Knitting Today! has arrived

I am so excited! Knitting Today! is out and ready for knitters everywhere to pick up at their local magazine stand or yarn shop. Alright, I may be a little biased since I wrote for it, but I honestly feel that they really did a fantastic job getting this new magazine to reach all levels of knitters. There are great patterns, book reviews, a travel column (ahem), a yarn giveaway, and...a Boston terrier modeling a sweater pattern! I especially love the Booty Call for art director Samantha Weng who is having...quadruplets. Yes, that's right, FOUR BABIES AT ONCE. (Sorry for yelling, but it kind of blows my mind.) That woman will need as many booties as KT readers can send her! See page 11 for information or email me for the mailing address. They are going to feature her favorite booties in an upcoming issue.

What I'm Waiting For

Still basking in the afterglow of seeing one of my all-time favorite authors last night (Margaret Atwood, all poise and wry humor at The Music Hall last night despite an interviewer who was not quite up to par), I came home last night to start the first of my memoir-themed fall reading list, Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life by Kim Severson. My fall list is especially thick with memoirs...not always the cheery kind...and some new fiction titles from some old favorites.
I'm pretty sure that all of my library requests will come in on the same day, which means I'll have to pick and choose in order not to be the horrible patron that leaves books at home on her to-read shelf until she is forced to return them to people who have been desperately waiting for them. (If this is you, return your books RIGHT NOW.)

The Memoir List
Half a Life by Darin Strauss
You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness by Julie Klam (I'm especially looking forward to this one, it's about a woman and her Boston terriers. Besides being a sucker for dog books in general, maybe she will help me understand my own BT's utter lack of interest in going for walks.)
Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray (The title makes it sound like a Lifetime special, and yes, it actually was a Lifetime special, but the book got an excellent review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.)
Keeper: One House, Three Generations and a Journey Into Alzheimer's by Andrea Gillies

Have you read any of these...or any other memoirs recently?

Let's Take the Long Way Home

When I put Gail Caldwell's memoir (Let's Take the Long Way Home) on hold at the library I knew it would be about a deep friendship between women, but I didn't realize that it would explore human-canine friendships as well. It startled me how much this book touched me, for such a slim volume she expressed a world of emotion using very few words. I found myself at six in the morning finishing the memoir and sobbing my pre-coffee eyes out.

I am rich with human friendships, both old and new, and as an adult I embraced my love for dogs. The photo above is of our dog Mimi, who we lost to a sudden illness earlier this year. She was not with us long, but she had a huge personality for such a little dog and we miss her terribly. I still find myself absentmindedly calling for her, even 5 months after she left us. Now Skylar rules the roost, she's very mellow and a serious mama's girl to boot. She's also very patient, as you can see below. She doesn't mind playing dress up once in a while.