Book for a Century

On my semi-regular trawl of upcoming knitting books on Amazon I came across this: a special commemorative edition of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitters Almanac. In case you weren’t aware (and there’s no reason why you should be if you’re not an obsessive EZ fan!), August will mark the centenary of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s birth.

Unfortunately, there is little information about how it differs from the original, other than it is now hardback. There is nothing about it on the publisher’s website yet, so I shall just give free reign to my hope that maybe the garments have been re-photographed in colour, as the original pictures are very dark as well as being black and white.

Knitters Almanac was the first EZ book I bought and it bumps spines with Knitting Around in the jostle to be my favourite of her books. It’s a little peek into a year of her life; the everyday things she does always accompanied by a bit of knitting. She doesn’t do anything spectacular or exciting but still every page is engrossing. I sometimes just read it like I would a novel. It feels comforting and safe and as if I’m sharing the secrets of knitting with the wisest knitter of all.

And of course every month has a pattern or two. There are classics in there, like the February Baby Sweater and the Pi Shawl, all tucked into the pages of this unassuming little paperback book with its gloomy photography that would never scream “buy me” on the shelf in a bookshop.

So I’ve pre-ordered my copy of the special edition, even if it’s no different at all. My little paperback is getting worn out and I want this book to be the one that I can share with my own little future knitter when she grows up.

EDIT: The Fall 2010 issue of Interweave Knits mentions this book (as well as a completely new EZ book which makes my heart skip a beat!). The special edition of Knitter’s Almanac will contain contemporary colour photographs of all of the garments. So I get my wish.