Knitting Pearls: Writers Writing About Knitting

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. [em](Nov.) [/em]