Knitting Pearls

August 17, 2015
Novelist and knitting enthusiast Hood’s charming follow-up to Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting will make even the most reluctant knitter look anew at those skeins of yarn. Each of the 12 writers included in the collection provides particular insight into the needle-
craft, along with reflections on how knitting is related to inner life. In “Handmade at Home,” knitwear designer Jared Flood reflects that “we handmake our clothing... for the stories they’ll tell. For the quiet legacies they inevitably create when passed on, linking one generation with the next.” Novelist Bill Roorbach’s “Sarah with an H” recalls his time as a lonely college student who joined a knitting group to meet girls—with very mixed results. In plucky prose, novelist Lily King recounts a family stint in Italy in “The Italian Hat.” Her daughter initially struggled to adapt to life in the quaint town of San Casciano, until she discovered the needle arts required by her Italian school and found a cross-cultural confidence nobody knew she possessed. Sprinkled throughout the book are a variety of knitting patterns from U.S. yarn stores, giving a unifying aspect to the book and implying that regard-
less of politics, geography, or lifestyle, anyone can reap the rewards of this timeless craft.

September 1, 2015
Writers share their thoughts on knitting in this meditative essay collection edited by Hood (An Italian Wife, 2014, etc.), a follow-up to the editor's previous Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting (2013). "With its calm, methodical progress, it's a promise, in the midst of war and chaos and loss, that, somewhere, an orderly world still exists," writes novelist Stewart O'Nan in his contribution to the collection. Twenty-seven writers, including Lily King, Laura Lippman, and Jodi Picoult, share their stories of knitting among the wars, chaos, and losses of their own lives. Steve Almond writes about the connection between death and crocheting, Diana Gabaldon shares how an early 4-H Club rejection led her to take up knitting, and pediatrician and writer Perri Klass examines all the clothing she knit for her late mother. Nostalgia permeates almost every essay in the book. Whether knitting allows them to remember grandmothers, mothers, old boyfriends, ex-husbands, or their younger selves, the writers have memories knitted into all their scarves, hats, sweaters, and other items. Although a few of the essays are lightly comedic, most deal with loss, death, regret, and similar heavy subjects, which makes for a surprisingly emotional reading experience. As one might expect from a group of writers, connections between the processes of knitting and writing abound. In the hands of such talented writers, this collection is both heartbreaking and life-affirming. Other contributors include Bill Roorbach, Lee Woodruff, Christina Baker Kline, Clara Parkes (author of The Yarn Whisperer: Reflections on a Life in Knitting, 2013), and Jared Flood, owner of the yarn manufacturer and design house Brooklyn Tweed. The book also includes knitting patterns. A sad and sweet look at knitting that will appeal to crafters and writers alike.

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