Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World by Clara Parkes: book review

Knitlandia (2016) is a travel memoir around the world in 15 years, from 2000-2015, through the eyes of the founder of the online magazine Knitters Review.

Basically, the novel is a collection of yarns about yarns—shops, spinning mills, sheep and wool festivals, agricultural shows, and conferences.

Most of Clara Parkes’ stories are in her home country of America, in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, and Cleveland—to mention a few locations.

Her first overseas story is her trip to Iceland to conduct workshops on yarn and wool in 2011, and her second is France in 2013. She is in Paris with the TricoThé knitting group. By 2015, she is in Scotland for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival—oh, for the love of cashmere (and whisky and tweeds).

But for all the travel, there is barely a description of the knits that people are actually wearing, and how they have changed, or not, over 15 years.

The revelation though is: the narrower the subject niche, the more passionate and loyal the readership. This is fun for the knitting devotee, and reads like a cultural history tour with the passion of a creative crafter.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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