Knitlandia

Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World by Clara Parkes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Clara Parkes, whose first subject as a professional writer was travel, takes us on a tour of knitting and fiber festivals. Some of her adventures as a yarn evangelist are set in venues that thousands of knitters have shared -- Rhinebeck, Taos, Scotland, Portland, Maryland. Some tell background stories of festivals and events we dream of attending - Squam, TNNA, Vogue Knitting Live, Madrona. We are there at Sock Summit for the first knitting flash mob, we are in Denver to film "Knitting Daily" (as she is encased in makeup that makes her feel "like Ronald MacDonald in drag," and we go along on a tour of sheep-intensive Iceland. Always, there is pho, her comfort food, and yarn, in all of its incarnations and manifestations.

My favorite moments are in Paris, where she breaks a promise (no yarn! just family!) and visits a petting zoo of a shop" that offers yarn and tea. Years before, she tells us, she fell in love with fountain pens in Paris. How can anyone not be delighted with this book?

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for a fair review.


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six word memoir

I've been tagged by sunt_lacrimae_rerum (Gubbinal), who read it on the blog of The Little Professor. (NPR has a slideshow of some good ones, and a book of these mini-memoirs, Not Quite What I Was Planning, has been published.) Here are the directions:

• 1. Write your own six word memoir.
• 2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
• 3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
• 4. Tag five more blogs with links.

Here's mine:

Wrong choice, wrong reason? Drink tea.

Let's see... I will tag Knitnana, Anna, Kellli, OfTroy, and LICraftgal.

Edited 3.25.09 - Sarah, The Reading Knitter, wants to play, too!