Description

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"In this lovely anthology, Sue Grafton, Barbara Kingsolver, and other authors go public with their passion for knitting." —People (four stars)

"The impressive collection of writers here have contributed essays that celebrate knitting and knitters. They share their knitting triumphs and disasters as well as their life triumphs and disasters.… These essays will break your heart. They will have you laughing out loud." —Ann Hood, from the introduction

Why does knitting occupy a place in the hearts of so many writers? What’s so magical and transformative about yarn and needles? How does knitting help us get through life-changing events and inspire joy? In Knitting Yarns, twenty-seven writers tell stories about how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them to grow. Barbara Kingsolver describes sheering a sheep for yarn. Elizabeth Berg writes about her frustration at failing to knit. Ann Patchett traces her life through her knitting, writing about the scarf that knits together the women she’s loved and lost. Knitting a Christmas gift for his blind aunt helped Andre Dubus III knit an understanding with his girlfriend. Kaylie Jones finds the woman who used knitting to help raise her in France and heals old wounds. Sue Grafton writes about her passion for knitting. Also included are five original knitting patterns created by Helen Bingham.

Poignant, funny, and moving, Knitting Yarns is sure to delight knitting enthusiasts and lovers of literature alike.

About the Author

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Ann Hood is the author of a dozen books of memoir and fiction, including the best-selling novels The Book That Matters Most and The Knitting Circle, and editor of the anthologies Knitting Yarns and Knitting Pearls. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York.

Praise For…

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Ingenious.… Could it be that writers who knit are the cleverest people in the world?
— Philadelphia Inquirer

Otherwise normal-seeming writers come out as knitters in the infinitely crafty anthology Knitting Yarns. How hot is that?

— Elissa Schappell - Vanity Fair

[In Knitting Yarns] knitting and literature pair up in a spectacular way.

— Vogue Knitting

A seamless collection of essays that explores the agony and ecstasy of ‘knitting yarns’ on the needles as well as on the page.… Knitting Yarns is a little community of its own where its writers speak the language of knitters.

— Minneapolis Star Tribune

Knitting is no longer Granny’s game.… [I]n Knitting Yarns [Ann Hood] has collected original essays and one poem from 27 best-selling and beloved writers. Some are practical…while others tell stories of hope and pain.

— BookPage

While tracing the magic of knitting, these funny, honest, and moving essays turn out to be quite magical themselves.
— Publishers Weekly

Poignant, funny, and moving, Knitting Yarns is sure to delight knitting enthusiasts and lovers of literature alike.

— Book Reporter