Eye Candy

Also known as books. Books are really the one guilty pleasure that you can actually rationalize the accumulation of as "education," even books about yarn. So even when I can't get any yarn and summer lethargy has taken a toll on my knitting mojo, I can still sate my fiber craving by owning books about it. I have a small collection of knitting related books, about 15 books total, all of which have proven to be fantastic. Each book has multiple patterns or helpful hints, not just one or two or even a handful of favorites, corroborated by not only myself, but others’ opinions as well. I purchased "Victorian Lace Today" after reading Gumperina's review on it and am totally in love with it and I don't knit lace.

The petite nature of my personal library due to limited space allocation, the overwhelming number of Star Wars novels that came with my marriage and very strict standards. Since I don't live near a bookstore where my bibliophilia can be nurtured (Welcome to the Middle of Nowhere!), this is mainly accomplished by one of two methods. The first method is the latter; Another knitter has reviewed the book and given a detailed description and several example pictures of why the book is great. It is important that a knitter has reviewed the book whether it be on their personal blog or in a forum or on a more "commercial" site like knitter's review. If a non-knitter reviewed the book I consider it a moot point. Would you listen to doctor's review on how to fix your leaky pipes? No, you would want a plumber to tell you that and let the doctor stick to medicine. The second method is to check the book out from the library. Once I have reviewed the book myself, I either immediately add it to my amazon wishlist or thank my lucky stars I didn't buy it. I think the reasoning behind this method is pretty self explanatory.

One author in particular pretty much defies any attempt to be contained and thus is exempt from these practices. Elizabeth Zimmerman, or EZ, needs no review. (I affectionately think of her as the Chuck Norris of the knitting world. EZ doesn't knit. She just stares at the yarn until it forms its own sweater.) Any EZ book is immediately added to my amazon wishlist, because I unfortunately do not own many EZ books.

So last week when the Hubby needed to spend a few extra dollars to make the free shipping rate, I offered to pitch in and pick up a new book by EZ. I was super excited. I purchased The Knitter’s Almanac which contains the renowned February sweater (ravel it) and I just found out my girlfriend is having her baby girl in December. There was some serious baited breath until it arrived, people.

It arrived this week and has taken it's place of honor on the 'knitting' shelf after being thoroughly perused, of course. See it? It's the fourth one from the right.

I just didn't expect it to be quite so...small. You know what they say about things that come in small packages don't you? Good things, only good things.