Represent @ BEA

Yup! That's me from the Yarn Harlot's autograph line. My sock, frolicking with her sock. She was brilliant as usual, she recognized my Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature.

This was the second time I got the chance to go to BEA, and I have to say I liked it a lot more than the first time. The first time I was completely overwhelmed. It is quite overwhelming when you realize just how much there is there. But if you go through the show methodically, it's not so bad. The best part about the show (besides meeting the Yarn Harlot, Debbie Stoller, Kay and Ann, God, a guy wearing a giant name-tag that said his name was Scott, and neo-nazi authors - no, I'm not kidding on that one - of course) is getting to see what all the other publishers have going on for the fall. Here's a quick run down by publisher. I wish I had cover art because some of these are beautiful, but alas, since these titles don't pub until the fall, I've got nothing.

WORKMAN

Workman publishes Debbie Stoller and Workman's imprint Storey Publishing, you'll have heard of from the Yarn Harlot. I missed picking up one of their fall catalogs (cause I can be a dope sometimes), but I did pick up a sell piece for Debbie's new book coming out.
Son of Stitch'n Bitch, like always, looks stunningly hip and awesome. I wish this had been around when I was looking for sweater patterns for my brother. This seems to be in this new trend of publishing patterns for men. I'd say DK (my company!) started the most recent burst of men's knitting pattern books with Knitting With Balls by Michael Delveccio. And includes the titles (I'm not linking to them all because I'm lazy): Men who Knit and the Dogs that Love Them and Never Knit Your Man a Sweater. This book will do really well because Debbie Stoller's amazing and the style of the patterns in her book is usually pretty hip and classic at the same time.

STEWART TABORI AND CHANG

My issues with Melanie Falick aside, I really enjoyed the Harry N Abrams booth. Only problem was that the knitting books always seemed to be right behind where a meeting was taking place. The third time i dropped by, I said screw it, and wandered back (respectfully of course) anyway. I was handsomely rewarded.

KnitKnit: Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave by Sabrina Gschwandtner looks to be totally awesome. A verifiable who's who of push-the-envelope knitters. I only saw a few spreads in a dummy book, but I sooo can't wait to see it!

Knitspeak by Andrea Berman Price (seriously, what's up with the compound word titles here?) seems to be a ultimate guide to pattern reading. At 4 5/8" by 6 1/2", it's sized to fit in a knitting bag on the go for when you're stuck on the tarmac with no idea of what a sskpssoktyi (slip slip knit pass slipped stitch over and knit till you're insane - I just made that up, not bad is it?) could possibly mean.

On the short list, they've also got a book on knitting scarves (My hatred for knitting scarves is a topic for another post), knitting classic styled patterns and Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by (guess who!?) Joelle Hoverson. If I ever get a sewing machine, quilting is SOOO next up!

INTERWEAVE

Interweave is obviously awesome (someone please remind me to renew my subscription before it runs out with the fall issue) because they perpetually have their finger on the knitting world's pulse. They've got quite a few books coming out this fall that look hot.

The Best of Interweave Knits is edited by Ann Budd, so you know it should be good. The best patterns, and articles are reprinted here in one tome, which is pretty awesome. My BEA cohort suggested they come up with a pattern index or something similar for their magazines and sell that as well. The woman responded quite well to it. Time will tell.

Knitting Little Luxuries by Louisa Harding also looked pretty cute. I'm sooo not a girly girl, but the items I saw from this really struck me as pretty. Four chapters show Details as luxury, Urban luxury, Feminine luxury, and Warmth as luxury. Looks like some of the projects might be good for a little stash busting too!

The shortlist at the Interweave booth includes Kimono Style, Bag Style (which looked REALLY good! Johanna and I got to see a preliminary copy of spreads and got kinda excited. I don't even like using knitted bags!), and Folk Style (which seemed a lot less folky to me than I generally consider folk, but whatever).

WATSON-GUPTILL

I've no idea what these folks even publish. I just saw yarn on a cover out of the corner of my eye and hurried to the booth to check out the title. There's a couple interesting ones here...Vintage Crochet (which looked good even for a non-crocheter like myself!) and Super Stitches Knitting which is basically a stitch dictionary it looks like.

WILEY

Didn't see a whole lot going on there, but definitely check out Find Your Style and Knit It Too by Sharon Turner, if only for the pattern my Smittin w/Knittin friend conjured up!

I'm sure you can tell it was quite the exhausting show...and that's only the KNITTING/CRAFT section I looked at!! There were quite a few other books (novels etc) there that caught my eye, some I even managed to drag a copy home with me. Maybe I'll share, if you're good!!