Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini

Needles in hand, I cast on 357 stitches.  I count again - 359.  No problem.  I rip two stitches out.  Count again - 356.  Cast on another - 356. Again. Crap.  Pull needle out of work & unravel all of it, because my counting mojo is not on my side.  Steps must be taken.  p.75

Ms. Martini had me at the opening sentence: "Had I not discovered knitting, I would not be the paragon of sanity that I am today."  But the above quotation from deeper within the book nails it.  This is me and my knitting as of April 2010.  My "counting mojo" has abandoned me.  Luckily, I had Sweater Quest on my bedside table the week my left brain decided to shut down.  Reading about the author's "Year of Knitting Dangerously" was just the tonic my sore knitter's heart needed.  

In the book, a memoir, Martini's tackling an Alice Starmore sweater, the Tudor Rose. Never in my wildest dreams would I try such a thing, but being a book dealer who has seen a few Starmore books come & go, I know how incredibly beautiful & complex a Starmore sweater is.  I am in awe.  Then I'm jealous - because, along the way, Martini gets to hang out (have a sleepover even!) with Ann Shayne & Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting fame and Stephanie Pearl McPhee, the Yarn Harlot.  (And Clara Parkes sounds exactly as I imagine her.) The sweater goes everywhere, receiving oohs & ahs as it grows ...and grows...and grows.  Whether it fits or even gets finished is for me to know & you to find out when you read this delightful book.

Sweater Quest made me laugh out loud. That will, I'm sure, go a long way towards luring my recalcitrant knitting skills back from their unscheduled vacation.  Short version: buy or borrow this book!