Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

39. Lisa Shobhana Mason, Yarnplay.
40. Lisa Shobhana Mason, Yarnplay at Home.

Knitting books! Bwahahahaha! The original userinfo for the comm had a line that even knitting pattern books count (since moved to the FAQ), and ever since I've joined I have been trying to find a knitting book to review for the comm. And now, thanks to some kind people at Ravelry who rec'ced Lisa Shobhana Mason's work: knitting books! Yay!

Mason has a nice eye for colorwork -- slick enough to even tempt me, who is normally resistant to messing around with colorwork. Her textural and design details are slick, and I particularly like what happens when she combines texture with colorwork. (I had used to think that "color changes + purl rows = bad news", but I see now that I was simply misinformed on that.)

Know what else I like about this pair of books? The photos are taken with adequate depth of field (what is it with knitting photos where everything but a single row of stitches is out-of-focus?) and the scarf photos usually show both sides. (As they should, since Mason obviously recognizes that in real life, scarves have two sides.)

The first book is a mixture of clothing and housewares; the second book is all housewares.

Mason's website
Flickr photostream for Yarnplay projects
Ravelry: Yarnplay, Yarnplay at Home.