When it’s too hot to stitch, catch up on some reading

When the summer heat – provided we get any this summer – makes you put aside your knitting, factor in time to laze around and do some woolly reading.

“KnitLit, Too,” edited by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolfe, is a good place to pick up where they left off two years ago. They published “KnitLit” in 2002. Their current book is another collection of “stories from sheep to shawl,” contributed by more than 70 writers, including Laurie Doran, who lives in Portland. Contributors write about their passion for knitting.

My favorite story in the collection is Kathryn Gunn’s “Peace Blanket,” which is about her odyssey of knitting a blanket after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. She researched the words for peace in 46 different languages and charted those words into her blanket design. She chose blue and white, the colors of peace, for the blanket.

She asked people of all ages and genders, many of them strangers, to knit a stitch or rows in the blanket. Eventually more than 200 people did so. She raffled the blanket to raise money for more “words of peace.” To find the pattern, go to Google and type in “peace blanket pattern.”

“KnitLit, Too” is organized into three sections – Our People, Things of the Spirit and Stash. Stories – and poems – run the gamut from “Learning to Knit at Fifty,” to “The Yarn Lady,” to “What to Do with a Dead Sheep.” No story is longer than three or four pages, which makes it easy to pick up and put down.

Those of you with knitting stories of your own to tell are invited to submit knitting tales for possible inclusion in “KnitLit the Third: We Spin More Yarns” currently in the planning stages. To learn more, visit www.knitlit.com.

Children looking for a new chapter book should look no further than “Treasure Forest” by Cat Bordhi. It’s an engaging tale of two children trying to carry out a legacy left to them by their grandmother. It involves adventures in a magic forest and includes finding the solution to this dilemma: How can you retrieve a treasure from the bottom of a pond without disturbing the water? I was especially intrigued by the chapter, “Knitting a Treehouse,” which describes generally how to do that. The book, published in Canada, recently received a Nautilus Award for Young Adult Fiction. The award is given for books that “contribute significantly to conscious living and positive social change.” Visit www.namastepublishing.com to learn more about the book and how to obtain a copy.

Or how about reading up on a craft you’ve never tried before? If that’s your reading focus, take a look at “Gel Candles: 40 Creative Projects” by C. Kaila Westerman. Candle gel is available at local department and craft stores. Candle gel, the books says, is easier to use that paraffin or bees wax, but because it’s not solid, it requires a container, which gives one a second dimension to get crafty with. However, the author incorporates wax candle-making with gel candle-making and gives instructions for combining the two techniques.

The book is lavishly illustrated, has easy to follow directions and includes projects in which you can put to good use bits of driftwood, beach glass, shells and other flotsam and jetsam from the natural world.

The book, a $14.95 paperback, may be ordered at local bookstores. Westerman also is the author of “Melt and Mold Soap Crafting.”

And last but not least is “Knitting on the Edge” by Nicky Epstein, which contains patterns for 350 knitted edgings, borders, trims, fringes and flowers. It’s a wonderful book for browsing while you dream up that luscious sweater you know you’re going to start knitting when the first frost comes ’round again.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes suggestions. Call 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.