Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft [Paperback]

Susan Gordon Lydon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2005

From the author of the modern classic The Knitting Sutra comes an inspiring and colorful narrative on knitting through one’s darkest hours.

Susan Gordon Lydon’s groundbreaking book The Knitting Sutra offered a new way for knitters to look at their craft—as a healing and meditative endeavor instead of a granny hobby or an indulgent pastime. The first book without knitting patterns to capture the knitting audience, it has been widely imitated, but no other book has endured so well.

With Knitting Heaven and Earth, Lydon again breaks new ground, this time following the emotional ties that become bound up in her handicrafts when a series of wrenching events—a heartbreaking romance, the death of her father, a devastating diagnosis of breast cancer—leave her reeling. Through it all, Lydon finds new reserves of strength in knitting, in the skeins of sumptuous yarn and colorful thread that help her make sense of the trials of the heart.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This will surely become the breviary of knitters and needlepointers, a carry-along-everywhere book of inspiration and courage written in prose that is richly embroidered, colorful, weighty, and textured—like a comforting shawl.”—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake

“Susan Gordon Lydon’s big heart, clear words, and naked honesty weave the overwhelming pain of life, love, friendship, and death with the comfort of ordinary moments, the texture of yarn, a walk in the woods, having lunch with a child.  She shows us how knitting helps us stay steady through it all.”
—Cyndi Lee, author of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind and OM Yoga in a Box

“Susan Lydon's writing makes me laugh and cry, often at the same time. She is a master of black (and biker) humor. When I finished this book, I started again on the first page.”
—Barbara Gates, author of Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place


“I love this book. Profound and practical, its heartbeat is on every page. Susan Gordon Lydon’s journey of spirit is filled with courage, sadness and joy, giving us an important reminder of how to find the sacred in everyday life.”
—Sue Bender, author of Plain and Simple: A Journey to the Amish

About the Author

SUSAN GORDON LYDON is the author of Take the Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Survivor and The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice. She has written for numerous magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Ms., Interweave, Knits, and Rolling Stone, which she helped found. She has also taught knitting retreats at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Lydon lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Potter Craft (June 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767915658
• ISBN-13: 978-0767915656
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tender, honest, wise., August 7, 2005

By 

AutumnHarvest (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft (Paperback)

As I was about halfway thru this book I learned that Ms. Lydon had died (July 15, 2005), which made reading the remainder of the book-mostly about her returning cancer-all the more poignant. I had eagerly awaited this book after enjoying her book,The Knitting Sutra, a couple of years ago, and for the most part I was not dissapointed. I was not as enamoured with the chapters about her unhealthy relationship with Billy, but that is probably because as a recovering co-dependent myself, they hit a nerve. But I savored so much of everything else in this little jewel of a book, and I will certainly miss Ms. Lydon's voice.

It is not a perfect book, but it is a very good one. Her style is gentle, honest, insightful, and wise. I made a lot of notes in my journal as I read this. I am not a knitter, but the message is universal to me as a crochet person, as it would be to any type of crafter. Writing about the connection of the outer effort to the inner self, craft as meditation, a centering tool, the journey not the destination-the core themes of this book-Ms. Lydon drew me in completely. I read it as a gift. And, of course I could relate to the lure of yet more yarn, another project, unfinished ones still crammed in closets, or piled up on the chair a friend is trying to find a way it sit on!

This book does not teach us to knit, it shows us how knitting (crochet, quilting, scrapbooking, etc.,)connects us to parts of ourselves we may have lost, to parts we need to understand and heal, and to parts we need to nurture while we are in the middle of the harsh stuff life can slam in our faces (cancer, the loss of a parent, etc.)

This is a book I will keep and read again. I am proud to own it, and it will sit on my shelf as one of my "paper teachers"-the books that taught me something and fed my soul as well as my mind.

Rest in deserved peace, Ms. Lydon. You are already missed!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crafts and life, August 3, 2005

By 

EChris (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft (Paperback)

I'm a quilter, not a knitter, but I have experienced the calming nature of working with my hands. I also went through chemo with Susan, and was a member of the support group she talks about in this book. She writes so eloquently, and with such humor, about her life. Everyone I have given this book to has loved it, but it has a special place for me.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knitting Inspiration, September 28, 2006

By 

Readerski (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft (Paperback)

What a wonderful book. Ms. Lydon wove memoir and craft into a fascinating and inspirational read.

Her book spurred me to try lace knitting. I'm knitting my first lace garment right now: The bird's nest shawl from Folk Shawls, a book to which Ms. Lydon often refers. I'm knitting it in a tangerine cotton yarn for my grandmother, who lives in south Texas.

About 10 pages from the end of the book, I couldn't stand it anymore and went online to see if I could find her email address and write to her about her wonderful book. I found her obituary instead. Rest in peace, Susan.