Sweater Club BY MOLLY TEMPLETON I haven't picked up knitting needles for more years than I care to count, but after paging through Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Knitting Rules and At Knit's End, I found myself wanting to knit. Though my craftier impulses are usually short-lived, I wanted to find a yarn store and stare contemplatively into piles of yarn, wondering whether I really could make scarves while watching "Grey's Anatomy." A few years ago, it seemed like you couldn't go anywhere without seeing someone with a knitting project. "Stitch and Bitch" groups proliferated, and it was totally normal to look off to the side at a concert and spot a black-clad hipster with needles clacking away. The trend seems to have let up a little bit, but not, Pearl-McPhee would likely claim, for the true knitters, the people for whom she writes. In Knitting Rules, she offers a quiz for readers to use to determine what sort of knitter they are; in At Knit's End, subtitled Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much, she packs into each small page a sweet, funny, endearing or embarrassing anecdote about being a rabid knitter. The wonderful thing about At Knit's End is the universality of Pearl-McPhee's meditations. It's not just    knitters who learn, almost inevitably, that a fantastic completed project is not of interest to one's sleeping spouse; it's anyone who works on things to the point of distraction and, when finished, immediately goes looking for the next project. Beyond universality, though, Pearl-McPhee — who also blogs about knitting at www.yarnharlot.com— has a contagious enthusiasm for her craft. So contagious, in fact, I wasn't kidding about picking up the yarn again. After all, I do need a hat. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee appears at 5:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 7 at Books Without Borders (8th & Charnelton). Pick up free tickets ahead of time or you're risking standing room only. Do try not to poke anyone with your projects!
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