ROTFLOL: Sweater Quest

So I gave up on Wicked on Sunday morning and picked up the next book in the ever growing "need to read" pile. It just happened to be Sweater Quest: A Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini. I haven't read anything in a long time that made me laughing out loud.

Since yesterday was Columbus Day and my federal employee husband was off, I decided to take off as well.We were going to go to the Arkansas State Fair - it was free admission and free parking between the hours of 11 am and 1 pm. Prime eating time but that is another post. I was sitting on the other end of the sofa and laughing my head off. He would look up from his nook or the TV and just stare at me. Most of my reading doesn't involve funny subject matter so it is rare that I laugh at something I'm reading. I mean Jane Austen and Charlaine Harris are witty and some would argue funny but I'm talking about ROTFLOL - rolling on the floor laughing out loud.

Adrienne Martini in her Mary Tudor.

If you don't know about this book, it is about Adrienne Martini's quest to knit an impossible to find Fair Isle sweater pattern called Mary Tudor. It was designed by the intellectual property protective, Scottish designer Alice Starmore. I may be sued for using her name - it is trademarked!Martini is not only funny but a wonderful storyteller. I didn't want to put the book down last night to go to sleep. I haven't done that since I read the Outlander series or the Harry Potter books. And this isn't fiction!!!! It's a knitting book. I feel her frustration at Alice Starmore for not allowing her designs to be more accessible. I feel her nauseousness at the price of the book. My husband brought me The Principles of Knitting for my birthday from Alibris or AbeBooks and for the price he paid, it now ranks as one of the things I would grab if the house were on fire. I understand the over organization before starting the project. I'm the queen of that procrastination technique.

I learned from the Yarn Harlot that taking your knitting out one stitch at a time is tinking but I learned from Adrienne Martini that tink is knit spell backwards. I've been knitting for over 6 years now - how didn't I get the memo!!!!


All of this and I'm not even half way through. Run to bookstore and buy this book if you don't own it already. If you do own it, play hooky from job tomorrow to read it.