Outside the Lines

I read the latest Mason Dixon book over the past few weeks. This one is called Outside the Lines.

It has the same great tone of the first one. I enjoyed it.

Couple of patterns that I might try:

• Daily Sweater -- this is a top-down sweater using a cotton/microfiber yarn. The specified yarn is Rowan Calmer (which is $12 per skein). I'm hoping to be able to substitute Knitpicks Comfy, which is the same fiber makeup, but is only about $2.50per skein. I've ordered one skein of each of three colors -- Blackberry, Pomegranate and Planetarium. I thought I would play around with colors and do some swatching before committing to the yarn or the pattern.
• There are a pair of cabled socks that look like fun to knit. I have some green sock yarn that I might try with this pattern. For some reason I always think of cables as being green. Why is that?

There are lots of patterns that I won't try, but I enjoyed the whole book. It is wonderfully photographed and written with such a great tone. Really enjoyed it, just like the first one.

Knitting Rules!

I just finished the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book, "Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks."

Again, she does not ever disappoint. Such a great book! I enjoyed every minute of it. I thought about listing some of the great lines from the book, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

It's different from her other books -- this one is not knitting stories, but is instead a book of -- well -- hints. These include a generic sock recipe, a few basic hat patterns, information about supplies and gauge. It make it sound dry, but that's why the Yarn Harlot is selling books, and I am not. Read this one. You'll laugh yourself silly and learn some great hints.

And, look, it's kind of orange, so it came out in the right month. It's the only orange thing I've found so far.

I ordered Mason-Dixon's new book today and pre-ordered Wendy Knit's new book. Waiting for my mail to arrive!

Book Review -- KnitLit Three

I just finished the book KnitLit the Third, and thought I would share my thoughts about it. The book is edited by Linda Roghaar and Molly Work and is subtitled, “We Spin More Yarns.” As can be divined from the title, this is the third book in a series of collections of yarn stories – stories written by knitters across the country (world) and compiled for our enjoyment.

Before reading this book, I had read the other two editions, and very much enjoyed them. They are full of funny and heart-warming stories concerning our lives with knitting and yarn. I was looking forward to the third edition.

After reading it, I must admit that this sequel is more poignant than funny; it has more stories concerning the role of knitting in the crises of our lives than in our mountaintop experiences. I felt that the balance of hilarious to tear-jerking stories was out of balance. This book has many more stories centering on death or illness than previous editions. I felt bombarded with deep-felt emotion with not much to relieve the stress. I don’t mean to say that all the entries should be funny, but I could have used more light stories to counteract the heaviness of the others.

However, this book does have some gems. I love the story by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot concerning her experience in an airport without (gasp!) her knitting. (And if you would like to read another story about the Yarn Harlot in an airport, check out this blog entry about “The Weenie.” Hilarious) It was great to read Ann Shayne (of Mason-Dixon Knitting) tell the story of how Ann and Kay came to be blogging buddies and then co-authors. “Have a Mice Weekend” by Kay Flores was a hoot. The poem by Harry Kelley called “The Cardigan” reminded me of Dr. Suess, but was a great read. There were other stories that I won’t take the time to list that made the purchase of the book worth its price.

Overall, I’m glad that I read it, but hope the next one is less morose and more merry