"No Sheep for You!"

My design, called the Berthe Collar by Amy Singer, is published in the recent book No Sheep for You! It's a very simply knit short scarf, or collar, that is shaped in such a way that it will lay flat on your shoulders.
When I first started knitting with the design in mind, I was thinking: there are no straight lines on our bodies. Yet we always knit things that are straight! I wanted to devise a scarf that curves with your curves.
Amy loved it and accepted.
And I am deeply deeply honored to be in that book, and humbled to be in such amazing company as Amy Singer herself, Jillian Moreno, and Sivia Harding. I am sure you will recognize a few other names when you open the book!
I am proud and cannot wait to submit more desgins to Interweave, Knitty, and others. I am thankful to Amy for having given me a stone to step on on my journey.
But here's why YOU need to buy this book: it is an indispensable guide to all fibers non-sheep (or non-cashmere, or non-mohair, take your pick).
Even if you never make a single item from the amazing line-up of patterns, you'd be able to use this book. I think you'd be a fool if you didn't try to make at least one She-Gansey or the gorgeous tank top by Jilian. But what I really, truly love about this book is that here's someone that tells it like it is: all these fibers, be they the ancient ones (hemp, silk, linen) or the new manufactured ones (soy, bamboo, and tech fibers), require a different approach. Silk is slippery. Soft cotton will pill. A hemp bag needs a lining.
In so many words, Amy in her inimitable style tells us knitters: these fibers are extraordinary, and extraordinarily beautiful, and some kick your butt when you try to work with them. But you can do it if you take the time to get to know them and pay some attention!
I owned a yarn shop for nearly 4 years, and I have worked with many many different yarns. People would sometimes come in with their projects and say to me: I paid a lot of money for this yarn! Why is it pilling/slippery/falling apart when I seam with it?
I wish I'd had that book when I had my shop. 'Cause just when I thought I knew almost everything there is to know about yarn, Amy comes along and proves me wrong.
And also, I will sheepishly :) admit that I totally and completely underestimated the issue of wool allergy/sensitivity. Duh. I should have known. My own sister, daughter, and husband are all very sensitive to wool. My solution was to not knit for them, or rarely. I mean, who can imagine a cotton sweater for a guy whose back length measures 27 inches?? Can you imagine how heavy that sweater would be, and how far it would droop on day 2?
Thank goodness we have all those gorgeous fibers and blends available to us now...and a pattern book to go with them.
Thanks, Amy.

(PS: I want to offer one small correction. The stitch pattern on "Tomato", that cute T-Shirt, is not called herringbone...it's a houndstooth check).