"Must...have...book..."

Whenever I see ads for books in yarn catalogs or knitting magazines, read about them in other blogs, or see displays in book stores and yarn shops, I start mumbling, "Must...have...book..." This is usually accompanied by a glazed look in the eyes and a rapidly growing puddle of drool at my feet.

You see, I have a condition known as Knitting-Book Envy, which is closely related to Yarn-Stash Enhancement Compulsion and Pattern-Acquisition Disorder. All three of these ailments are quite common--talk to pretty much any knitter, and chances are he or she has one (or all) of these illnesses.

I used to add any knitting book I heard of to my Amazon wish list. But then I ended up with an unwieldly list filled with stuff that I wasn't entirely sure I'd use. So quite a while ago, I developed my preview technique. All you need are a list of books that interest you, a local library with a good book collection (or interlibrary loan program), and a library card. (Yes, it must be your own library card.)

I check out any book that interests me, use post-its to mark the patterns I might actually knit one day, then step back and evaluate. It's amazing how many "Well, it sounded like a good book for me" items transmogrify into "Good grief! I would never knit any of those awful designs" items through this process. It's saved me a lot of money--and kept a lot of shelf space free for the books I really do want.