Knititude: A few things you may not have known about Italy

Press

More Big Girl Knits
About the No-Gap Wrap Pullover: "We love clever, and this sweater is clever."
Interweave Knits Summer 2007
About the Lutea Lace Shell: "...what appears at first glance to be a standard tank top knitted in flat pieces turns out on closer inspection to be an ingenious piece of three-dimensional sculpture." Pam Allen, Editor in Chief, Interweave Knits

Rec reading

Barbara G. Walker: A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Barbara G. Walker: A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Barbara G. Walker: Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Adam Haslett: You Are Not a Stranger Here
Most of these stories are decent, but the collection is worth buying just for the first one, "Notes To My Biographer." Wow!
Toni Morrison: Beloved
One of my favorites.
Beverley Jackson: Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition
Fascinating look at an extremely disturbing tradition. One of my great-grandmothers (on my mother's side) had bound feet. I saw a pair of handmade slippers for bound feet in an antique store in Nantucket, and had to have them--the most expensive shoes I own! Anyway, after that I bought this book. As for "erotic," a chapter called "sacrifice at the altar of beauty" explores some of the many notions of sexual attractiveness which require painful bodily alterations or embellishments.
Michael A. Dirr: Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia
I would love this book even if I lived in a studio apartment (maybe even more so). You always know exactly where Mr. Dirr stands: "... I have never recommended, at least when conscious, a poplar," or "[the oakleaf hydrangea] is one of the most handsome plants that landscape designers have at their disposal." For a picture of the latter, see my photo album.
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Vintage Contemporaries)
Nicky Epstein: Knitting on the Edge : Ribs * Ruffles * Lace * Fringes * Floral * Points & Picots - The Essential Collection of 350 Decorative Borders
If this doesn't get those creative juices flowing...but why does the author reference a symbol for borders in which "both sides are the same or equally attractive" in the introductory notes, then not use the symbol once? (If she did, I missed it). A minor quibble, to be sure.
Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex: A Novel

(having nothing to do with the food, and very little to do with the scenery).

(Se sia Italiana/o, immagino che gia sappia queste cose.)

1) Radio stations do the traffic report for the entire country at once. In Como, where we are within shouting distance of Switzerland, not only do we hear about the traffic on the autostrada from the south Como exit to the Swiss border: we also find out about accidents and traffic jams in Rome and in Naples.

2) There is no word for "jaywalker"; in Italian those socks would be called "coloro che attraversano la strada all'infuori dei passaggi pedonali," or "those who cross the street outside of the pedestrian crosswalk." Actually, they would just be called "Jaywalkers."

3) According to an Italian women's magazine I read recently, Italian women are more concerned with cellulite than with wrinkles (no wonder, considering all the underwear stores displaying thongs and those funny little panties that only cover the top two-thirds of the butt cheeks)-- hence all of the anti-cellulite products advertised in pharmacy windows. I thought this ad was especially eye-catching (ouch!).