I could have kissed the UPS-man today when he delivered this.  I simply adore all of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s books.  They make me laugh and cry and feel connected to all the other thousands of people who share the knitting obsession hobby.

I haven’t had a chance to start reading it yet (hopefully before bed tonight!) but just the inside-cover makes me smile:

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot) returns to pen another hilarious, insightful, and poignant collection of essays surrounding her favorite topics: knitting, knitters, and what happens when you get those two things anywhere near ordinary people.  Free Range Knitter shares stories of knitting horrors and triumphs and knitting successes and defeats, but, mostly, it shares stories about the human condition that ring true for everyone–especially if you happen to have a rather large amount of yarn in your house.

Really, how can you not love the Yarn Harlot?!  And my husband wonders why I did a little happy-dance around the living room when I opened the box from Amazon.com?  Pfft, seriously.  I’m off to read…

Christmas-knitting is actually coming along well.  (Shocking, I know.)  I was able to cross two items off my list:

(One Row Handspun Scarf and the Amanda Hat)

The scarf is made out of some handspun corriedale from Sakina Needles and the hat is Malabrigo Worsted.  On the garter rows, I held together a single-ply of the handspun with the Malabrigo to incorporate the colors of the scarf into the hat a bit more.  I’m debating on using what’s left of the single-ply to add some fringe to the scarf.  Hmmm.  Haven’t decided yet.  Anyway, both are for my grandmother.  Hopefully she’ll like them.

I also started a scarf.  I’m knitting it up using some positively yummy Cascade Cash Vero DK that recently came in stock at my LYS.  The pattern is the Palindrome scarf, which is a reversible cable.  I added one extra repeat (4 cables instead of 3) to account for the yarn being DK weight rather than the heavy-worsted that the pattern was originally designed for.  I’m pleased with the results thus far and I’m shocked at how far I’ve gotten in a very short time.  I worked on it at a knitting get-together last night at Barnes and Noble and I made it well over halfway through the first ball of yarn.  I’m hoping that four balls total will be enough to amount to a reasonable length.

Oh!  Speaking of Barnes and Noble, whie we were there last night, one of the gals in my knitting-group got one of the employees to go in the back and pull a copy of the new Mason-Dixon book.  Oh my gosh is it ever fab-u-lous!  It’s now on my Christmas wishlist (*hint, hint*).

… AND, speaking of books — the new Yarn Harlot book, Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again, should be available any time now.  There was a post about it on the Yarn Harlot blog a couple days ago.  I’ve had mine on pre-order for what seems like months.  I’m so geeked about this book.  I enjoy Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s writing so very much.  I can’t wait to get my copy.  Yay for Amazon.com overnight shipping.

Anyway, aside from Christmas-knitting and stalking bookstores, I’ve been making soap.

Er — well, no.  Not making soap.  I’m more melting, mixing, and pouring soaps.  I haven’t attempted the actual making yet, though I hope to do so eventually (once I learn enough about it to get over my fear of lye-burns).

Bramble Berry has become my new favorite website to stalk and I’ve gotten several new books to read all about soaps and essential oils (Storey Publishing owns my soul at this point).

It’s all really, really fascinating honestly.  I might’ve been a lot more interested in Accelerated Chemistry I and II during high school had it been put in the context of things like this!  I think it appeals to me because it satisfies my geeky-technical side as well as my creative side all at the same time.  There’s a lot of precision measurement and science involved, but a lot of asthetics as well.  I have soooo many ideas for different soaps I want to make.  (Guess what everyone’s getting in their Christmas-stockings this year…?)  Honestly though, who can’t use a few bars of pleasent-smelling soap?  Yup.

Needless to say, I’m keeping busy.  As always.

I was excited to finally get my copy of 101 Designer One Skein Wonders in the mail earlier this week. I have the first book (One Skein Wonders) and I’ve found it’s most helpful for using up stray balls of yarn that inevitably accumulate in your stash.

The book has photos of all the projects in the front with directions in the back. They’re arranged by the weight of yarn that’s used. If you’re looking for patterns to use up chunky-weight yarns, this won’t be the book for you. There are patterns for lace weight up through heavy sport weight yarn. There are also a few patterns specially designed for mohair and novelty yarns.

I haven’t knitted any of the patterns from this book yet but if the first book was any indication, I’m sure they’ll be easy to follow. One complaint I’ve heard from others is that this book writes out the patterns rather than using charts. For me, that’s not a problem because I’m not much of a chart-knitter, but some readers might find this irritating.

I’ve already bookmarked several patterns: flip-top mittens, arm-warmers, a lacy beanie hat, a ribbed vest, his & hers soap holders, a knitted notebook cover, and an eyelet shrug. And that’s just at first glance through the book. I’m sure when I go through it a second time (probably looking for a project for a specific skein of stray yarn), there will be even more patterns that catch my eye.

I definitely recommend this book. It’s great for small projects: gifts or just things to pass the time. It’s also great for stash-busting. If you liked the first book, then definitely pick up this book. It’s also so reasonably-priced that there’s really no reason to not snatch it up!

One of my favorite knitting books is One Skein Wonders. I always seem to have stray balls of yarn lying around. (Typically because I’m at the yarn shop and see something beautiful and exotic, but can only afford one or two balls of it.) The mittens I’m currently knitting are from a pattern contained in this book.

Anyway! The folks who brought you that book (and soon their new book, 101 Designer One Skein Wonders, which you can now pre-order on Amazon) now have a website! The site includes several projects, organized by weight of yarn.

[via Lime & Violet's Daily Chum]

I picked up a copy of At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much at the library yesterday and I’ve been reading through it.

I just hit a passage on page 20 that made me giggle:

I am pretty darned sure that knitting with wire was not a knitter’s intentional artistic act, but instead the desperate move of an obsessive knitter trapped in a town with no yarn shop … but five hardware stores.

Yup, think I’m going to really enjoy this book.
Incidentally, I’ve never knit with wire before. I’ve seen some projects done with knitted wire, though, and they’re pretty neat!