Knitting

Right now I’m on a mission to teach young people how to feed themselves easily, inexpensively, nutritiously and deliciously. I’m passionate about it. Twenty-five years ago my teaching passion was knitting. For almost nine years I had a knitting school, wrote articles, created video classes and wrote a book. Gradually they all went out of print.

On this page you can learn about the book and get a free copy of Afghan 101. If you’re patient, you’ll eventually have free access to old articles and instructional videos here as well. I’ll post in the blog when I add a new piece here. That way you can subscribe to the blog and be notified when a new resource is added.

The Book

You can read what people have to say about it here, “28 Reasons to Invest in Sweater 101.

The book, Sweater 101, was first published by Patternworks in 1991 and was around for 15 years. That’s a long time in the book world. When they decided not to print again I was content to let it drop. That was January, 2007, and just for the heck of it I Googled it and myself. Once I scrolled through the “Hot Brunettes . . . waiting with bated breath to fulfill your every kinky fantasy” part of the list, I found a blog entry about Sweater 101 written by a young woman the week before. Then I found more references and they were all enthusiastic. When Meg Swansen recommends your book on a knitters forum, you start to reconsider.

I had been out of the knitting biz for a long time. I didn’t know how popular it had become again and I was blown away by the new generation of young knitters: their intelligence, their skill level and the sheer numbers of them. I ended up publishing a new edition of the book in two formats, an eBook and a nifty hardcover-over-spiral binding.

You can read reviews of it by . . .

• Erika of Redshirt Knitting
• Nancy of the Knitter’s Bookshelf (scroll down a little)
• Sandy over at Fiber Femmes
• Amy Singer over at Knitty (scroll down a lot)
• Jane at Wilde Thyme Knits

Kelley Petkun, co-owner of Knit Picks interviewed me about the book.

If you know how to knit but have been disappointed by the fit of some sweaters you’ve made, or if you want to make THIS pattern with THAT yarn, or if you want to design your own . . . you might like it. Click HERE for a big fat chunk of Sweater 101 that you can preview. If you decide you’d like to buy it, it’s available here and other places.

Afghan 101

Here’s a little pamphlet published years ago (1992 or so), again by Patternworks. This was pre-internet days and I did part of my research at the local furniture store where I took a legal pad and pencil and asked about mattress sizes. I am not very old, 62, but I have witnessed enough change to astound me. Wow! What a fun time to be alive.

Download this, save it to your desktop and share it with anyone you think might benefit from it.

Afghan 101