Beyond Stitch And Bitch: Reflections On Knitting And Life

With every knit, the author tells a story; with every purl, readers weave a little of themselves into the tale. Beyond Stitch & Bitch explores through essays the emotional and spiritual aspects of knitting.

Although the book is targeted to knitters, any craft person will appreciate the passion and affection that these essays communicate. Readers laugh at the author's inability to reduce her yarn stash in "The One Who Dies with the Most Yarn Wins." Every hobbyist will recognize herself or himself in "A Knitter's Life," as the author confronts her mortality while knitting hats for her young nephew.

Afi-Odelia Scruggs, a knitter for over forty years, has written a book that is engaging, appealing reading for anyone who has fallen in love with a craft.

Afi-Odelia Scruggs has been knitting for over forty years. Over the years, Scruggs has knitted sweaters, shawls, even skirts. She also quilts and studies tie-dye with a master artist from Nigeria.

Scruggs has been a full-time journalist since 1987, when she began working for semi-weekly papers in the Washington D.C. area. She has worked at papers in Jackson, Miss., Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cleveland, Ohio, where she was a metro columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1996 to 2000. Presently, Scruggs is a visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, OH.