by Kelly

I don’t knit, and truthfully, I never wished I knew how. But now, after flipping through the pages of Haiku Knits, I might be changing my mind.

This beautiful book showcases a collection of knitted designs created by Tanya Alpert, a fiber artist and knitting goddess who owns a store in the San Diego area called Knitting by the Beach.

The 25 patterns in this book are divided into five categories–Lingering Snow, Wind and Stream, Ocean Breeze, Fading Light and Beauty in Motion.

Each section starts with a haiku. My favorite is the haiku that accompanies the section called Fading Light:

City never sleeps

Sundown, dusk, alluring lights

Excitement beckons

The patterns in this section range from wispy and romantic to a more substantial sweater cape to ward off the evening chill.

All of the book’s designs harken back to a Japanese aesthetic. Alpert writes in her introduction that she began working with Japanese yarns a few years back and fell in love with their “unique textures and understated beauty.”

Those elements carried over into the designs she features here, which are sometimes cozy, sometimes lacy and often inspired by nature. She ended up naming the collection Haiku Knits because, she writes:

“Two of the main tenets of Japanese aesthetics are economy in the use of space and materials, and asymmetry. As in haiku, in the expression of emotion and thought, an economical use of space and time seems especially appropriate today. As for asymmetry, it suggests fluidity and motion.”

The ideas of economy and asymmetry are apparent throughout the book. And after dreaming about all the knitted designs I would be making as soon as I learned how to knit, I realized that while all my beginner attempts would most certainly be asymmetrical, the process as a whole probably wouldn’t be very economical. I’d have to take classes, buy supplies and of course, invest in skeins and skeins of glorious, beautiful yarns.

But a girl can dream…