At last, Clara Parkes’ newest book has arrived at the shop! We pre-ordered it before it was even published, but its popularity has kept it backordered for months. Anne and I were so excited when a stack of them showed up this week.
Clara Parkes, for the uninitiated, is a writer, designer, and expert reviewer of all things fiber. She’s the blogger behind Knitter’s Review, and it’s there that we first learned about some of our favorite products, needles, and yarns. We keep her first three books in good stock at the shop, wonderful resources that they are: The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, The Knitter’s Book of Wool, and The Knitter’s Book of Socks.
Her writing is clever, approachable, well-informed, often humorous, and sometimes downright moving. At TNNA this past June, we were delighted to discover that she’s just the same way in person. I anticipate that The Yarn Whisperer will bring us more of the same, but don’t expect patterns or techniques from this book; it’s a collection of essays, musings on a life of knitting and yarn. “The book was born from a simple notion,” Clara writes. “We are what we knit. … Over the years I’ve realized just how deeply knitting itself—our stitches, materials, techniques—is a metaphor for who we are and the lives we live.”
If knitting has played an important role in your life and you’d like a good book on the subject, come by the shop and pick up a copy of The Yarn Whisperer for yourself or a knitter friend. See you there!