The library

Since my daughter recently learned how to knit, she has been bitten by the knitting book bug. But unlike me, she is very close to our big downtown library, and has been using that as a source of books. She said to me the other day that the library really had a great collection of knitting books, and that I should check it out. So Tues, on my way to work I did stop by to do just that.

As I walked down the 700 aisle (arts and crafts section) looking for the knitting books (textile history, embroidery, tatting, it was hard to make any progress down those shelves!) I hit on a section on spinning! And was amazed to see that they had 18 books on the shelf on spinning. I settled on two of them to check out.

The first was a charming little book called The Magic of Spinning. It is written by Marion L Channing, with a first copyright of 1966. It was published by Channing publishing! And the illustrations are done by her husband. But wait, it's even better, the book is signed by the author herself. What a gem. It is a tiny 48 page very basic book on spinning. There's not a website listed in the references :) She thanks Paula Simmons for her help with the book. It was a treat to read. And it was put in our library, by the stamp on the front of the book in 1984. How amazing.

From that tiny beginning, we now have the second book I checked out, Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. It is a whopping 500 pages, and was copyrighted in 2001. It just amazes me the information, skills, and experiences that are now available about this subject. Yes it has been almost 40 years. But with the advent of the internet, the new wave of 20 something knitters, think of how much more information will be tested and gathered in half that time in the future.

I did finally make it to the shelves with the knitting books. There is an amazing three shelves full. I really commend my library management for this. I have a book shelf full of knitting books myself, however there were many there I have not had the chance to see, let alone buy. I checked out, Slip-Stitch Knitting by Roxana Bartlett and Knitting Around the World, published by Threads. I also found two machine knitting books, The Machine Knitter's Handbook and The Machine Knitter's Design book, both by Hazel Pope.

So the library cycle has started again. When I go back to return these books, I of course wander over and look at the stacks again. For many months I have avoided the library, just because of this cycle. I have bookcases full of books here. I feel I need to read some of these, and either keep them or move them on. But that is not how it works. If the book or magazine is my own, it can lanquish on the shelf, I won't make it a priority to read it. However, a library book, with it's overdue deadline, makes me find the time to read it. That's either a good or bad thing, depending if I have the time or not:)

Ah reading. It is one of my daily pleasures, whether I read a book, an email, a blog, a magazine....

Cup of tea and a good read anyone?

CW