Wicked Stitch

Flipping through Debbie Stoller‘s Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation is like looking at a really cool catalog. There’s a teeny cardigan for babies with mini-tattoo motifs, a sassily striped dog sweater and a Joan Jett doll. But you don’t have to shell out loads of cash or order any of these goods by phone. You can knit them all yourself. Before you start with the “But I don’t know how to knit” whining, do yourself a favor and find Stoller’s first book, Stitch ‘n Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook — along with some needles and a skein of yarn.

“I’m writing for someone sitting there going, ‘What the fuck do I do?'” says Stoller, who puts extra effort into clear, easy-to-follow instructions for young knitters. But Stoller, the editor and co-publisher of Bust magazine, wasn’t a young knitter herself. Her Dutch mother’s extended family was well-versed in knitting, crocheting and tatting, so Stoller grew up surrounded by needlecrafts. “But I just never quite got the hang of knitting,” she says. Several years later, with a three-day train trip ahead of her, Stoller decided to give it another go. “Something clicked, and then I was completely obsessed.”

Obsessed enough that she started spreading the gospel to her friends via a Stitch ‘n Bitch group back in 1999. “I wanted to do anything to get people knitting, but I also had to get out of the house,” she says. “I was spending too much time by myself knitting.”

How does Stoller make peace with her feminist ideals and the more traditional qualities of knitting?

“When I was growing up in the ’70s, my mom was a stay-at-home mom who did crafts, and I could see why certain things were being rejected by feminists,” she says. Thirty years later, though, her feelings have changed. Little girls should be able to play soccer or knit, and both activities should be equally valued.

“Women from previous generations might see it [knitting] as a throwback, but I see it as evolution.”