Book List: Knitting Edition

My three most recently read books are all in some way knitting-related so today's Book List has a theme. Kind of fun. I'll have to consider doing another one of these themed lists in the future.

Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee: This is one of those cute little "gift books" that you see in the bookstore and wonder about, but never stop to buy for yourself. Luckily, I was lucky enough to receive it as a gift. (Thank you, Leah!) This book is great. There are so many truisms in this book like "Beginning is easy, continuing is hard" and "Babies grow." I could relate to so much of it and love Stephanie's sense of humor. A fun read and one that I will reread in the future when I need a few laughs. And, if you want some Stephanie Pearl-McPhee humor for free, check out her blog.

Spin a Wicked Web by Cricket McRae: This mystery revolves around Sophie Mae, a young woman who keeps finding herself tangled up in the middle of murder investigations. This time it is a young female artist, a fellow member of the smalltown artist co-op, who turns up dead--strangled to death with Sophie Mae's first skein of handspun yarn . Anyway, it's an interesting read as Sophie Mae gets deeper and deeper into the murder investigation. There are lots of suspects and some drama involving Sophie Mae's boyfriend and his ex.

McRae also describes Sophie Mae's new home crafting love: spinning. As a knitter, I get exposed to spinning a lot via blogs I read and fellow knitting friends who have started spinning. I LOVE the look of handspun yarn, but have never worked with it. So far I've been able to resist the seemingly inevitable move from knitting to spinning, but for some reason this book really made me want to knit something with yarn I spun myself. Spinning is an expensive habit. I think I'll try to resist the urge to try it. Wish me luck.

As an additional side note, this is the third book in Cricket McRae's "Home Crafting Mystery" series all starring Sophie Mae. The first one is about soap making. The second one is about canning. This whole "Home Crafting Mystery" thing cracks me up. Can't wait to see what home craft is used next. Any guesses?

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber: Debbie Macomber is famous for her Blossom Street books. I have read one before, but don't remember the name of it, but it centered on Lydia who owns a knitting shop on Blossom Street. So when I saw she wrote this one, I grabbed it at the library. Twenty Wishes focuses on Anne Marie, the owner of a book store on Blossom Street. The premise of the novel is that four widows get together for a Valentine's Day celebration and decide to each make a list of twenty wishes. Their goal is to start living their lives again. It sounds a little cheesy, but it made for a wonderful heartfelt novel. I really enjoyed the story lines of the different characters as they strive to find happiness. I love that two of the characters learned how to knit and found joy in it because it has brought much joy into my life. Definitely a feelgood kind of read.