Knitting Pearls: Writers Writing About Knitting by Ann Hood
The rhythm, ritual, and pleasure of knitting are celebrated in this new collection for lovers of both knitting and literature. In Knitting Pearls, two dozen writers write about the transformative and healing powers of knitting. Lily King remembers the year her family lived in Italy, and a knitted hat that helped her daughter adjust to her new home. Laura Lippman explores how converting to Judaism changed not only Christmas but also her mother's gift of a knitted stocking. Jodi Picoult remembers her grandmother and how through knitting she felt that everlasting love. And Bill Roorbach remembers his freshman year in college when knitting soothed his broken heart and helped him fall in love again. Other contributors include Steve Almond, Ann Leary, Christina Baker Kline, Lee Woodruff, and knitting rock stars Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed and the Yarn Whisperer, Clara Parks. With knitting patterns from renowned stores such as Purl Soho, Hill Country Weavers, and Churchmouse Yarns, Knitting Pearls is by turns delightful and heartbreaking, joyous and wise. These personal stories by award-winning writers celebrate the moments of loss and love intertwined in the rhythm, ritual, and pleasure of knitting. Editorial Reviews 08/17/2015 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. (Nov.) - Publishers Weekly 2015-08-17 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. - Kirkus Reviews This collection (patterns included!) helps explain why knitting is so often the life sport of the literary set. . . . [It] includes a top-flight list of contributors including Maile Meloy, Dani Shapiro, Diana Gabaldon, Jane Hamilton and fiber ‘rock star' Jared Flood. - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Publication Details
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Binding: Hardcover
Published by: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.: , 2015
Edition:
ISBN: 9780393246087 | 0393246086
272 pages.
Book Condition: Good
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