Various Bookish Stuff
1) I have surrendered to the siren call of Library Thing. It turns out that Ravelry is a gateway drug.
See, I'm culling my personal library down to just the books that, one way or another, actively bring me joy or are useful to me. As I started making "keep/sell/donate" decisions, I was putting knitting books into Ravelry and found myself thinking "it would be really nice if I could do this with ALL my books, and have a nice organized record of them somewhere."
Oh, I know where you can do that: Library thing. And now if I find I top 200 books when I've finished culling, I can afford the lifetime membership (which is actually very inexpensive).
2) What in the world am I going to do with Alden Amos' "Big Book of Handspinning"? I don't know that I want to keep it, but I hate to let it loose into the wild again. I'm not convinced anything significant in that book is actually correct. To his fans this is like saying that Stephen Hawking doesn't know anything about physics. But the man insists that you have to cut off and retie your driveband when switching direction from spinning to plying in double drive. (Actually, all you have to do is pedal the other way.) He insists on washing wool in high-alkali lye-based soaps instead of pH neutral detergents, and consequently requires a very labor-intensive cleaning methods to prevent damage. Strong alkalines damage wool very quickly. He tells you to pull your yarn off the tip of a spindle; this is how Great Wheels work to put twist into yarn, so if you want your work overspun or falling apart, please, be guest. His discussion of the effects of ratios on double-drive wheels is academically interesting, but his assumptions intentionally neglect the biggest factors in actual performance.
There are little tidbits here and there that are useful (for instance, I can look up the melting point of lanolin easily because he has to work so close to the temperature and so quickly to prevent damage from the alkaine soaps), but I hate to leave this book where a newbie can get to it. There's already so much misinformation in modern spinning circles that can be directly attributed to that man.
3) Similar but worse, what do I do with "The New Natural Cat"? There is some very useful information in here (good sections on grooming and pilling a cat, for instance), but there is also some seriously dangerous stuff in here. I'm talking "will kill your cat" dangerous.
For instance, she suggests giving your cat garlic. Lots and lots of garlic. Garlic, like onions, can causes severe life-threatening anemia in cats. A cat is unlikely to ingest enough garlic on its own to be dangerous, but the author goes on at length with suggestions of ways to force more garlic down your cat.
She also lists comfrey as an "food herb" that's just wonderful when taken internally. Neglects to mention that it can cause liver damage when used in large quantities or over extended periods of time.
Oh, and pennyroyal. Why, it's a medicinal herb and great for fleas in coat sprays and flea shampoos, but "Cat's are not fond of the smell, so I don't suggest it." Um... How about the "will kill your ass" factor? It's dangerous to humans if not used with great care, and even worse to cats. And anything that ends up on a cat's fur is going to end up in their stomach. There are much bigger reasons to keep pennyroyal away from cats than "aren't fond of the smell".
Like I said, "kill your cat" dangerous. So either it stays on my shelf, or goes in the recycle bin. I think I know enough to use it safely, but I haven't cracked this book in years and don't expect to do so anytime soon. So I guess that puts it in the recycle bin, huh?
See, I'm culling my personal library down to just the books that, one way or another, actively bring me joy or are useful to me. As I started making "keep/sell/donate" decisions, I was putting knitting books into Ravelry and found myself thinking "it would be really nice if I could do this with ALL my books, and have a nice organized record of them somewhere."
Oh, I know where you can do that: Library thing. And now if I find I top 200 books when I've finished culling, I can afford the lifetime membership (which is actually very inexpensive).
2) What in the world am I going to do with Alden Amos' "Big Book of Handspinning"? I don't know that I want to keep it, but I hate to let it loose into the wild again. I'm not convinced anything significant in that book is actually correct. To his fans this is like saying that Stephen Hawking doesn't know anything about physics. But the man insists that you have to cut off and retie your driveband when switching direction from spinning to plying in double drive. (Actually, all you have to do is pedal the other way.) He insists on washing wool in high-alkali lye-based soaps instead of pH neutral detergents, and consequently requires a very labor-intensive cleaning methods to prevent damage. Strong alkalines damage wool very quickly. He tells you to pull your yarn off the tip of a spindle; this is how Great Wheels work to put twist into yarn, so if you want your work overspun or falling apart, please, be guest. His discussion of the effects of ratios on double-drive wheels is academically interesting, but his assumptions intentionally neglect the biggest factors in actual performance.
There are little tidbits here and there that are useful (for instance, I can look up the melting point of lanolin easily because he has to work so close to the temperature and so quickly to prevent damage from the alkaine soaps), but I hate to leave this book where a newbie can get to it. There's already so much misinformation in modern spinning circles that can be directly attributed to that man.
3) Similar but worse, what do I do with "The New Natural Cat"? There is some very useful information in here (good sections on grooming and pilling a cat, for instance), but there is also some seriously dangerous stuff in here. I'm talking "will kill your cat" dangerous.
For instance, she suggests giving your cat garlic. Lots and lots of garlic. Garlic, like onions, can causes severe life-threatening anemia in cats. A cat is unlikely to ingest enough garlic on its own to be dangerous, but the author goes on at length with suggestions of ways to force more garlic down your cat.
She also lists comfrey as an "food herb" that's just wonderful when taken internally. Neglects to mention that it can cause liver damage when used in large quantities or over extended periods of time.
Oh, and pennyroyal. Why, it's a medicinal herb and great for fleas in coat sprays and flea shampoos, but "Cat's are not fond of the smell, so I don't suggest it." Um... How about the "will kill your ass" factor? It's dangerous to humans if not used with great care, and even worse to cats. And anything that ends up on a cat's fur is going to end up in their stomach. There are much bigger reasons to keep pennyroyal away from cats than "aren't fond of the smell".
Like I said, "kill your cat" dangerous. So either it stays on my shelf, or goes in the recycle bin. I think I know enough to use it safely, but I haven't cracked this book in years and don't expect to do so anytime soon. So I guess that puts it in the recycle bin, huh?