It's a (k)boy!

At long last, look what came in the mail today-- my own autographed copy of Clara's book! It was all sweetly wrapped in white tissue with this beautiful, chunky pink yarn tying it together. I felt my eyes well up when I opened it and read Clara's sweet words.

Okay, folks. Listen. To. Me. You must go and buy this book pronto. Buy it, read it, and LEARN. It seems almost too good to be true that there are also 40 patterns (all of which I want to knit) graciously adorning these pages. Just the bounty of information would be enough. You can only believe it when you see it. No, I'm not gonna show you inside. You have to get your own.

Clara tells her story of how this book came to be here. I'll tell you about my small part of the glory. In April 2006, Clara sent me an e-mail, said she had gotten my name from Anjeanette (another terrific person in her own right, and who has done some testing for me), and asked me if I would like to "come out and play" with her on a book she was writing. Of course, I said yes, and she gave me a run-down of some fibers and ideas for yarns that she was bouncing around (the ideas, not the yarns-hyuk, hyuk). I pitched her some of my own (ideas, not yarn--again), she either said "Yeah!" or she asked for tweaking until we came up with five projects. She got me the yarn and I got to work. Boy, did I have fun working with Clara. She was always receptive, always encouraging. I got to knit four of the five projects--the Cabled Tea Cozy, the Cabled Fingerless Mitts, the Baby Cardigan, and the Baby Onesie. As you know, the onesie was cut from the book, and The Cabled Headband was knit by someone else, because time was getting short and Clara wanted to decide between different fibers. She had to hand it to someone a lot closer than Tacoma, WA. Clara's in Maine, you see. Then, since August of last year, when I wrapped up my part of the deal, it's been a test of patience waiting for this day. It was worth every agonizing minute.

I can't tell you how proud I am to be a part of this book. If you see me in the next few months (years), I'll probably be carrying the (k)boy around with me, telling everyone about Clara. This book should be in every yarn shop and on every knitter's reference shelf. I'm not biased--you'll see.

Oh, and I've been calling it (K)BOY for a few weeks, but Clara has for a lot longer, apparently. Read her blog and see why.

I'm hugging myself (and the book) over here!