Book Review: Yarn Harlot by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yes, I know: awful title. But, y'know, she's Canadian. (Just kidding! I feel very fondly towards my former home!)

Despite that, Yarn Harlot: the Secret Life of a Knitter is a really fun little book. Or at least, it was exactly what I was in the mood for when I picked it up. A collection of vignettes about her obsession/hobby, Yarn Harlot is humorous, a trifle worrying, occasionally insightful and, at least, once, tear-provoking.

Pearl-McPhee is obsessed with all things knitting. She has rooms full of yarn and freaks out when she loses one of a set of tiny double-pointed needles. But the fun of the book is that she realizes she's obsessed and can laugh at herself. I think the book wouldn't be fun if you weren't in the mood to laugh too (I could see this book making me crazy on a day when I was inclined towards feeling crazy anyways), but I was in the mood to read about someone else's foibles and this fit the bill.

Plus, it's not just foibles. Pearl-McPhee also has a clear-eyed view of what is good and even, yes, noble about her hobby. There's something fundamentally good about wrapping people you love in warm garments and that come through in her writing. There's also something about handicrafting that tells the recipient of the handicrafts that he or she is valued, and that's very clear in her writing also.

Finally, there is one chapter in this book about a particular delivery she attended as a doula (during which she was knitting socks for the new baby) that was one of the most beautiful things I've read recently.
Recommended if you're interested in either handicrafts or portraits slightly-pathological-but-still-winsome.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell