Customer Reviews

Zen And The Art Of Knitting: Exploring the Links Between Knitting, Spirituality, and Creativity

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My aunt taught me to knit when I was a little girl spending summers with her. My interest in the art has waxed and waned over the years as my children grew up and my career evolved. Now I'm in a place in my life where I find my interest in peace, serenity and spirituality is growing. This book has been a treasure for me. I haven't tried the projects, but I really enjoy the writing and the ideas. It makes me want to go teach knitting at the Boys and Girls Club. It makes me want to knit for charity (several of us "knitticts" have started making premie blankets, caps, booties to donate to inner city hospitals). It makes me want to open a yarn shop. It's encouraged me to have knitting projects available for "pick up" at all times. There is one by my rocker in the living room. One on the sunporch. One in my office for lunch and breaktime. One project road-tripped for 2,000 miles this summer. And one will fly to California with me for my son's wedding this fall. Bernadette Murphy has shown me that the process of knitting is just as important as the finished product and that was a very liberating concept for me. I keep a copy of Zen and the Art of Knitting on my nightstand (and one on my sun porch) because reading it is so calming to me. It really helps me unwind (pardon the pun) when I need to relax.

Before writing this review, I looked over the others that had been written. It seems that many people are buying this book assuming that they will receive knitting tips, patterns, etc. Please review the title CLOSELY before purchasing the book; it says everything. I am a working mother, nurse, wife. For me, my time to craft {I crochet, knit, cross stitch} is my time to reconnect with myself and my inner dreams of spending my days making things for other people to wear and enjoy. Bernadette Murphy touched on this beautifully in this book. Enthralled with celebrities-well yeah, she lives near Hollywood, what do you expect? It's the same with anyone who lives in New York City! There have been many articles recently about women rediscovering their true feminine roots and this book explores this throughly. Unless you craft only for profit, and I mean, it can only mean profit for you, anyone who follows these arts are touched, spritually and mentally, by what their hands create. That is what this book is about.

After reading this book, I not only noticed calmness and peace in my knitting but saw it in my whole life!!! The stories share other knitters views and reasons for knitting. I think everyone looks for the why and how in life, in some way, shape or form. Without having to buy a exercise machine, join the gym, meditate, or diet, this book will leave you with a sense of understanding life just a little bit more.

Sue Kneller

I really enjoyed reading this book for knitting inspiration and for exploring what knitting means to me. The stories and insights about the parallels between knitting and life made me love knitting more than I already did.

I had the opportunity to meet the author at a charity knitting function a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. She exudes a quiet grace and spiritual centeredness in person which is articulated in her book "Zen and the Art of Knitting". Murphy's exploration of the spiritual rewards that are reaped from crafting something out of a simple skein of yarn was motivating and inspiring to this novice knitter.

So many people go through the motions in life, well Ms. Murphy brings to life the motions in knitting. She looks at an age-old art form and gives a wonderful new meditative spin to it. I was impressed with the breadth of interviews that are woven throughout the book, from a missionary in Africa, to a social worker, to professional women, to people using knitting as physical therapy. You get to appreciate the stories shared of the history and community of knitting, with a focus on the psychological and emotional benefits this craft provides. I was even suprised to learn about the knitting revival among young women and some celebrities who have given it a higher profile, so knitting isn't just for your grandmother anymore.

The day I had finished reading this book, a woman I work with noticed the book and asked to look at it. She just wanted to check it out, but she started reading the introduction and then moved into chapter one, I was getting worried she wasn't going to give it back. She finally handed it to me and said she was go to have to go out and buy her own copy. I am sure other people are going to have the same kind of impression.

I liked this book - despite the fact I am basically a crocheter (which M's Murphy never addresses in her book, stating that some work sounds like it's been crocheted and her aversion to synthetic yarn).
M's Murphy details her journey into knitting, along with several other folks' experiences with knitting. She has some small projects at the end of the chapters that would be good for a beginning knitter such as myself. She seems much more interested in fitting knitting to suit her title and chooses her interview subjects to prove it. The chapter about the Waldorf School was especially interesting.
She seems to be a bit enthralled with the celebrities that knit,
It won't take the place of a good pattern book, but it is an interesting read for the times you're trying to rest your hands or inbetween projects. It would also be a good gift for a knitter or even as recommended reading for somebody who wonders why you like to knit.
If you liked "The Knitting Sutra", then you will most likely enjoy this book.

For the first few chapters, I completely enjoyed this book. Murphy has excellent insights into the psychological and spiritual aspects of knitting. My enjoyment of the book was considerably lessened, however, by what I can only call 'fiber snobbery.' It's one thing to prefer natural fibers to man-made; for a lot of projects they're the best choice. But Murphy constantly goes out of her way to deride man-made fibers, calling them false and inauthentic and implying that you can't fully appreciate knitting unless you use 'pure' fibers. This exclusionary tone is a direct contradiction of how she claims to view the communitarian effects of knitting.

Near the end, Murphy makes a comment on yarn prices in a store ranging from nine to sixty dollars. She obviously views nine dollars as a low, reasonable price that anyone can afford. That indicates the audience she's writing for is of a much higher salary level than the average knitter -- she's writing for people who view an expenditure of over [edit $] (for a single project) as a splurge, rather than a sheer impossibility. In short, while she claims to extoll the way knitting brings people together, it seems that she only chooses to associate with, and bases her conclusions on, people of a fairly high economic level.

Although well-written, I only give this book one star because it's much more a memoir than a knitting book. We learn quite a bit about the writer's attitudes and fascination with creative types, but hardly anything about knitting as it exists in the real world. It might have been a better book if she'd included a wider selection of knitters: she mentions living in a neighborhood with lots of immigrants, but she misses the opportunity to relate what they think about knitting. Instead, apart from her aunt the nun, all the people she interviews in depth are movie writers and novelists and students at an exclusive school (which she admits caters primarily to the children of Hollywood "movers and shakers") and people who can devote a whole year to knitting a single mitten. Near the end, she writes that she had to struggle to conceal her excitement when she thinks she sees Meg Ryan in a yarn store, and I think that sums up the book: she's far more interested in celebrities and creative types than knitting itself. The few patterns (more project suggestions, really) and knitting stitches that she includes could be found in any beginner's work.

What a wonderful book! Murphy includes fascinating stories about people from all walks of life and their emotional, psychological, and spiritual relationship to knitting, as well as her own exploration of craft and faith. (And good knitting tips, too.) She really gets into the heart and soul of knitting - and the writing is so beautiful, I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this one.