, this should have been spiral bound, it would be much easier to use. Second, there are (at current) 2 full pages of corrections to the patterns in this book. You can get the corrections at [...]
To me, that is just carelessness on the part of the editors and publisher.

For newbies, it is hard enough to figure out how to read patterns without the added hassle of looking all over creation to find the correct pattern.

All in all, a great book for beginners. You won't be disappointed! Happy Hooking!