Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Story of EZ's Knitter's Almanac

Does anyone remember that group from the '90s called Sublime? They had a hit song "What I Got." I had a copy of their self-titled album. I los it somehow, or it was stolen. More importantly, everyone I knew at one point who had that album were having a hard time putting their hands on their copy of it. It was the one album that everyone but no one had.

I feel like the Knitter's Almanac is just like it. I was looking for a copy earlier this year. I thought i'd had a copy, and my Ravelry Library, which I keep pretty up to date, was also telling me I had a copy. I'd just moved here a few months ago at that point and I remembered seeing the small 5.5 x 8", paperback, green covered book when setting up my book case. But I couldn't find it. A friend of mine mentioned that she couldn't find her copy either.

EZ Books
Can you find my paperback copy of The Knitter's Almanac?

Sometime this summer, I think I had a credit somehow or a gift card to use on Amazon. I knew there was a newer edition of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
out, so even though I was so sure I had a copy, even though I couldn't find it, I decided to get the updated edition.

The new edition is 7 x 10", hardcover, and red. I have reason to believe that this change in format and color mean that I will not lose it on my shelf!

Last week, I went on vacation to Disney World. I did a travel knitting assessment (check out my posts on knitting and travelling here), and decided to bring some lovely Briar Rose Angelface with me to create a Pi Shawl from The Knitter's Almanac. Now, I looked at my shelf and really didn't feel like taking this large hardcover book that was sure to be heavy with me. Didn't I have a much smaller copy in paperback somewhere? I noticed some extra space between two books and I did what any normal person would do: I stuck my finger between them.

Lo! And behold! My paperback edition of The Knitter's Almanac! At last!

I started flipping through it, and realized that this might make a good reading book in addition to a good pattern book. So I decided to read it as well. However, my purse is already quite heavy with the iPad I carry around with me everywhere. So I didn't want to carry another paper item around with me everywhere. I bought the ebook on iBooks and am pretty confident that I can't lose that edition, since it's in the cloud.

And that's how I ended up with 3 editions of the Knitter's Almanac.

Oh! This is a knitting post too, so here's my progress on the Pi Shawl. I'm using size 0 needles with Briar Rose Angel Face and just a simple eyelet ring pattern. this is one I think will be picked up and put down a lot so I wanted to keep it relatively simple. I'm a little worried that the eyelets will actually get lost, but I think it will still be pretty.

Pi Shawl Detail