As a knitter & crocheter, naturally I enjoy reading about the subject, whether a non-fiction or a fiction book. This book is a memoir about Kyoko's life, starting with her childhood & a personal tragedy. She grows up, moves to America, gets married, and lives her life. The stories about her life, are intertwined with stories about learning to knit, making her first sweater, discovering circular knitting & Elizabeth Zimmermann. I'm a huge fan of EZ, so whenever someone talks about discovering her for the first time, I get a big thrill.

I am giving this book four stars for two reasons: one, I had difficulties keeping track of time. She goes back to her childhood so often, that I often couldn't tell if she was talking about the past or the present. Towards the end, she was retelling a story involving her husband that I thought took place in the past, until I realized after rereading it, she actually meant the present.

Two, I felt the story moved along slowly - I guess I just like more action in my books.

Again, these are just my personal opinions, just because I felt the book moved slowly doesn't mean someone else wouldn't greatly love the pacing.



I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley.com ( )

I knit and all, but knitters are so weird. ( )

Kyoki Mori delivers a moving account of her life by threading together various knitting projects with different episodes in her life. As Mori's story unravels, you share pain when she loses her mother, the frustration she feels with her family, the slow demise of her marraige and the joy she finds when she takes charge of her life.

I don't read many memoirs, but I thoroughly enjoyed Mori's story.

Though at times the story is slow-paced, threads of Mori's youth weave seamlessly with lessons she learns as adult. Each section in the book corresponds with a different project, and they range in their difficulty: scarves, cardigans, fair isle, etc. At one point she compares her marriage to instarsia -- her and husband come together when it suits them, knitting together the image the pattern calls for, but when the image is done, they separate until the next pattern.

The book jumps back and forth a lot from Mori's youth to her present day, but Mori is so frank and honest about her life that the way she tells her story works beautifully. Though Mori is a drastically different type of woman than I am, she is comfortable in her own skin and in the end I admire her strength and courage.

"Yarn -- Remembering the Way Home" is more than just the memoir of a knitter. It's a story woven together in pieces, and much like in a knitted garment, the end result is worth it. ( )

A breathlessly lyrical memoir of family, marriage, divorce, and knowing oneself. Though others have used knitting metaphors, few do it as sincerely and effectively as the author does. A tremendous pleasure for my first foray into Gemma Media titles! (4) ( )

Having read two of the author's YA novels, I was excited to find that one of her memoirs involved yarn, which is a passion of mine. (Big fibre artist when I'm not reading and writing, you see.) I was interested to see just what lay inside.

What I found was a frank and honest telling of many parts of her life, ranging from events in her childhood to her marriage to open self-reflection. Arranged in sections relating to specific knitted garments and how they relate to her life as a whole, it was easy to see the common threads that held everything together, that pushed and pulled and held all the events and emotions that she experienced. Following the author's journey like this, I not only got to feel closer to her and understand her better, but I got the chance to understand myself a little better too, as though I was less a passive observer and more an active participant.

Which, I think, must have been intentional. Aside from the fact that she can tell a good story and create believable characters, it didn't escape my notice that the theme of "common threads" can be applied between author and reader, between participant and observer, and that there's a connection to be felt.

More than that, there's the lesson that no matter how many threads run between people, places, or things, nothing is eternal. Nothing is so flawed that it cannot, with a little effort, be snipped and repaired until the problem has been fixed. And not everything needs to be perfect, either.

I admire her more now that I've read this book, and I took away from it more understanding and inspiration than I expected to. This was far more than a story about yarn, more than a story about a woman, and, much as in knitting, weaving, or spinning, the finished whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. ( )