Customer Reviews

When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Along with the watershed "Knitting without Tears" (Elizabeth Zimmermann), Marion Edmonds' book "When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters" may well become one of those "on every knitter's shelf" books.

The title is amusing, and the text is no less humorous; little vignettes about goofy things knitters do to fix up little and not-so-little boo-boos in their knitting.

Some help is given for how to rescue a dropped stitch. This is one of the beginning knitter's biggest faux-pas. You drop a stitch off the needle and rather than gather it up, you let it ride. Then you see either a stunningly ugly ladder down the face of your knitting or you end up with far fewer stitches on the needle than the instructions promise you should have. There is also help for the age-old problem "it's too long--how do I CUT knitting without it raveling or being ruined."

Having knitted since high school, I've made probably every one of these messes and faced the emergency alone and afraid (well, at least alone.) If you are a knitter who is perplexed by problems (split stitches, mistakes in lace, uncabled cables, too long, too short, dropped stitches) then you should pick up a copy of this. It's small enough (little square book) to fit in most knitting bags or even your purse. And it's amusing enough to be read for fun, while you pick up tips for problems down the road.

This is a humorous and entertaining book about knitting and it is jam-packed with good information, advice, and knitting trivia. I can see a knitter taking this on a plane trip to read during a long flight. It is pleasant chit-chat and has the feel of a long conversation with a very nice friend with whom you share an interest or a passion.

Nested therein (in no particular order) are many valuable insights and tips and common sense advice gained through years of knitting experience. I suggest you highlight any bit of wisdom you want to remember, otherwise you will never find it again. The authors just jot down everything that occurs to them in what ever order it pops into their heads. Your heads may not work the same way.

What it is NOT is "an emergency survival guide." When "bad things happen" the last thing you want is paragraph after paragraph of badly indexed wit. The authors have not ever heard the phrase "cut to the chase." You do, eventually, find the part that tells you how to pick up a dropped stitch or whatever other emergency you've managed to get yourself into but, in the process, your level of stress has risen rather than diminished.

For my particular (low) level of expertise, I didn't find the text as clear and illuminating as I would have needed. The illustrations, too, are rather unhelpful. They are drawn black-and-white closeups of loops and needles but no sequence is presented. Most are a single closeup of the here-and-now that give you no sense of what happens next or what went wrong.

If the book was called "Helpful Hints from One Knitter to Another" I would have given it 5 stars and an exclamation point. The fact that the title implies that it's a 911 for inexperienced knitters and then turns out not to be particularly helpful for that subgroup of knitters is the reason I took off two stars.

I am one of those failed knitters who has a bunch of half-finished projects in the closet. I seem to get tangled up in some problem every time, and I don't know how to extricate myself so I just ... quit. This cute little book was made for me. It gives help with everything from dropped stitches to patterns written in what appears to be early Aramaic, and it's actually FUNNY, too.

This is a wonderful book. It has some great hints and tips on how to correct mistakes, but also how to avoid them in the first place. The writing style is very readable. It is laugh out loud funny in many spots. I like that the authors share their own mistakes as well. The reason I can't give it 5 stars is the lack of an index! It is so frustrating that I won't be able to actually *find* the fix when I need it. Why would a company release a reference book without an index? I understand the book is worth reading from cover to cover. However, when I make a mistake, I want to correct it quickly. I don't want to have to browse the entire book to find the correct passage with the helpful information. Please, when there is a reprint, put in an index! I would probably buy a new edition for that alone. As it stands, I will reach for Knit Fix first because it has an index. I don't think the information is as comprehensive overall, but I can find the info I am looking for quickly.

This book provides a great overview of knitting including reading patterns, gauge, and solving problems. The information is presented in an easy to understand and often humorous manner. This book has something for the beginner to the experienced knitter. The size is perfect for carrying in your knitting bag. Very well done!

This is a fabulous little life saver of a book that will rescue you from a state of needless anxiety when running into trouble on a knitting project in the middle of the night.

If you can't translate the pattern directions into intelligible English, or you've worked the wrong section of the pattern for several rows, dropped a stitch (or several) or worse, this book will be your salvation.

I must say that a great piece of advice in When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters is that if you made a mistake once, it's just a mistake. If you made it multiple times, you can make it a new and creatiive design element, incorporating it into your project.

This book is a jem that belongs in your work basket!

I've reviewed this book and feel it came, for me, about 50 years too late. Most of the suggestions were things I'd worked out on my own years ago. I had hoped it would give more advanced information. It's a "it's me, not you" thing.

I purchased two copies of this book. I am a knitter and have knitted for years but there are some great ideas I did not know about and the one I gave as a gift was greatly appreciated for the same reason. There are ideas that probably should be in Learn How books but I have never seen them. Dropped stitches: I always seem to drop another stitch as I try to fix it but now I know how to stop it from going down further in the piece thanks to this book. It really is a great book for new knitters and experienced knitters. There is so much useful information I highly recommend it for all knitters. Glad I bought it!

This is a great book for beginner and intermediate knitters. It is amusing and reassurring to those agonizing over a dropped stitch or some other flaw. I borrowed it from my local library and found it so informative and entertaining that I read it in bed just as I would a novel. I bought it for christmas gifts for 2 members of my knitting group and now I must have one for myself. It is a good reference book, a go-to book for help when you discover an error in your knitting, and helpful techniques I've not found in other knitting books. The authors have included amusing ancedotes from their own knitting mishaps.

I love the fun way things are presented in this book. When I am struggling with a knitting problem, I love to look at it with humor.