Kass picked "Yarn Harlot" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for the January 2025 book.
"It's a pretty fast read and one that should get us talking about all
kinds of "It's a new year" topics. It seems to be readily available, but
only a few copies at a time, so let me know if you have a hard time
tracking it down. "Yarn Harlot" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee... and please
don't let this book scare you if you're not a knitter. We all have our
"thing" and knitting just happens to be hers. I read this years ago and
loved it... excited to read it all with you," said Kass.
About the book:
Stephanie
Pearl-McPhee's deepest wish is that everyone understand that knitting
is at least as fun as baseball and way cooler than the evil looped path
of crochet. Every project, from a misshapen hat to the most magnificent
sweater, holds a story. Yarn Harlot tells all those stories with humor, insight, and sympathy for the obsessed.
Over
50 million people in America knit. The average knitter spends between
$500 and $1,700 a year on yarn, patterns, needles, and books. No longer
just a fad or a hobby, knitting has advanced to a lifestyle.
Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter
moves beyond instructions and patterns into the purest elements of
knitting: obsession, frustration, reflection, and fun. Stephanie
Pearl-McPhee's humorous and poignant essays find humor in knitting an
enormous afghan that requires a whopping 30 balls of wool, having a
husband with size 13 feet who loves to wear hand-knit socks, and earns
her "yarn harlot" title with her love of any new yarn--she'll quickly
drop an old project for the fresh saucy look of a new interesting yarn.
Since
the upsurge in knitting began in the early '90s, the number of women
under 45 who knit has doubled. Knitting is no longer a hobby for just
grandmothers--women and men of all ages are embracing this art.
Describing its allure is best left to Stephanie who explains: "It is a
well-known fact that knitting is a sparkling form of entertainment, as
spiritual as yoga, as relaxing as a massage, and as funny as Erma
Bombeck trapped in a PTA meeting."
About the author:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is the author of Yarn Harlot, At Knit's End,
Knitting Rules!, and Casts Off. She maintains a popular blog at
www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/. She lives with her family in an untidy,
wool-filled house in Toronto, where she avoids doing the laundry and
knits whenever she gets a minute.
