After the wild success of the original Stitch 'N Bitch came another great book with the same style and better production values, Stitch 'N Bitch Nation. This book includes 50 more fun, funky patterns for newer knitters and beyond, and is full of tips, advice and stories from SnB groups from across America and beyond.
Shaping Lessons
Stitch 'N Bitch Nation opens with a long section describing how to alter knitting patterns to make a project work for you. It explains things like figuring out how big a project is going to be if the instructions don't specify, how ease in a pattern affects the fit and what a swatch can tell you about a yarn besides its gauge.
The book delves into how to choose a different yarn of the same weight to knit a pattern and how to alter the pattern to make it work for a yarn of a different weight or gauge. It covers what to do about pattern repeats when using a different number of stitches than the original pattern called for and includes a great section on using the stitch ratio to help you resize a pattern for a different weight of yarn rather than calculating all the measurements on the pattern's schematic to determine how many stitches, increases and rows you need to work to get the same result.
There's advice on taking your own measurements and finding out your ideal sweater size based on garments already in your closet. Readers learn about the basic sweater shapes and how to change a neckline, make a sweater or its sleeves longer or shorter, add waist shaping and change the edging on a sweater, among other incredibly useful and handy tips.
The Patterns
This iteration of the Stitch 'N Bitch saga includes 50 patterns, arranged in categories: scarves, hats and mittens; sweaters and ponchos; sexy summer knits; legs, bags and beyond; and babies, dogs and cats. Most of the patterns are for women, but there are a couple for men as well.
As in other Stitch 'N Bitch books, patterns aren't labeled with skill levels, but each pattern does let you know if a special skill like intarsia or lace knitting is required, so you'll know to steer clear if you're not comfortable with those skills.
These patterns are much in the same vein as the original SnB, often using pretty simple shapes that are funked up with stripes, texture, colorwork, fringe, ties, beading and more.
There are lots of great patterns here, but some of my favorites are the Cabled Newsboy Cap; the Fairly Easy Fair Isle cardigan; London Calling, a mohair sweater with the British flag emblazoned on the front; the fun and colorful Drop Stitch Vest; Poster Boy, a tote bag with an image of Jim Morrison stitched in; the lovely cabled Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers; and the adorable Baby's First Tattoo cardigan.
There are knit dolls of Joan Jett, Henry Rollins and Joey Ramone, just pages from a striped dog sweater and a hat with bunny ears. There's a 70s style poncho, cat toys and fuzzy dice for your car. It's probably safe to say there's a pattern here for almost anyone on your gift list.
The book also includes info on many SnB groups across the country (and a few international ones) as well as tips shared by SnB'ers to help make your knitting experience easier. And for those who need a refresher, there's a section in the back that covers knitting basics, complete with drawings to illustrate the techniques.
If you liked the first Stitch 'N Bitch, odds are good you'll like this book as well. It's not quite as essential reading for knitters of a certain age and mindset as the original was, but it's still a lot of fun and provides a dizzying illustration of some of the great, useful, beautiful, fun, crazy things that can be done with yarn.
Publication date: November 2004.
