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Knitting Yarns  By  cover art

Knitting Yarns

By: Ann Hood - editor
Narrated by: Ann Hood,Sam Adrain
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Publisher's summary

A collection of poignant essays about the transformative power of knitting by twenty-seven extraordinary writers.

“The impressive collection of writers here have contributed essays that celebrate knitting and knitters. They share their knitting triumphs and disasters as well as their life triumphs and disasters. . . . These essays will break your heart. They will have you laughing out loud.” (Ann Hood, from the introduction)

Why does knitting occupy a place in the hearts of so many writers? What’s so magical and transformative about yarn and needles? How does knitting help us get through life-changing events and inspire joy?

In Knitting Yarns, twenty-seven writers tell stories about how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them to grow.

Barbara Kingsolver describes sheering a sheep for yarn. Elizabeth Berg writes about her frustration at failing to knit. Ann Patchett traces her life through her knitting, writing about the scarf that knits together the women she’s loved and lost. Knitting a Christmas gift for his blind aunt helped Andre Dubus III knit an understanding with his girlfriend. Kaylie Jones finds the woman who used knitting to help raise her in France and heals old wounds. Sue Grafton writes about her passion for knitting. Also included are five original knitting patterns created by Helen Bingham.

Poignant, funny, and moving, Knitting Yarns is sure to delight knitting enthusiasts and lovers of literature alike.

©2014 Ann Hood (P)2013 Audible Inc.

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What listeners say about Knitting Yarns

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  • Overall
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Love it!!!!

Comforting, funny, thought provoking & just simply a good book. I never read a book about knitting. I didn't know what to expect. I'm glad I got it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not about KNITTING - label as psychotherapy

Every story is about the writer and their angst or their trauma or some other mental event that they worked out through learning to knit or knitting like a crazy person. Not about knitting like the other knitting books. Blech. I hate listening to people navel gaze.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

So very Depressing

I could not even get halfway through this book. The book drips of death stories and how loss drove people to knit. I just cannot find solace or enjoyment in this topic. This is not what knitting is to me, albeit I know that knitting is healing and good for those going through pain of any kind but I don't want to listen to an entire book about cancer treatments and illness. Just depressing.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not an inspiring book for an experienced knitter

What would have made Knitting Yarns better?

Better choice of short stories. Better narration.

Has Knitting Yarns turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Lugubrious intonation

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Would appeal to people who are beginning knitters.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Awful narration, ho hum stories

I am a passionate knitter. I love knitting and I knit every day. I am also a passionate reader, and read or listen to books every day. You would think this would be the perfect book for me. Unfortunately the male narrator was so poor I felt like I was stuck in a really bad spoken word event, where everything is given equal emphasis (way too much) and all the sentences end by going up in pitch. It was a horrible pairing with authors who write extreme run on and stream of consciousness sentences. The writing was too avant-garde, with poor story structure - you can only pull this off if you are really really good, which these writers were not (at least the ones in the beginning because I couldn't get very far in the book). I should have found the story by Barbara Kingsolver before I returned it, but I didn't have the heart. The female narrator was mildly better, but still so monotonous overall that I couldn't really tell one story from another, they were all read in the same way. I had mixed feelings about posting this negative review, but I rely on reviews to guide me in my book choices and felt I owed it to other readers to share my experience in case anyone might find it useful.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Can't wait to share with my family

I love being able to listen to a book about knitting while knitting. And so many of the stories evoke memories of my own. I can't wait to share this book with my mom and sister.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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so sweet

This book is so enjoyable. The authors really bear their souls and it's so fun to listen to their differences and similarities. I'm a young knitter, and I so enjoyed and appreciated the essays written by older women about knitting in war time and about knitting because they had to, not because it was a hobby. If you appreciate the solidarity of crafters and the community of yarn horders you'll love this book.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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inspirational!

As a fairly new knitter, the stories were encouraging, enlightening and inspirational! The types of yarn, the levels of knitting; everything was great!

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A knitters delight

Having just picked up my needles again after a 6 year gap following the lose of my knitting mentor (my mum) I loved everything about these stories

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book!

I fell in love with this book, very fun while I knitted up a sweater. I found the male reader though very irritating maybe it's just me but his voice really bothered me, other than that I loved the book!!

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1 person found this helpful