The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, by Alanna Okun, is a must-read for every crafter. (Especially if you are a millennial.)
The Magic of a Good Book
Before I talk about the book, I have to tell you – I grew up reading all the time and didn’t slow down until college. As a kid, I remember reading anything that was put in front of me. I would fall asleep holding books in bed. When I got a little older, I checked out 17 books from my local library. I read 15 of them before I had to return them three weeks later.
As an adult, I’m one of those people who feels like they “never have time to read.” Nowadays, I tend to choose crocheting over reading because it feels more productive. It’s sad to write that, but once in a while a great book comes along and I fall under the spell of reading just like when I was a kid. I cherish these books and the quiet moments where I get lost in the pages and that’s what I found in this book.
The Book
The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, is a compilation of essays on crafting. Alanna was a writer at Buzzfeed, and her writing is nothing short of captivating. It reads as effortlessly as a novel, yet it couldn’t be more true.
Alanna really puts it all out there and describes her life experiences with anxiety, family, love, and loss. She walks us through her her life through the lens of her craft. It’s beautiful to see how knitting has helped shape her as a person, and I feel like I found a lot of myself and my own stories through reading her story.
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The Best Parts
From the moment I started reading, I was hooked. As a crafter, I fell in love with every word. For the first couple of chapters, I kept looking up every few pages to tell Austin (my husband) what it said. I had to keep exclaiming, “Oh my gosh! This is SO true!” or “I feel this all the time!!” I have lots of crafter friends both online and in person, and somehow it feels like Alanna is one of them now. She just gets it and this book captures the life of a crafter perfectly.
Each essay led me through all kinds of emotions. “Things I’ve Used Knitting Needles for Besides Knitting” and “First Rows” made me laugh. “Words They Need to Invent for Crafters” will have you saying YASSSSS. “Body Talk” couldn’t be more true. This entire book makes you feel like you’re not alone in all the best ways.
And of course, there’s an essay called “The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater,” which may sound familiar. This infamous curse is that if you begin knitting or crocheting a sweater for your significant other, you’re break up by the time you finish the sweater.
I don’t want to spoil it for you, but my absolute favorite part of the book was the very last paragraph. Appropriately called, “Casting Off”, the last essay summed up everything perfectly – about life and our craft. It’s so beautifully said and concludes the book so peacefully and perfectly.
The Bottom Line
The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater is one of those magical books that you never want to let go of. This book made me love crochet even more. Every time I started to read it, I wanted to crochet. And every time I started to crochet, I wanted to pick this book back up. It was the best of both worlds.
I’m not a book critic, so I probably didn’t do this book justice at all. This book has that magical effect where you start reading and lose track of time. To understand how wonderful this book is, grab a copy, sit down with a cup of tea, and get lost in the pages.
I promise, you’ll love it too.
