Book Review: A Passion for Knitting

Title: A Passion for Knitting

Author: Nancy J. Thomas

Publisher; Simon & Schuster

Date: 2002

ISBN: 0-684-87069-X

Length: 262 pages plus index

Quote: “As with any new skill, learning to knit requires equal measures of patience and perseverance. Remember that you should have fun with your knitting.”

Nancy J. Thomas’s passion for knitting involved, among other things, editing two knitting magazines. During her years as editor, the thousands of numbers and measurements in Vogue Knitting and Knitter’s did include a few mistakes, but remarkably few. Knitting design and pattern writing are all about math—doing the math for the “blind follower” knitters who will use the pattern. Thomas edited those magazines like (shh!) a real math-head before stepping down to make time for grandmothering.

So here is a short summary of what she had to teach new knitters. Included are her thoughts on yarn and needles, the “accessories” knitters tend to acquire as gifts, how to knit (a plain stitch) and purl (a purl stitch), how to make simple lace, cable, and multicolor patterns, designers’ hardcover pattern books, knitters’ affinity groups and how to connect with them. And, of course, how to make simple, fairly chunky (thick yarn knits up faster) scarves, sweaters, socks, baby blankets, and of course (actually as the very first project) a pouch to carry a cell phone in.

What’s to love: Though all the patterns in this book are easy enough for raw beginners, some are classic styles that appeal to experienced knitters too. You start with a cell phone cover, not Brownie squares. The pattern couldn’t be much simpler but it’s something more relevant to the modern knitter’s needs than just another patchwork blanket like the one Grandma made, which some member of the family is probably still cherishing as a souvenir.

And, despite living in New York City and being attuned to New York fashion, Thomas was not a wool snob. She liked expensive yarn, and don’t we all, but she featured mostly affordable, midrange yarns in this book.

In 2002 the whole Knitting Universe was raving over this book.

What’s not to love: Time passes. Between about 1980 and about 2010, interest in knitting rose to a peak and dropped. The primary reason for this drop was the retirement of the mostly female, mostly baby-boomer knitters who ran most of the wool shops, wrote most of the books, and did most of the knitting. When this book was written, several thousand women and a few hundred men were gathering at annual knitting conventions—one in the Eastern States, one in the Western States, one in Canada, and one “summer camp” near the middle of the continent. Melanie Falick, who wrote the foreword in this book, wrote a beautiful big glossy book called Knitting in America that profiled the best known women in this group. We roared in numbers too big to ignore. We travelled; many of the same people went to all four of the major conventions. We imported yarns, patterns, and sometimes people from all over the world. We learned all the traditional knitting techniques, up to and including the arcane Russian technique of knitting two socks at one time, and sat down and tried to invent new ones. And then…we all hit retirement age. Most of us actually retired. We may still be knitting, but most of us are knitting only for ourselves and our close relatives.

And the inevitable result of this is that although knitting books, yarns, and needles still sell, a different generation dominate the Knitting Universe these days. There’s less of a sense of community. Knitting magazines are more like advertisements, again, and less like newsletters from the people you met at the conventions. Some of the affinity groups are still active; some new ones have formed; some have broken up. Books reviewed in this book have gone out of print. Magazines have published their grand farewell issues. Not all of the yarns featured in this book are still being made. And though everyone on my cell phone’s speed-dial list still uses the type of cell phone for which the cell phone pouch was designed, at the time of writing, manufacturers are trying hard to make us feel that we have the last fold-to-pocket-size phones with actual buttons, instead of touch screens, on Earth. (Well, that’s just too bad, manufacturers; the so-called “smartphones” that try to be computers don’t even work as phones. If I can't have a real keypad, I'll have no phone at all.)

Anyway, about two thirds of the information in A Passion for Knitting is about how to knit (and what and why). This information will never change. So the book is still valuable. About one third of the information is about what knitters were doing in 2002. That information is nice to have for historical reference, but it won’t help you find the yarn, the shop, the book, or the affinity group you want.

Fortunately no book is necessary for that purpose. Ask the person who's teaching you to knit, find "yarn" or "needlecraft" stores in your city online, or check the ads in a new knitting magazine.