Karen Allen Books

When I purchased this book, I could already knit the very basics and my crocheting skills were excellent. I had hoped to move beyond the very minimal knitting skills I had. However this book hardly teaches even those. It even has some major disappointments, such as the scarf pattern. If anyone follows the pattern exactly their project will curl up just horrible. I reccomend instead Stitch N' Bitch, which won't leave you a "Dummy" after you read it.

I bought this book as a person with some crocheting experience and no knitting experience who wanted to learn more of both. I liked that it included the essentials--needles, stitch markers, point protectors, little scissors, etc; and it showed the absolute basics of both. I found the illustrations and steps to follow very clear and easy, but whenever I wanted to do more than just those basics, I was lost and needed to purchase additional books. I think this book is good for people who want to try a little of knitting and crocheting and decide which they want to learn more about, but not to depend on as a tool to learn any techniques.

We decided to take up knitting. (I spend entirely too much time watching baseball games; I should at least do something with my hands.) So we picked up Knitting & Crocheting for Dummies at a local craft store. I should have kept walking, instead.

The package includes two sets of needles and a crochet hook. Unfortunately, that's the only justification for this book.

The major criticism is that this book hasn't taught either of us to knit. I flipped through the pictures and the text, and somehow didn't feel inspired to try. My husband sat down with the full intention of learning the skill -- and he still couldn't figure it out. (This is a guy who has taught himself woodworking and software programming skills from books, so it sure isn't his weakness.) There are a few drawings, but not enough, and they aren't very clear. He did manage to knit 20 stitches before he gave up on the instructions, but the exercise was accompanied with lots of cussing.

I took two books out of the library on knitting basics, and both of them -- accompanied with plenty of photos -- are significantly better than this purchase.