An OMG Moment

One of the perks of my job is that I get to do some serious shopping with other people's money. Yesterday, while perusing the boards, lists, magazines, reviews, et al, I experienced two OMG moments! I was on Amazon, under new releases, Home and Garden, Knitting and my mouth dropped open when I saw it. I am an absolute sucker for charts - and here are charts from the Queen of Stranded Colorwork - in a Dover edition!!!! These are the guys who publish those titles that are out of copywrite, out of print - in inexpensive paperback editions.

You can read about it on Amazon but it's not out yet - and not yet in Dover's on-line catalog, but Amazon is offering a pre-publication option.

And while I was scrolling down from Alice Starmore look what else I discovered. Yes. At last. The Principles of Knitting by June Hiatt!! Chatter about this title has been rife on the internet boards for years. The discussions range from the comprehensiveness of the contents, the didactic tone, (I never found it so) and the molasses like speed of publishers and authors when it comes to bringing out revised editions. I used this book when I was taking TKGA's Master Class back in 2002 and fell in love with it. I had to borrow it via interlibrary loan and for years the used market has been asking upwards of $300 for a copy. Now that there is a publication date (November 2011) the used-book price has dropped to around $65 - though, of course, you can still pop the big bucks for a hardback copy of the original. I plan to wait till November and get a nice shiny new copy. And buy one for the library.

Of course, once you start clicking on titles on Amazon, they lead you astray and it wasn't long before this popped up on my screen - and I'm wondering now - do I want this instead of  Charts for Knitting? If the Dover book wasn't a collection of Alice Starmore, Queen of Fair Isle, designs, the fact that this book is by Interweave Press would probably be enough to change selection. I like the color photography I'm sure to get from IP. La de da - it's feast or famine around here. Maybe I need both.