Male: Hey what is up everyone, welcome to threadheads.
Female: This week, we head over to Buzz magazine headquarters to get the one on one interview with the magazines co-creator and author of the popular Stitch ‘n Bitch book series, Debbie Stoller.
Debbie: Hi, I am Debbie Stoller. I am the editor in chief and copublisher of Buzz magazine and this is where the magic happens. I started Buzz together with Laurie Hunsel about 15 years ago and we started it as a woman’s magazine that could be different from another women’s magazines out there and that it would be more honest about women’s lives and funny and smart and cover a lot of really cool stuff that women were doing and were about, that was not getting covered elsewhere and that is pretty much what we still do today. People tell us that it really does make them feel better about their lives or they are happy to know that they are not the only one that would not usually fit into a big glamour magazine fashion shoot and that they are about a lot more things than those magazines would make you believe women are about.
I am a cultural feminist so I think a lot about the way that women are presented in the pop culture because I think that that really shapes our ideas a lot and influences our lives. So far, I have done four books about knitting and crochet. The first one is called Stitch ‘n Bitch, it is a knitters handbook and that was intended to help people learn to knit who did not know anything about it and also giving them some cute patterns. The next one was Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation which was a huge collection of lots of different contemporary patterns and also little descriptions of Stitch ‘n Bitch groups all across the country. Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet The Happy Hooker was an introduction to crochet with also again lots of patterns and the latest one I did was called Son of Stitch ‘n Bitch is projects to knit and crochet for the men in your life.
One of the things that I have been the proudest of is that people tell me that they actually were able to knit from my book and the book got them to knitting and got them excited about it and I am just really happy about that so that is why I did it. I did a cruise last year and now, I am doing a cruise this year called Stitch ‘n Beach where while the ship is at sea or when there is not beaches to be lying on, we will knit and we will have Stitch ‘n Bitch sessions. We are giving lots of classes but there has been some knitting related karaoke that I am sworn not to tell about. You have to come on the cruise.
Craft singing this is like the new rock and roll, there are all these young people in it. It is not really embarrassing anymore. There are some people who still do not get it. But I think our grandmas would be really proud and I am so happy to see this going on.
Male: When we return, a tutorial, both the guys and the girl will appreciate.
Female: More knitting madness.
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Female: Okay so we have been getting a lot of requests for another knitting tutorial so I am going to show you how to make a very simple and fashionably hip pidge scarf.
The first thing you want to do if you have not already is watch the knitting video we made awhile back. Follow those steps to make a rectangle that is about two feel long, for this project, I am going to use a size 15 needle and a very thick bulky yarn. For starters, cast your stitches onto your needle. I did about 14 and it makes it about 7 inches wide. Just kind of test it around your neck.
Excellent. Before we reach the very end of the scarf, we want to add button holes and I am going to show you an easy way to do that. First pick out the buttons you want to use. You need two. Mr. Circle and Mr. Triangle. Once you picked out your two buttons, hold it up to the stitches on your needle just to see how wide it is and how many stitches you are going to have to cast off to make the buttonhole.
So what we do is we knit these two stitches like they are regular and we are going to cast off these two stitches, knit the rest the same, cast of these two stitches and knit these regular.
So now we have cast of those two stitches and there is a gap here. So we will just continue to knit normal stitches and now we are going to cast off these two stitches.
You see the little gap here, start knitting, knit the first two, add those two loops back on there.
So you are adding those two loops back on to this needle and you just continue to stitch like you would. Again, cast on two stitches onto the needle and continue knitting.
You have created very simple buttonholes. Now, you are just going to knit a couple more rows and you will be done with the knitting part of your scarf.
I am now done knitting about four or five rows after the buttonhole row so it is just time to cast off and again to learn how to cast off, you can watch that first knitting video we made. You have to tuck these little tails in. Now that your tails are all tucked in and hidden, you are going to sew on your buttons. So what you want to do is just try it on to get an idea where the buttons are going to go. They are going to go along this seam right here and here is a buttonhole. I am just going to put a pin there so you know exactly where to place your button. So the button is right here and right here.
Take out your needle and thread, thread your needle. Put your button where you want it. Just start from the back and sew on your button.
Excellent, we have our buttons all sewn on so you know what that means. It is time to try it on.
Male: For more knitting tutorials and tips head on over to Youtube and check out amazing videos from such users like the knitwitch, cyberseams, knitting tips by Judy or knitting help. If you want to pick up a couple of good books, we suggest the flip book series, Flipknits and for those of you who want to know how to knit famous celebrities like Bruce Lee, Jimmy Hendricks, Marilyn Monroe or Mr. T then you will definitely need a copy of Knitted Icons.
Female: Every member, if you have any knitting projects of your own, or anything else you made, send them all in.
Male: Better yet, if you have a video of you making something or unless you can plug and share with us threadheads, make sure you upload it to threadbanger.com.
Female: Otherwise, check back next week for some more DIY goodness.
Male: Till then.
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