The tiny, nifty bits
Published On: November 4, 2019

So look…electronic books are great. They’re super portable.  They take up no space on your shelf.  They don’t require anyone to cut down trees or put anything on a truck and get it to your front door.  They absolutely have their advantages.  And I will never ever ever have any complaints about folks who like electronic books best.

But paper books have my heart.  They’re what my brain thinks of when it hears the word book.  They feel solid and real and permanent in a way electronic books just don’t for me.  I love to surround myself with them, whether that’s the stacks of books in my office (and my living room, and my dining room, and my bedroom) or the shelves full treasures at the book store.  Books are my happy place.

Which is why I take such sheer, unadulterated delight in indulging in some of the tinier and more ridiculous bits of book silliness when I make these beasts.  Things like really nice paper…and putting just the tiniest bit of texture on the book’s covers so they feel amazing in your hand.  It’s a tiny thing, but it makes a huge difference.

For this book, I finally (finally!) gave in to my inner eight year old and let myself have just the tiniest hint of foil on the covers.  Which again, may well delight no one but me.  But oh my goodness do I like picking them up and tilting them just so under the light to watch it sparkle.

I also decided to make use of all that real estate on the inside of the covers.  Sure it’s fine to leave it blank or just to put a pretty picture there.  But I wanted to make it useful too.  So inside the front cover I’ve got a chart with some good guidelines for foot sizes plus room to make notes of the actual measurements of your friends and family, just in case you find yourself motivated to knit for someone other than yourself (though really, you deserve awesome socks too, be sure you make yourself something first!).

And inside the back cover there’s a download code (because like I said, electronic books are awfully nifty and totally have their uses).  But there are also rulers (because I assume your rulers go missing just as often as mine do, and maybe it will be harder for a whole book to go wandering off on its own), and the closest thing you can manage to a needle gauge when you’re dealing with paper (because again, laying hands on a proper needle guide is sometimes unreasonably challenging), and a little reminder on how to Kitchener (just in case you find yourself forgetting…again…tell me I’m not alone).

And yeah, you can pull some of that off on an ebook…the Kitchener reminder and the sock size stuff will translate.  But the rulers and the needle gauge and the notes on just how long uncle John’s foot really is don’t quite carry over the same way.  So they get to stay on the paper book…and be a little secret for the folks who feel the same way about holding a book in their hands that I do!

The book is coming out later this month.  I’ll post all the preorder details here over the next week or so.  If you want to be sure you hear about it when it drops, the mailing list is the way to do that (mailing list folks will get it at a bigger preorder discount than everyone else, and they’ll have the best shot at being one of the early bird orders that gets the special little preorder goody I’ve had made).  I can’t wait to show it off!

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