Books, Books, Books! Spinning, Knitting and Wootness
There’s this legendary guy in the Ravelry group, Thrifty Knitters. Seriously, everyone there pretty much hates him for his serious skillz in finding all kinds of neat knitting stuff—needles, knitting machines, yarn, all that good stuff. Well, we don’t hate him, but we sure envy him. Well, I think I made a pretty good find myself at a used booksale over the weekend.
Every time that I look for knitting books at thrift shops or different places, I see the Sad Evidence Of A Prehistoric Cross-Stitch Craze, Akin To The Tulip Mania In Holland. If I wanted, I could have built myself 3 or 4 houses out of the millions of cross-stitch books that I run across. This also applies to quilting books, but to a lesser degree. Apparently, knitters hang onto their books with a lot more tenacity than the Crazed Cross-Stitchers of the 1980s.
However, sometimes I’m lucky. At this booksale, by the time that I reached the craft books, women jammed the aisle. Apparently, moving aside wasn’t one of their strong points, even if it was just to let someone pass them by. I don’t expect someone to give me their spot in a crowded place but if you stand in the same spot for 15 minutes and don’t move a few inches so I get past you, it gets a little irritating. Let’s say that my frantic impatience was exacerbated by the fact that I was on the exact opposite end of the aisle from the knitting books.
However, when I got there….holy moly!
As I started to pull book after book off the shelf, I started to get some odd looks at the giant pile that started to grow on the floor. This was incredible. And I left books there, too. Weaving books, some crochet books, one or two knitting books I already had, etc. I’ll list my haul, for lack of a better way to communicate my delirious joy. Keep in mind, none of these cost over $5.
- 2—yes, 2—copies of the old hardcover edition of Barbara Walker’s first treasury.
- Knitting For Peace
- Spinning Wool: Beyond the Basics
- Color in Spinning
- A Dyer’s Garden
- Teen Knitting Club
- Homespun, Handknit
- Spinning and Weaving with Wool
- New Directions in Fair Isle Knitting (older edition
- Fair Isle Knitting, by Sarah Don
- 6 ‘Threads’ magazines with knitting/dyeing articles for $2
- 1999 Intweave Knits magazine for 10 cents
I also (accidentally) picked up 4 issues of a Canadian machine knitting magazine called Knitwords. I didn’t realize that it was about machine knitting. I will probably destash these, along with my extra copy of the Barbara Walker treasury. I have a younger sister who views my knitting book collection as her personal enemy, which means that I can’t afford to keep any books that I don’t absolutely love or need!
Anyway, I feel like that was a pretty good find. Take that, Thrifty Man on Ravelry!
September 7, 2008. Tags: a dyer's garden, barbara walker treasury, color in spinning, freakin-lot-of-books, holy cow!, knitting for peace, spinning and weaving with wool, spinning with wool: beyond the basics, teen knitting club. Knittin' Porn. 7 comments.
