A trip to the library.

The Public Library is one of my favorite haunts.  Every time I have moved to a new town one of the top things on my list is to get a library card and check out the local collections.  There is just something about that hushed silence and feeling of being surrounded by a million different deep thoughts that puts my mind at ease.

As a kid I used to ride my bike the mile and a half across town to the public library in the summer to check out picture books, only to wobble home with the few I could manage rested on my handlebars or under one arm.  As I got older I found that the library was a great place to use the Internet before my parents caved and got a dial-up connection.  In more recent years I have discovered that the library and it's many resources are a knitting girl's best friend.  In fact, when I decided to learn to knit, I checked out a book from the local library and then sat - for hours - trying to get my hands, the needles and the yarn to look the way the pencil drawings did.

With entire sections dedicated to knitting and other crafts, I have spent many more hours sitting on a library stool in the middle of the aisle looking for my latest inspiration. Yesterday was one of those days.  Check out my loot:

I love that I can peruse a knitting book at Barns & Noble for patterns I like and then hit up my local library to check out the same knitting book for many weeks at a time.  Even if my branch doesn't have the book I am looking for, someone in the network of libraries across the region usually does and the turn around time for requesting the items I want is just a few days.

On this trip I was looking for hat patterns, and wow, did I ever find hat patterns!

From Left: Last Minute Knitted Gifts By Joelle Hoverson;
Right: Hats Gloves Scarves By Louisa Harding

It seems that everyone who has ever published a knitting book has included a pattern for a knitted hat so I was in luck!  This morning I started on this rolled brim hat that I plan to embellish with some crocheted flowers.

With the creation of Ravelry, it has become much easier to collate the many thousands of knitting patterns out there in a user-friendly format with lots of bells and whistles for members to get lost in one click at a time.  Like most knitters, I like this site and check it out frequently but I still love the feel of a book with a pattern written out across the pages over a PDF file I can download to my computer.

One book that I continue to check out time and again is Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss.  This was the original book that I learned to knit from 4 years ago.  If you look closely above, you'll see I picked it up yesterday too.  With straightforward patterns and explanations of the most common techniques it is a great reference for the both the beginner and the more advanced knitter.  Here is a photo of the very first thing I made, the Garter Stitch Scarf from this book, which I gifted to my niece and godchild, Anna:

From Baby Knits for Beginners By Debbie Bliss

Finally, one of my favorite reasons for checking out knitting books from the library is the low commitment.  If you find you want to try something new, you can check out a book with the instructions instead of investing $20-$30 into a book with the one pattern that you may or may not ever complete.  Since there is never really a high demand, you can keep renewing until your project is complete or turn it in after two weeks and move on.  Next on my list of things to try is socks and I think one of my new library books has just the pattern I've been looking for:

From Handknit Holidays By Melanie Falick

So I'm on the clock, I've got just under two weeks to make a decision and commit to getting some cozy new socks on the needles, or, return the book and leave socks for another day.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Labor Day to you and yours.

xo,

Jen