Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting [Paperback]

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2007

From the best-selling author of At Knit's End and Knitting Rules! comes yet another hilarious book of tongue-in-cheek observations on the world of knitting. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off invites knitters of all ages, levels, and persuasions to embark with her on a journey deep into the land populated by those who are obsessed with yarn, needles, and what’s on their needles now.

Using a travel guide format as her launching pad, Pearl-McPhee acts as tour guide extraordinaire, displaying her trademark razor-sharp wit as she describes and critiques every aspect of this land she knows so well — its people, native language, familiar phrases, strange beliefs, etiquette, and cultural customs. Readers will love her timeline of notable dates in knitting history and rarely celebrated knitting heroes, from the samurai warriors of Japan to the "Ter-rible Knitters of Dent." And, while the land of knitting is a peaceful place, it does have its political arguments, such as the acrylic versus natural fi bers and circular versus straight needles debates.

As she's toured (and knit) her way across North America during the past two years, Pearl-McPhee's smart, perfectly timed banter has captured the hearts, minds, and funny bones of thousands of knitters far and wide. No fan is going to want to be left behind as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off on her latest yarn-bound expedition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Her insights into the workings of a yarn-a-holic's mind are charming."—Detroit Free Press (Detroit Free Press ) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Back Cover

1) Pack your Bags (How much yarn?)

2) Map out your course (Where's the closest yarn store?)

3) Learn the language ("Just one more row...")

4) Find your traveling buddies. (Look for the telltale needle holes in the purse)

5) And cast off with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on a trip from which you may never return—if you're lucky.

Knitting's Yarn Harlot, with her wry humor and unapologetic, obsessive love for everything about this remarkable place, invites you to join her on a hilarious tour of the land, its people, customs, and culture. She tells all—from unusual geographical features such as the giant stash to common ailments you may be susceptible to, like Yarnesia, Finish-It-Upitis, and the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. Along the way, you may get lost in Stitches or engrossed by the beauties of Lace, but, whatever happens, it's sure to be the journey of a lifetime.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (March 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580176585
• ISBN-13: 978-1580176583
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I am a normal knitter after all, April 2, 2007

By 

nanapama (Dorchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting (Paperback)

I feared for my sanity. I'd just spent an entire evening looking at the child's sweater I'm knitting which causes me extreme pain with every stitch. The double yarn twisty stitch called for by the pattern is so painful I can't do more that one row at a time. The sweater is clearly going to still be under construction when the child is in college. Problem is I've already spent more than eighty dollars on the yarn.(Yes - I know I'm a little touched in the head and no - the child is not a heiress.)

Then I got my copy of "The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting" and found my dilemma was perfectly normal. I'd taken an unfortunate wrong turn in my knitting journey and if I want to scrap the project, I'm not insane. I just headed up the wrong path. All this vindication from one book - obviously the book is worth its weight in gold.

Fortunately, the book is a lot cheaper than that and is one that every knitter should keep in their knitting bag; if for no other reason than to occasionally do a sanity check. I have to admit I love the Yarn Harlot. I read her blog regularly, (one of the few blogs I do read) and I've read all her other books. She gives me hope when I hit forks in the road, like the one mentioned above, whether in knitting or in life. This book is a little different than the others - no short stories, no great knitting tips, this is not a how-to book. This is a wonderful affirmation of the joys of the knitting journey; the joy is not in the finished object, it's the fun in getting there. No matter what kind of knitter you are, the kinds of knitting hurdles you've faced or the amount of yarn you've accumulated, you'll find yourself in the book.

Buy it, give it a read and see if you agree with me. You may find, all indications to the contrary, you are a totally, normal knitter. You've just taken your own path in the Land of Knitting.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very funny but not my favourite of her books, April 13, 2007

By 

Guide Mum "Lexina" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting (Paperback)

I love Yarn Harlot's writing. I read her blog and appreciate her very balanced and hilarious view of life as a knitter (Can you have a balanced view of life when you are a knitter? *g*).

I was hanging out for "Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off" as I have read and then dipped back into her other books constantly, my favourite being At Knit's End. I have a sneaky suspicion that this latest book will grow on me, and as someone said in an earlier review it does validate knitters as being sane (or at the very least insane in good company). There were parts of it that I related to so closely that they could have been written specifically about me. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a very astute observer of knitters and knitting culture.

This book is definitely worth buying, but if you only want to get one book and haven't read her earlier books I'd suggest buying either of them first.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hit or Miss, March 11, 2008

By 

C. Wallis Davenport "joyous2" (New York State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting (Paperback)

I am truly disappointed in Pearl-McPhee's "Cast Offs". I'm giving it three stars, instead of two or one, only because if you've never read her material before, I think you'd like it more than I did. However, I've read her three other laugh-out-loud books, and this one dims by comparison. I feel her problem is that she starts off welcoming the knitter/reader to "The Land of Knitting", and writes "Cast Offs" from a travelogue point of view. Her attempt to be a witty commentary on knitting while remaining in this style seems forced for much of the book. Sometimes, it hits, as when she talks about traveling to foreign "embassies" (local knit shops in foreign cities), while other times it misses its mark (talking about different "diseases" a knitter may encounter while in the land of knitting (like "SSS" for second sock syndrome). While these themes work for a sentence or two in previous books, stretching them out for a page or a chapter really didn't work for me. In fact, I had to force myself to finish "Cast Offs" just so I could tell my parents that they didn't waste their money by giving me this book. Really, this book isn't up to her earlier standards. If you've never read her before, you may like it, but I'd more heartily recommend "The Yarn Harlot", over "Cast Offs" any day.