All Wound Up: the Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin by Stephanie Pearl McPhee, 240 pp.

If you’re one of those people who just doesn’t get this whole knitting thing, and especially if you’re one of those and have a knitter in your life, read at least the first essay in this latest by the Yarn Harlot. McPhee, a wildly popular knit blogger, pattern designer, and author of a half-a-dozen or so knitting humor books, has been called the David Sedaris of knitters, which is apt. I’m not a frequent LOL reader/listener, but these two are probably the only authors I’ve read who are that funny to me. Beyond funny though, is McPhee’s spot on sense of social justice. A proud Canadian, she blogs frequently on the importance and value of their single payer health system, on equal opportunity for women and how we still fall short on this goal, on ecological issues, and more. My only disappointment with this latest volume is that a few of the essays were slightly expanded versions of blog entries from the past year or so. I’ve only been a regular reader of hers for the past couple of years, so it’s possible her other books contained similarly reworked pieces of which I was unaware. But really, I think that’s fairly common practice for writer/bloggers, and who can blame them for including key life observations in both realms. I’m a true fan, and this latest hasn’t changed a thing in that regard.