Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have always enjoyed Stephanie's knitting humor but wasn't sure I would like this one because the format was so different than her previous books. I was wrong. This book is just as true to her knitting humor as the others. I could identify my style from her hilarious antidotes. I would recommend this book to anyone who knits, travels or has family or friends that knit and want to better understand them.

I loved her other three books. She's a funny lady but this book is very amateurish in the way it's been presented. Was it rushed into publication? Has Stephanie run out of material? I not sure what it is, but I don't think she had anything new to say this time. I'm not keeping this book, but I'm happy to pass it along. Someone else might enjoy it. I still love her other three books and they have a place in my knitting library.

I have ALL of her books but this is my least favorite one. I've had it for months and cannot even get thru reading it. With all of her other books I had a lot of good hearty laughes while reading them. This one I don't think has even made me smile. Not sure what is "different" about this book but it's my least favorite. I don't care for the dark green color pages and the drawings on these pages either. Just not easy on the eye.

I would have enjoyed this book more had I not already read the earlier books. People new to Stephanie's writing, or those who know her mainly through her lively blog, will read with pleasure. But, barring the "cute" organizing principle, this is pretty much the same book with the same points as the ones I've read. I have hopes for her next book. And, in the meantime, there is the Yarn Harlot's blog--timely, with pictures!

I really enjoyed Yarn Harlot and Knitting Rules, so I was excited to read the new book. What a disappointment. The "knitting as travel" premise is extremely thin and gets very annoying as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee tries to milk it for all it's worth. The postcards and letters included as part of the travel gimmick are extremely annoying. The stories she tells have been recycled from her blog and from previous books. I gave this book to a couple of friends, and one could not get through it. Although I still enjoy the blog, I seriously regret spending my hard-earned money on this book.

I love her books and love her blog , so I preorderd this book as soon as I could. but I was a little bit disappointed. I love her other books especially the second one. this one is not very much like blog, what I like the most but more about the life of knitters. It's very regogniseble, but less fun than the blog.

I have to admit that I was disappointed with this book. I read Stephanie's blog religiously and always enjoy it, and I own and love each of her previous books.

However, I couldn't seem to get into the travel theme. I found that the lists, although I enjoyed them in the previous two books, became a redundant way to make her point.

Finally, I was put off by the olive green design and found it to be depressing and ultimately annoying.

Will I buy her future books? Of course! This one just didn't delight me the way the others have.