Debbie Stoller - Stitch N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker

Stitch n Bitch Crochet

Debbie Stoller

Illustrations by Adrienne Yan
Fashion photography by John Dolan

WORKMAN PUBLISHING NEW YORK

Copyright 2006 by Debbie Stoller
Photography copyright 2006 John Dolan
Illustrations copyright 2006 Adrienne Yan
Cover photograph copyright 2006 Michael Lavine

All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
eISBN: 9780761174981

Book design: Janet Vicario with Munira Al-Khalili

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Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com

For my mother, Johanna C. Stoller, who gave me a love of all things crafty

First and foremost, I owe my greatest thanks to the talented and tireless designers whose work appears in this book. I feel truly honored that these 40 women were willing to share their impressive and fun designs with me, and I am grateful.

I am so very indebted to my brand-new agent, Flip Brophy, who not only served as a skilled business advisor and negotiator on this book, but also as a sort of Fairy Godmother who helped me find ways to make my workload more manageable. Now I can go to the ball!

I want to thank my assistant on this book, Christina Roest, who did so much work in the beginning stages of production, and I am so appreciative of the work that Katy Moore did on a number of the patterns in this book, most notably Strut, Yeehaw Lady, and Bikini in a Bag.

At Workman, I am thankful to Peter Workman for agreeing that the subject of crochet deserved its own book, and I am ever-indebted to my fearless editor and champion of the Stitch n Bitch cause, Ruth Sullivan, whose thorough and careful efforts always improve and clarify my work immeasurably. I owe special thanks to my technical editor, Karen Manthey, who did such a wonderful job of painstakingly combing through each pattern, stitch by stitch, as well as creating the diagrams and schematics, and to copyeditor and crocheter extraordinaire Judit Bodnar. Id like to thank designer Janet Vicario, who is so much fun to work with, for once again bringing her creative eye and patient mind to this Stitch n Bitch project and design assistant Munira Al-Khalili for helping get everything to look just right. And I really appreciate the organizational efforts of production editor Irene Demchyshyn and editorial assistant Beth Hatem for keeping everything running as smoothly as possible.

Im so glad that my favorite illustrator, Adrienne Yan, was available to make such sweet, careful drawings to go with the text, and I owe my deepest thanks to photographer John Dolan for taking the beautiful photos and for allowing us all to hang out at his gorgeous house. Thanks also to the fabulous stylist, Jenni Lee, for pulling together an endless assortment of clever outfits, to hair and makeup artist Bryan Lynde, and to photo editor Leora Kahn for pulling the entire photo shoot together. And thank you to the models, who not only posed wearing heavy woolen sweaters in the middle of a heat wave, but somehow managed to look cool while doing so, and a special shout-out to the good people of Be Green Cafe in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where much of this book was written.

Once again I am thankful to the women of BUST magazine, and especially to my co-publisher, Laurie Henzel, for being a great friend and for making it possible for me to take some time off to write this book. I also want to thank my parents, Johanna and Bernard Stoller, for letting me know how proud they are of me.

And to Michael Uman, my longtime partner and best friend, who for ten years has been my rock. I am so grateful for your constant encouragement, and your loving support.

When folks who were familiar with my previous Stitch n Bitch books, which are both about knitting, first heard that I was planning to write a book about crocheting, some of them were a little shocked. Do you even crochet? theyd ask, rather accusingly. How could it be that I, a knitter, was qualified to write a book about crocheting? How was it possible that any knitter could have anything of value to say to crocheters? Didnt I know that knitters and crocheters are like Sharks and Jetsthey dont get along, they keep off each others turf, they break into fights on the playground?

Yes, I know, I know. But have Tony and Maria taught us nothing? Cant we see that were all sisters (and brothers) under the stitch? Sure, Im a knitter. But I also crochet. In fact, I learned to crochetand enjoyed itlong before knitting ever felt good in my hands. In the tradition I come from, if you enjoy doing needlework, you enjoy doing needlework in whatever form it takes. My Dutch mother and all the women on her side of the family were needle wielders of wide and varied skills: sewing, embroidering, knitting, and crochetingthey did it all. I grew up enjoying each of these crafts as well, and Ive always wanted to learn more. After watching my Great Aunt Jo diligently tatting elaborate thread edgings onto her handkerchiefs year after year, I finally borrowed a book from the library and tried to learn it, too.

I particularly revel in the way that doing needlework inextricably binds me to my female relatives. With each stitch, I follow in the footsteps (handsteps?) of my ancestors, carrying on centuries-old traditions and paying respect to their wide and varied crafting skills. My connection is more than theoretical. Some of my fondest memories are of summer vacations visiting my mothers relatives in Holland, where, in the evenings, wed sit together and work on our various needlework projectsmy mother perhaps crocheting a lacy curtain, my Aunt Hetty stitching one of her gorgeous appliqu wall hangings, my grandmother most likely knitting socks, while I might be working away on a small counted cross-stitch project. Looking back on it, I suppose these idyllic get-togethers were, in a way, my first Stitch n Bitch sessions.

I dont remember exactly when I learned how to crochet. All I know is that my very first crochet project was a panda bear that I had found a pattern for in one of my mothers magazines. I must have been about eleven years old. I worked on that thing day after day, but unfortunately, my stitches were way too loose, and the panda turned out almost as big as I was, with a giant encephalitic head that flopped over and rested on his distended belly. Still, for years he sat, pathetically floppy, on top of my bed. To me he was beautiful; after all, I had created him. I was his mother.

While I was growing up in Brooklyn, New York, I enjoyed doing needlework the way some kids liked playing stickball. I never wanted to go out and play; I preferred staying in and making clothes for my Barbie dolls on my miniature sewing machine. I savored the wonderful feeling that came over me whenever I was engaged in a needlework project. And even today, it is the sense of calm satisfaction I get from needlework that has kept me drawn to it. Blissfully immersed in stitching, I feel peaceful and centered, my mind both fully relaxed and entirely focused, as I make satisfying progress stitch by stitch, row by row. The feeling is, in a word, delicious.