Knitting Languages
For the past month I have spent too much money on knitting things. In particular books. I don't have a huge knitting book ilbrary, I've always made a point to buy yarn vs books as I would much rather have the yarn. Going back to work was a big change in our life style and I will admit it has had me depressed at moments. Its not been bad, or even super hard. Its just had me down some. Plus we've been sick twice in the last 4 weeks and I'm actually still sick (really hard to record a podcast when you sound awful). When I am feeling down, I tend to spend money.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, or do any other diviant type activities many people do when they are feeling down. I'm not self destructive and I don't use credit cards. My biggest flaws are A) Not cleaning and B) Shopping to fill a gap. Now I do have my knitting design business now and so about 2 weeks ago after scetching out about 8 designs I went to Cast on Cottage and loaded up with yarn. I can be honest and say I didn't even look at how much it cost when I paid, I didn't want to know. Normally I always look at reciepts, double check everything etc. One time I was at the airport with my husband and he got a burger or something and I asked if he looked at the reciept. "No" he said, I looked. They had charged him $50.05 for a $5.05 burger. This is just a testament to the fact I am normally pretty dilligant about being aware of how much money I am spending and making logical decisions. So if I don't look, it means I'm probably buying the yarn for more reasons then designing with it. With the economy in the crapper, it's not really that good a time to be spending money. Oddly enough I've been cutting back in other places and been very careful, but the yarn... oh it's a little different huh?
I have put my foot down now though, and the only yarn I am allowed to buy anytime in the near future is Wollmeise and only if I can snag some, as that's about dang near impossible and I *really* want some of that Poisen colorway to make some cute pants for BG (Black with specs of pink). For those of you that don't know Wollmeise is a cool chick in Germany named Claudia who dyes her own yarn in extremly artistic and wonderful colorways. Just do a search on Ravelry and you will see. She only puts yarn in her stores on Fridays and not every Friday and it sells out faster then Banana's in Japan.
So I have ordered a few knitting books, I actually went on amazon.com and plopped down $70 bucks to get the "Knitting Languages" book. I have wanted it for ever and I was talking to a friend and it reminded me I had wanted to get it. It's basically a book/dictionary of knitting terms in a LOAD of languages, so you could pretty easily translate one if you wanted. I have always had particular interest in Phildar patterns (french) and only a handful come in English. It also has Icelandic in it as well. So after I clicked the buy button (BAD BAD pixie) I was searching online some more for different info on it when low and behold I found it brand spankin new for $28 bucks. Now I've heard about this book for years and never heard anyone say you could get it new or cheap. Also the old photos I have seen of it have the Schoolhouse Press logo on them and they don't sell it anymore either. Guess what random website sells it; Elann.com.
Knitting Languages
By Margaret Heathman
"Finally, a global view of knitting terms in one easy-to-use volume," writes Nancy J. Thomas. "Having a list of knitting terms in eleven different languages will open doors for knitters everywhere," writes Priscilla Gibson Roberts. Elann agrees! This is a very readable, alphabetical dictionary of knitting terms translated into North American English from Estonian, Danish, French, German, British English, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish & Swedish -- a must have! Softcover, coil-bound, revised and expanded edition. 240 pages. World In A Spin, 2005.
I quickly ran back to Amazon and cancled my order. When I ordered it on Elann the paypal proccess was broken. I e-mailed them and boy do they have good customer service. I got an e-mail not too long later with a paypal invoice which I went and sent out and then not too long later again for my shipping confirmation.
I'm sharing all of this with you in case you too have always wanted this book. I have no idea why it isn't more widley availible. Another funny thing was when I was reading the inside jacket, it mentioned the author worked at Main Street Fibers in Athens, Georgia. I believe I've met the author! Small world, this knitting stuff.
Posted by pixie on October 2, 2008 10:12 AM | Permalink
Comments
Janice in GA says;Margaret isn't an owner of Main Street Yarns, but she used to work there. She's a teacher and designer who lives out in Monroe. She's also an excellent handspinner.
The publisher of her book, World in a Spin, is a small publisher based in Stone Mtn.:
http://www.worldinaspin.com/index.html
They're all good folks. :)
MJ says;You're on a Phildar kick, aren't you? :-)
Translating patterns isn't that hard; a bit of Googling and you have the basics. I like Phildar because their instructions match their schematics (symbols indicating shaping, shoulders, armscye, etc.), which is just a step away from how the Japanese write out their instructions. I've been buying Phildar magazines in French and they're pretty easy to decipher. I had no idea about Icelandic patterns, but there you go, I just learned something new!
Looking forward to the language book review from you!
kv says;as vices go, knitting related shopping is not so bad......
Allegra says;Awww Pixie, I totally know how you feel about the spending money to make yourself feel better after going back to work after having BG. I went through the same thing...Etsy was my vice. Just think about how the $ you're spending on yarn and books is helpful for your knitwear business. I've never even heard of the Knitting Languages book, I'll have to check it out. What other books have you purchased lately? I've bought a few recently, but despite the fact that I have quite a lot of knitting books, I feel like I need more to help me learn more about knitting techniques and other inspirations for my designs.
I am totally in love with the Poison colorway by Wollemeise as well! How I would love to score some of that. Did you know she has a yarn club now? Wish I hadn't missed the deadline for that one, although my bank account is better for it!
