Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker

I really like this book. I am an avid crocheter but sometimes need a little help remembering certain techniques. This book was easy to navigate and find what immediately what I needed help with.

When I was in my freshman year of college, I decided to pick up knitting and stumbled across the original Stitch 'N Bitch. Despite having NO crafting experience, the S'NB book got me knitting and even now, 8 years and many projects later, I still refer to it to refresh my memory on the more difficult stitches.When I decided to learn to crochet earlier this summer, I thought I could just watch some Youtube videos and Google my way into cute amigurumis and lacey shrugs. Why should I spend money on a how-to-book, when I already know how to knit? Wrong. It was totally unintuitive for me and my projects ended up a mess of confused stitches. I cracked and decided to purchase Happy Hooker; although Debbie Stoller had taught me how to knit, somehow I doubted Happy Hooker would be better than my Googling skills.SO WRONG. This book re-affirms that the Stitch 'N Bitch series are probably the best beginning craft resources out there. All the questions that erupted during my haphazard Googling adventures were casually included and answered throughout the instructions, as if Debbie Stoller read my mind. How do I count stitches that aren't on a hook? Where do I start a chain? For goodness sakes, how many blasted types of stitches are there anyways?! What, I need a turning stitch? Youtube didn't tell me that! This book even corrected some bad habits Youtubers had taught me: for example many Youtube videos demonstrated a single crochet as shoved inbetween the V stitches. Debbie Stoller actually acknowledged this technique (READ MY MIND) but highlighted its weaknesses and then provided several other single crochet options that produced better results. Seriously, I spent 20 minutes with the book and crocheted a beautiful lacey swatch to test out my skills and I felt so much more confident and less resentful toward the crochet needle. I've spent much more than 20 minutes chasing blog post leads and watching grainy videos with bad amateur explanations.The Stitch 'N Bitch series possess that rare quality in our modern society where a printed informational book can trump the World Wide Web many times over. Even though you can yes, technically find, process and use the information available across the internet, Debbie Stoller has beautifully consolidated, organized, edited and explained all the necessary steps for you to start corcheting without stress and worry. If you have no skills or are transitioning from knitting to crocheting definitely get this book. She even included a 3 page explanation on knitting vs. crocheting, a point I had been cursing throughout my difficult crocheting career (i.e. WHAT THE GOSH, KNITTING IS SO MUCH EASIER BAHH THROWS CROCHET NEEDLE AT TV). I really appreciated to read her interpretation of the differences of the techniques, community, culture and history of these two needle arts. Maybe I'm just a crafts dweeb, but I appreciated the lesson and discussion.8 years after my introduction, I am reminded on how much I have learned from and why I love this author. She should make one about sewing clothing. Please!

I've crocheted for years but my technique was very limited. At 13, I learned from a cousin who learned from her grandmother. The only stitches I did were double crochet and chain. When in doubt, I did what worked and sorta looked right. In the past few years, I searched the internet for more stitches and instructions to figure out the 'correct' way to crochet. Only a few sites were helpful.Since I learned how to knit from Debbie Stoller's knitting book, I was so excited when I heard she was writing a crocheting book. She gives some very interesting history about crochet and the tone of the book, though annoying to some, is fun and hip - which I believe is true to the author's personality. The illustrated examples are very helpful and for the most part, the written instructions are easy to follow.So why not 5 stars? There are some major flaws to the book. The book's publishing date was pushed back a number of times, suggesting more time was needed to finish it. Yet I would suggest even more time was needed. One of the patterns I love in the book is for fuzzy bunny slippers. So cute! But the pattern has SOOOO many errors in it. The stitch counts are incorrect, and at one point the directions say to chain 1 for a turning chain, but at the end of the round, it tells you to slip stitch into the 3rd turning chain. Was there not time to proof read and test the pattern?? It was frustrating to have to rework an entire pattern - though I'm experienced at crochet, I'm new to following patterns. This was the only pattern I've used from the book, so I do not know if other patterns also contained errors.Another issue I had was with the number of patterns in the book. The book seemed to be more patterns than instructions. I would have liked to see fewer patterns that included step by step photos so that as you could see what your item should be looking like (that would have soooo helped me with the bunny slippers!). The patterns are very Debbie Stoller-ish. They won't match everyone's taste.Overall, this book was great at helping me hone my crocheting technique and really helped me learn how to read a crochet pattern. I highly recommend it for its instructional value, not for the patterns included (with the exception of 2 or 3 patterns). I hope when this book is republished, they correct all the errors with the patterns.

I bought this book for the "Short n Sweet" bolero pattern. I love it. I have been crocheting for over a year now which doesn't sound like a long time, but I have basically been crocheting none-stop. HA! I consider myself fairly capable of reading patterns. I worked this bolero up over a long weekend. The pattern is fairly easy to read, but there were a few confusing spots that I felt could have been explained in a bit more detail. Thank goodness for Google! :) I guess my frustration was because in the introduction of the book the author states when she started crocheting the patterns didn't help her figure out how to do the foundation row (which I consider fairly basic information) and then in the pattern she glosses over details that I don't think are as common as a foundation row.I'm working on the "Knot Ugly" shrug now and will likely get it completed tonight. I only have the edging and sewing the sleeves together left. Again, the pattern could have been a bit clearer in a few spots, but Google came to the rescue.I would recommend this to someone with some experience crocheting, but this is only based on the 2 patterns I have tried so far. The other patterns may be clearer. All in all the book has a great variety of designs, for men and women. I'm thinking of working on the "Exchange Bag" next. So cute!

While had this book (printed February 2006. 16 15 14 13 12) for a while, have just got round to actually using it. The crochet is USA terms so have to remember if learnt in UK to do double crochet stitches for USA sc and treble crochet stitch for double dc.Once that confusion is sorted, then come across the instruction sk the chart explaining what each short cut means does not include skhad to watch you tubes to see sk meant skip and a cluster stitch wasYo or yarn over, there are a few yo's in the lace gloves, following the crochet pattern instructions for the lace gloves, carefully with yarn and hook the work looks nothing like the same as the pictures. Through research, thought better see if others crochet people had issues with this book and they have, reviews mention a website, it seems the stitchandbitch.org website cannot be accessed to locate the errata. It actually says 'you are not allowed to access'Yet the book with same cover is still being sold as brand new on here.Am sadly disappointed that will not be able to finish the gloves, which would of been a small project before moving onto a more complex pattern.After researching, Taking into account the mistakes mentioned on other patterns, by reviews all round the web. No longer willing to recommend this book until the author, book creator or amazon sorts a way for the mistakes errata to be assessible,have purchased a book to follow the printed instructions, without that extra information the book is not usable for purpose.Very disappointed.

I had wanted to learn to crochet for years but all the books I had ever looked at were just no good for beginners and I never got anywhere. I found this book on Amazon last October and bought it after reading the reviews on here. I sat down one evening with the book and learnt to crochet basic stitches within a couple of hours. I was a complete beginner who had never even seen a crochet hook before but the instructions and diagrams in this book are so clear and well explained that anyone with a bit of patience can learn. I think the key is that you really need to concentrate and persevere. I got a bit frustrated at first but kept going and eventually, it all began to make sense. I'm usually quite impatient and tend to skim through parts of any instructions but with this book I followed every single line and it paid off.The book is well written and Debbie is entertaining and really keeps your interest. Some of the patterns are really stunning and even if you don't really like some of them, there is lots of scope to improvise and adapt them to something you would love to wear. So far, I have made a couple of scarves from the book, a hat and the fat-bottom bag but I am planning to make many, many more of the items. There are a few errors and typos but Debbie Stoller's website has clear corrections so if you check them out before starting any pattern, all is fine.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn to crochet - just keep reading and re-reading the basics and keep going and you will get there! I would also recommend it for those who can already crochet as it's a good reference manual for the more unusual stitches, and of course you can never have too many crochet petterns!

The instructions on how to crochet in this book are excellent with very clear diagrams and are great for learning to crochet from scratch but BEWARE the patterns - they are full of errors and there is nothing more frustrating (especially when you are a beginner) to get 3/4 way through a project and finding the pattern stops making sense. After having researched a bit further it appears there used to be a website giving all of the corrections but sadly this no longer seems to exist. There is also, apparently, a second edition which contains the corrected patterns but this does not seem to be readily available either. I've found out that around 13 of the patterns apparently contain errors but don't know which ones (except the 'ladylike gloves' as that is the one am currently battling with!) so good luck!

This book has been brilliant for learning to crochet. It's diagrams are easy to follow unlike some I've come across and the instructions are clear too. It's a great book to have on you if you just need to check how to do something but also a good book to make things from the pattern section. You can crochet a wide range of clothes and even some slippers and soft toys! Personally, I like the selection of things to do in the book as I know lots of people who would wear that sort of thing but some of the projects might not be everyone's cup of tea I don't think.Even if you don't like the projects then I still think that this book is worth buying for the learning skills part of it. I'm sure even crocheting veterans can learn a few new things too as it shows you how to do a wide range of stitches and how to follow colour changes in your designs.

I bought this from the Marketplace for little more than the postage cost, it is in pretty good used condition, very good for the price. I know how to crochet and didn't need the how to section but liked the look of a couple of the patterns which I haven't yet started on.It is written by an American and therefore is in American crochet terms, this can be confusing as some of the same abbreviations are used to mean different stitches, and some stitches have names we don't use in the UK. There are conversion charts provided in the front of the book, if you can only work in British crochet terms you will need to amend every pattern you make.