Books Books Books

I've added some knitting books to the library recently. A quick review:


Purchased from the library book sale: Knitting Know-How, The Complete Book of Knitting and Debbie Bliss - Bright Knits for Kids.
The first two are reference books - Knitting Know-How is arranged like a dictionary - and has diagrams and pictures for everything from how to measure each part of your body to knitting hoods and many other garments.
The Complete Book of Knitting is more in-depth - it has detailed descriptions of different weights and content of yarns, descriptions of a variety of notions and several simple stitch patterns.
I think both will be handy, for different little things.

Bright Knits for Kids is a bit, well, bright. Most of the items are very cute, though I would change the color scheme if and when I make them. A good "just-in-case" book for any additional kids knits I may need! Lots of cute fair isle and cabled patterns.


On Monday I had a stressful morning, including getting run off the road by a moving van (I'm OK - there was no curb or anything - just a bit of pavement and hard ground, so I was able to get out of his way safely). So to cheer myself up, I decided to stop by Half Price Books on my way to JoAnn's. I've found a few gems in their knitting section before (including Knitting on the Edge, Knitting in Plain English, and my biggest score - The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns). Monday was another great find. I got Debbie Bliss - The Celtic Collection, Debbie Bliss - Nursery Knits, and the Best of Knitter' Magazine - Shawls and Scarves. All these for $17!!!
The Celtic Collections is beautiful - patterns for all ages, cables and fair isle, easy to more challenging. I cannot wait to make several sweaters from this book!
Nursery Knits is great too - more of the same, but for babies. Also some cute booties, and stuffed toys. More babies to knit for please! Send them my way!
And I love most of the patterns in Shawls and Scarves. I was apprehensive at first, because I wasn't really impressed with Socks Socks Socks. But this one is very well done. There are several patterns that I can't wait to knit up, including the Lotus Blossom Shawl.

If you have a Half Price Books near you, run to check these out! They also had several SCARY Vogue Knitting books from the 80s, that aren't worth the $$ for laughs now, but if they are ever in the clearance section, you'll see them here!

Maybe I don't want this job I interviewed for - it would cut into my knitting time!

Speaking of cutting into knitting time, I volunteered to be an "angel" for a sock pal who never got socks. I'm very nearly done with the Christmas knitting, and I never blogged about it, but I felt left down my the pal I made socks for. I received beautiful socks (that I wear the first day they are clean!), but the knitter I made socks for never mentioned them on her blog, and I only heard that she got them when I emailed her to check. I also have a sneaking feeling that she dumped whomever she was supposed to knit for because she never mentioned that either. At any rate, I wanted to cheer up someone, and I needed another project I could work on in front of The Man, plus I really needed a yarn buying "fix" and this was a great excuse!

I went back to Jennings Street Yarn (no website), since I was in the area, and was much more impressed this time. The owner had restocked her Trekking sock yarn and had nearly three full bins of it. I picked up a skein for my sock pal and one *may* have jumped into the bag for me. The owner was also very nice to me - I was wary because I had heard mixed things, but she was helpful and polite.

The blue/grey is for sockpal socks, the pink and brown is for me. The Man even said it was "very nice."
This is my first time knitting with the Trekking, and while I'm only about 1 inch into the cuff I'm enjoying it. It's very soft, and I can't wait to see what it feels like as I get further along.

I'm not planning to have these done by Christmas or the end of the year, but I hope to have them done in early January. And I hope this time they are appreciated!

And mom, I hope this was more exciting for you than yesterday! :)