Things I Learned From Knitting: ...whether I wanted to or not [Hardcover]

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 2008

The Yarn Harlot strikes again! Best-selling knitting author and humorist Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is back with an irresistible collection of witty observations on how knitting and life wisdom are spun together.

In Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not), Pearl Mc-Phee examines age-old aphorisms in light of knitting. From "Hope Springs Eternal" to "A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed" and "Birds Of A Feather Flock Together," Pearl-McPhee casts a fresh, off-beat light on these sayings. Presented in quick, punchy takes, each entry in this book calls out to be read aloud and shared with anyone who enjoys playing with yarn and needles.

Pearl-McPhee's observations are hilarious; the situations she describes strike a familiar, "not you, too?" feeling in the heart of anyone who knits. Interspersed throughout the book are her notes on the things that "Knitting is still trying to teach me. . ." That no matter how well you knit, looking at your work too closely isn't helpful. It's like kissing with your eyes open. Nobody looks good that close up.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Pearl-McPhee had the crowd in – ahem – stitches.”

A front-page feature in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Stephanie’s event stated, “ “It’s like our version of Woodstock,” Atlanta business owner Karen Jacobson observed wryly of the event.” Another quote reads, “ “It’s like when I saw the Beatles in 1964. Better, actually. This time I didn’t have to hitchhike to get there.”

(Atlanta Journal Constitution )

“Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a master storyteller.”
(Knitters Review )

From the Inside Flap

Pick up the needles, grab a skein of yarn, cast on…and let the life lessons to begin! From Patience is a Virtue and Hope Springs Eternal to Look Before You Leap, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee applies her trademark humor and wry insights to reveal the wise (and sometimes unexpected) truths contained within 45 familiar adages, understood as only a knitter could.

These irresistible reflections on life will have you laughing, crying and marveling out loud at how amazingly fortunate you are to be living your life as a knitter.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; 1ST edition (March 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603420622
• ISBN-13: 978-1603420624
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 6.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,627 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth adding to the library April 4, 2008

By Karen Tiede VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

It's small, it's Stephanie all the way, and it's a good read. Probably a bit better spread out over a few days instead of all at once. It circles back on itself, but then so does knitting. There are no patterns--yippee! No space wasted on something I wouldn't knit anyway.

It's a bit like going to a support group meeting where you know most of the people except for a few newcomers, and all the oldtimers smile and nod when someone comes in sobbing about the latest disaster and say, "Yeah, that happened to me too, here's what I did to get around it." I had not thought before to compare my knitting expenditures to what people spend on golf, or lawn care.

If you live in a place that's too warm to support full-time sweater and sock knitting, you'll have to do your own translation. I wish the publisher had sprung for a table of contents. I'd like to read a book that explored the ideas in the introduction more deeply; maybe someone else will write that one.

Four not five stars because I use five for books that change my life, and this one simply makes me feel a bit more grounded in the life I have. Four not three because I'm happy to own this and don't think I would have been as satisfied if I'd only read the copy at the library.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning: Don't read in public May 19, 2008

By M. Grigsby VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Uncontrollable laughter while you are reading a book is a pleasure, but a tad embarrassing when in a group of total strangers. Worse yet, I tried reading this book while at a conference where I was supposed to be listening to the (rather dull) speaker. Another mistake! She is hilarious. She spells out 45 lessons that she has learned from knitting. Her descriptions of flinging the knitting across the room, using words our children shouldn't be exposed to, and opening another glass of wine while reading a lace pattern, for example, are all things that most knitters can relate to. Read it and LAUGH in recognition!

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Knitting as meditation and a medium for change May 5, 2008

By Gayle Surrette VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The book is small (about 6.3 inches by 4.2 inches) and fits in a purse for quick moments of reading just about anywhere you're stuck waiting. There's an introduction and 45 things learned with a few lists interspersed. So, it's a perfect book for short breaks as most of the `things' are on average about three pages. It took me a while to read because I chose to read it in short spurts reading 1 or 2 or 3 things at a time.

If you've read the Yarn Harlot's blog you have a good idea of her writing style. It's simple and down to earth, witty, humorous, and often slyly thought provoking. I say slyly thought provoking because she often says she writes knitting humor and she does. But, what she doesn't stress is that her writing is humorous because it based in the knitting culture and in society in general. The introduction talks about attention and filter theories in science (neuro) and psychology and how they apply to knitters. Often knitters take a lot of flack for knitting items that could be purchased cheaper elsewhere or for wasting time (usually said by someone just sitting and doing nothing). Stephanie Pearl-McPhee uses science and common sense to refute some of those charges and to prove to knitters that not only are they taking part in an activity that brings them joy but that also keeps their brains active and engaged, produces usable products (mittens, sweaters, socks, scarfs, and so on), and teaches them new things about life and the world everyday.

She has short essays on lesson learned such as: "Patience is a Virtue". Knitters, she writes, aren't knitters because they are patient but patient because they knit. Basically, on observation, she believes that if you took a knitters knitting away when they are in a situation that requires patience, such as waiting in a doctor's office, the knitter would shortly be climbing the walls. I can certainly agree with this lesson since I find knitting is superior to picking lint out of the air, pacing, or "gasp" staring at the walls wondering if I could climb one.

Another lesson is Practice Makes Perfect. Knitting is an activity that is done over and over again. It's basically of two stitches -- knit and purl -- and with these two stitches you can make socks, sweaters, mittens, and so on. The more you knit the better at it you get. It's a simple concept, but with knitting it is easily seen by an individual. Of course, the book explains this lesson in a much more humorous and illustrative manner. A knitter who wouldn't dream of do-overs for many of life's mistakes will with no prompting unravel and reknit something over and over again until they get it right. This `practice' can transfer and allow knitters to keep trying when things get difficult because with knitting eventually you'll succeed. In life that doesn't always happen but some people never learn to try, try again -- they give up. Knitters persevere.

If you are a knitter, you'll enjoy the book for those flashes of recognition of your own behavior or the behavior of other knitters that you know. You'll also find that after the laughter, when you remember and think about all the lessons learned, that this is not just knitting humor, this is a litany of what knitters know and what they should recognize about themselves and their craft. They are persistent, meditative, creative, good at math, thoughtful, generous, and caring. If you're not a knitter, but know some or hope to be one someday, reading this book to give you an idea of the sorts of things that are involved in knitting. It's not just a craft but as with any art -- a way of life that can profoundly effect how you look at the world.