My favorite-ever book review
Wednesday December 26th 2007, 12:56 pm
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This was posted to KnitTalk a few weeks after the release of my book in June by someone I have known for several years as Sara in Houston (my brain had begun to register her name as actually being Sara Houston; some silly part of me was surprised to learn afterwards that no, her last name was actually something different.)  I asked her if I could put this on my website, and she responded, “Sure!”  So here goes, with my thanks:

———–

Day before yesterday, Alison’s book arrived, so whatever else it was
that I had to get done that day just didn’t get gotten to. 🙂
Instead, I put on my bathing suit (which isn’t usually accomplished
with such happy anticipation) and although we’re in Houston and it’s
already pretty steamy, I turned on the heat in the hot tub in the
backyard for just a little bit to get it just right. Then I gathered
a Pink Ribbons tube-bolster sort of water pillow that I love, the
softest towel, and Alison’s book, and hopped in. This was, oh, say,
early afternoon. And started reading…..every story (snorting with
laughter so many times, but by the time she delivered “‘I’m not guano wear it!'” I was howling), admired every pattern, marked lots of them, and then reread the beginning again (“My Story”) and
then “About the Author” at the end again, and again
the “Acknowledgments,” and then flipped to the back outside cover so I could pretend I hadn’t really read *every* word there. After
contemplating the ISBN number and affirming “Price higher in CAN,” it occurred to me that I hadn’t admired the patterns I thought were most lovely quite long enough, so I admired them again. And the one on the page before. And the one after. Again and again, with the
darkness approaching. You know what I was doing, don’t you. You’ve
been there — when you don’t want a great book to end? And the way I figured it, as long as I was reading it, it hadn’t. It was somewhere
around 8:30 p.m. when I reluctantly toweled off and headed back
inside, sorry that I had to draw the conversation with Sue and then
Kathy to a close, sorry that Dave, his wife, and their twins had to
call it a night, (I don’t Wanda do it!), sorry that Karen had already
left some chicken out for the turtles, so I’d have to wait til
tomorrow to see them reappear, sorry that I couldn’t decide which
storied shawl to start first……and.…I have to be honest…sorry
that I couldn’t get the song “If you’re going to San Francisco” out
of my head! 🙂

If only Alison didn’t design such delicious shawls, if only she
didn’t know so many interesting people (or see what’s interesting in
so many), if only she would write something…pedestrian and
forgettable, if only she hadn’t lived so many lifetimes with grace
and insight, if only her words would STAY PUT and didn’t fly off the
page leading us on some magic carpet ride (ha! try to get THAT song
out of your head!), then I would have gotten a lot more important
stuff done, like laundry and cleaning cabinets and making many lists
of many more important things to do, and day before yesterday would have been…..just like the day before that.

But she did do all of those things, which turned my day into
something altogether different — a sort of weightlessness, lacey and
liquid and lovely, a suspension of time with time to think. And to
laugh. A lot. Loudly. Thank you, Alison!

Yeeesh! Things are getting pretty deep. All right, I’ll bring my
flights of fancy in for a landing by saying simply….if you want to
see someone work magic with words and wool, read the book.

Sara in Houston


3 Comments so far
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hi i loved the embossed diamond afghan,seems so cossy and dreamfull in it. i would like to make one but i live in a hot climate all year long. i want to use it to dress a sofa in my room. is this afghan heavy in weight and how warm is it. can i make it in another kind of yarn, to make it lighter and not so warm? if so, which yarn do you recomend, and how much should i buy to make one the same size? keeping in mind that i still want to see the depth in each diamond.

Comment by patricia 04.14.08 @ 12:22 pm

I agree, this is a great review. Your book is so enjoyable– enough as a knitting book, but a whole lot more. So when is the next one coming out? :o)

Comment by Bonnie 07.20.08 @ 5:22 am

The embossed afghan is just stunning. I’m going to do one in a winter white and one in blue for a baby blanket. Your textures are amazing and the patterns are easy! Thank you, Alison.

Comment by kathy doto 05.20.12 @ 9:00 am



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