You are bidding on oin the movement! Four million strong and counting, hip, young chicks with sticks are putting a whole new spin on knitting--while turning last fall's Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook into a surprise national bestseller (from The New York Times to the L.A. Times to BookSense) with 215,000 copies in print. So influential is the book that the number of Stitch 'n Bitch knitting groups tripled in the past six months--spawning a Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. A sequel to the best-seller Stitch 'n Bitch (2003), this volume is just as entertaining and twice as useful as its predecessor. For entertainment value, Stoller takes readers on a whirlwind tour across the country, visiting women (mostly) who have set up their own stitch-'n-bitch groups and detailing just what they're bitching about. Stoller also provides kicky patterns that include everything from outfits for kids through outfits for dogs and on to purses, toys, foot warmers, and more. But the reason this book is so valuable is that Stoller takes readers by the hand and shows them how a pattern is written and how to adjust patterns to an individual's own body measurements. This vital aspect of knitting tends to be either mysterious or off-putting because it involves the m word--math. But Stoller speaks very clearly and peppers her explanations with humor. By the time she's finished, writing one's own patterns seems like a real possibility. Inadequately reproduced photographs in the galley copy made the pictures difficult to see, but what comes through the gray haze looks very cute. Ilene Cooper
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