La vita è bella!

What a great day yesterday: left work rather early, because I had a message from a courrier service that I had a parcel waiting for me at a local book shop. Went there, picked up the parcel and just as I got home and opened my mailbox, there was another message saying that I've something waiting at the post office as well. So, I galopped there as well and because I couldn't get back home yet, run some errands. Bought a lottery ticket, acquired membership to a local video store (which I never had before and which is showing dozens and dozens of DVDs in their windows). Then I went and had a cup of delicious coffee, opened the parcels and enjoyed. Small-scale fun but so fulfilling. And now I'm off to Luxembourg, so just hold the thought. (50 ways to leave your lover and 10 ways to hide your stash. Ladies, enjoy:)

Food for thought.

Oldies goldies.


These are a bit more recent.


For the Love of Knitting - A Celebration of the Knitter's Art, ISBN 0-89658-045-8. 160 pages, plenty of photos (in full colour). "A stunning array of artwork, including current and historical photographs, vingate ads, pattern booklets, and paintings - featuring the artistry of Chris Hartlove, Solveig Hisdal, Debbie New, and Karen Searle - complements the text.", says the sleeve.

Now, this books is aptly named! It truly shows the love, obsession, joy, fulfillment and angst we experience when knitting and it does it by telling stories of each stage in a knitter's life. How did one learn to knit, who taught us, where and how did those teachers acquire their skills. Where do we find suitable yarn, or if we don't, how do we learn to spin and dye it by ourselves. And finally, after spending a while acquiring the yarn, where can we store it (plus top 10 ways to hide the stash). There are stories and pictures of war and the time when knitting was a duty - but before long, they develop into stories of art, expressing yourself, finding your own way of knitting and doing what you want and where you want - hence the story of a knitter in the New York subway: Knit-Surfing. And another of a man who couldn't find anyone to knit him a new Setesdal, so picked up the needles and made one. And about the photos: I find that there are just a bit too many pictures of vintage books and patterns - enough already! But on the other hand they're balanced by photos of big chunky cats; one can never have too many of those.

As you can gather, I'm extremely happy that I bought this book although it doesn't contain any patterns as such. Neither does it offer as much inspiration as I expected. Nevertheless, I enjoy reading the stories of other people, how knitting has affected them, and how knitting and other crafts have run in their family as some sort of heritage.