[.ca] Hip to Knit: 18 Contemporary Projects for Today's Knitter (ISBN 1931499217)

Great beginner projects:
Easy projects but not all boring. You know the new knitters curse: row after row after row of stockinette stitch. You can find it, but there are a variety of items, and stitches to try; all clearly explained via drawings and direction. Swartz does a nice job choosing yarns that pique your interest and shows swatches of different yarns for the same project. Particularly nice is the sock pattern. It is easy to do,and has clear directions for something that often make new knitters nervous. The roll neck cardigan is very stylish, as is the ribbon-yarn funnel neck sweater. You get several sweater projects, including a boyfriend sweater, a couple pair of mittens, socks, scarves, hats, and a large "coat". The book is layed out in two sections with simpler projects first in each section. Swartz will teach you circular knitting on circular needles, and double points. You'll learn cables, how to read a cable pattern, Kitchener stitch for seaming, and a variety of other techniques to make your knitting lovely. I'd strongly recommend using it in conjunction with a "knitting bible" style publication (I like kathrine buss' Big Book of Knitting). Swartz occasionally assumes you know how to properly decrease for necklines etc. A reference would help out a lot.

Great Project Book, But NOT a How-to Book:
I just got this book a few days ago, and I love it. It has so many mouth-watering projects; I can't wait to try them all. Knitters will find gorgeous things to knit for themselves and great gift ideas for friends and family. I do have to echo, however, what many others here have said -- this is not the book to buy if you are starting out from square one and don't know how to knit at all. You really need a more basic, how-to book. The author of "Hip to Knit" does include some basic information, but she puts in certain information while, curiously, leaving other useful tips out. I, for example, am in the middle of knitting the "seed stitch scarf", the second project in the book. I started and unraveled the darned thing three times; it became a horrible, tangled mess each time, even though I *thought* I was following what seemed like a very simple pattern correctly. It wasn't until I looked in Sally Melville's "The Knitting Experience, Book 2" that I discovered I had to re-position the knitting yarn each time when knitting and purling in the same row. Now this step would be obvious to an experienced knitter, but if you've never done the seed stitch before, you wouldn't know that. It would have been nice if Ms. Swartz had included that little tidbit of information. So, this is a great project book as long as you have a basic instruction book or a more experienced knitting friend backing you up.

Hip to Knit--not so hip:
LAME! The projects in this book are awful. The instructions stink, and I don't know any teenager who would want to make, let alone wear, the projects in this book. I would recommend Stitch n' Bitch if you're looking for hip, stylish and young knit designs.

Not the best...:
The projects in the book are great, but unfortuantely, the measurements as well as some of the other instruction are either incorrect or just plain confusing. I have done two projects based off of the instructions given in the book, and both pieces came out either too large, or too small. I wouldn't recommend this book for beginners, or even those who are a little more experienced at knitting, unless you know enough about taking your own measurements and calculating the number of stitches you will actually need to work with in each project.

I love this book:
This books offers a really nice collection of stylish patterns, easy to make, with colorful photos and simple instructions. I'm no expert knitter, and I'd never used circular needles before, but I thought the stocking cap I made from this book was a snap. I also followed the book's easy instructions to make the first mittens I'd ever made. They turned out great! I'm tackling one of the sweater patterns now -- and so far so good!