"Everything already feels so hard in the middle of a pandemic; why am I trying to do something even harder?"
This is a book for the yarnies, for sure. I'm not sure if non-yarn people would be into this, but clearly I am those people, I know these people, and I will probably be passing my book around to more of those people (not to mention hyping it on my yarn mailing list).
Some people did a bunch of projects during their year of lockdown (i.e. me). Other people just chose to do one giant project, which is what Peggy did during hers. In my area we have what we call Sheep to Shawl, a weekend competition in which a team of people create a shawl literally from scratch. Peggy decided to more or less do this (except with a sweater) over the course of the year, by herself, having to track down various people to teach her how to shear a sheep, wash the fleece, how to spin, how to dye the "rustic" yarn with natural dyes, and finally knitting the sweater. She dubs it ugly, but I disagree, I think it's quite cute. While I was annoyed that no actual photos are in the book, the back jacket has some color ones, including a cropped one of the sweater, this article on the book has a better picture.
This is interspersed with Peggy's reports of pandemic life and fears, fears of fires going on in the Bay Area, drought showering, her father's decline from a distance. She also has researched the history of these activities, which is fun if you're a fiber nerd. My particular favorite was the dyes chapters, since I was a design major and I've done that whole "natural dyes" thing before and am well aware of the rareness of purple, the expensive grossness of cochineal, and I got downright excited when she got into mauvine and the creation of chemical dyes. I also enjoyed the section on knitting and protest--Peggy did a related NYT piece on this that I loved.
By the time Peggy finishes the sweater, I don't think she sounds too thrilled with it--she says it weighs nearly three pounds and is now the heaviest one she owns and can never wear it in the Bay Area. (I live adjacent to that region, am from that region, and I laughed at this because I'm freaking freezing over here and this is when I wear my three pound sweaters.) "It's all knit in there. This whole damned year. No wonder the result feels like lead." In the end, everyone gets vaccines and literally moves on with their lives in different locations--though in Peggy's case, nearer to a yarn store.
I enjoyed this. Four stars from me.
Comments