It 's the essential guide for chicks with sticks from the tools of the trade to the knitty-gritty of techniques and patterns, all with easy-to-follow step-by-step illustrated techniques: Stockinette stitch, rib stitch, seed stitch. Increasing and decreasing. All the bells and whistles: fringes, tassels, cables, intarsia, crab stitch, and Fair Isle. Plus the stitch doctor 's own special bag of tricks and how to hook up with other knitters. After the how-to comes the why-to: forty hip, stylish patterns, as good for beginners as they are for purly pros.