When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide

This is one of those essential little books that new and maybe more advanced knitters need to have at hand for those times that they just don't know what to do; or can't think of what to do. It's an "anti-panic because I've just ruined my beautiful project" book!!!It is well written; easy to understand and very, very helpful. I am so grateful to have found this book.

This is a fabulous little life saver of a book that will rescue you from a state of needless anxiety when running into trouble on a knitting project in the middle of the night. If you can't translate the pattern directions into intelligible English, or you've worked the wrong section of the pattern for several rows, dropped a stitch (or several) or worse, this book will be your salvation. I must say that a great piece of advice in When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters is that if you made a mistake once, it's just a mistake. If you made it multiple times, you can make it a new and creatiive design element, incorporating it into your project. This book is a jem that belongs in your work basket!

This book provides a great overview of knitting including reading patterns, gauge, and solving problems. The information is presented in an easy to understand and often humorous manner. This book has something for the beginner to the experienced knitter. The size is perfect for carrying in your knitting bag. Very well done!

Along with the watershed "Knitting without Tears" (Elizabeth Zimmermann), Marion Edmonds' book "When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters" may well become one of those "on every knitter's shelf" books. The title is amusing, and the text is no less humorous; little vignettes about goofy things knitters do to fix up little and not-so-little boo-boos in their knitting. Some help is given for how to rescue a dropped stitch. This is one of the beginning knitter's biggest faux-pas. You drop a stitch off the needle and rather than gather it up, you let it ride. Then you see either a stunningly ugly ladder down the face of your knitting or you end up with far fewer stitches on the needle than the instructions promise you should have. There is also help for the age-old problem "it's too long--how do I CUT knitting without it raveling or being ruined." Having knitted since high school, I've made probably every one of these messes and faced the emergency alone and afraid (well, at least alone.) If you are a knitter who is perplexed by problems (split stitches, mistakes in lace, uncabled cables, too long, too short, dropped stitches) then you should pick up a copy of this. It's small enough (little square book) to fit in most knitting bags or even your purse. And it's amusing enough to be read for fun, while you pick up tips for problems down the road.

I am one of those failed knitters who has a bunch of half-finished projects in the closet. I seem to get tangled up in some problem every time, and I don't know how to extricate myself so I just ... quit. This cute little book was made for me. It gives help with everything from dropped stitches to patterns written in what appears to be early Aramaic, and it's actually FUNNY, too.