Knitting Lessons: Tales from the Knitting Path

Rating:
Summary: NOT very satisfying overall
Review: As a previous reviewer noted, Nargi weaves (knits?) her personal knitting story in with the stories of other knitters. This wouldn't be so bad, except she doesn't even like knitting. It's as if she felt like she Should be a knitter, and she just doesn't get knitting. Instead of celebrating the stories of people who love knitting, she drags us through her swatch fetish. Also, most of the stories are of knitters in the Northeast and in California. The stories were good, for the most part, but I was very disappointed that Nargi's major focus is on other urban knitters. Your grandmother isn't the only one who knits anymore, but neither is knitting the sole purview of hip urban artists. The book would have been better with more stories of other knitters, and far less of Nargi's personal story.

Rating:
Summary: What A Pleasure
Review: I haven't been knitting long. Just over a year. it is so addictive. This books puts things into a knitter's perspective. You see the story of how others feel about this wonderful handicraft.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste...
Review: Lela Nargi doesn't know what she's talking about - and that comes through loud and clear in this book. She doesn't know how to knit or even what knitting is. She frequently refers to knitting as making knots -- and it's not that at all. She doesn't know anything about the yarns as they should be used. I read this book to the end because I had spent money on it -- but I was so frustrated with the author by the end that I was grinding my teeth. Fortunately, tossing the book where it won't be found again and a few minutes of knitting quickly calmed me.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste...
Review: The author did a good job of interviewing knitters from a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, knitting experience and locales. I enjoyed the many anecdotes of the knitters she spoke to - there was a good variety. Enjoyable reading.

The thing I liked best was learning of other knitting resources and websites - as well as feeling like I was having coffee/tea and a comfy chat with each knitter who presented themselves via essay.

My only concern with the book was that the author herself had very little knitting experience. At the time of the writing, she had only been knitting for less than two years. That would be okay, except that she kept inserting her own personal knitting "story" in between the stories of others - and the fact is, she didn't seem to enjoy the knitting experience herself. After one frustrating attempt to knit socks, she mostly knit just swatches of various stitches and described her ongoing frustration and even boredom with knitting. It almost seemed as if this was a journalist/writer in need of a writing project - and she turned to her new-found knitting hobby as a source of something to write about. I would have enjoyed the book even more if she'd expressed some level of satisfaction or joy with the knitting process itself.