It was my latest hand dyed Opal, in what I had chosen to call the Socktoberfest colourway. It was supposed to be spicy and autumnal - the sweet orange glow of ripening pumpkins, the mossy green underfoot, the crisp red of turning maple leaves... very romantic.

I packed it into my bag along with my new Brittany DPNs and set off to Florida.

Anyone who has used these needles will see the error of my ways. You do not 'pack' Brittany DPNs. You carry them in a protective case. One had been destroyed before I made it to the airport. A second one was crushed by maid service. So I had to give up knitting in Florida, which was a shame as I had big plans for this yarn. Upon returning home, it has started to realise its potential:

Let me start with Greetings from Knit Cafe. Suzan Mischer might be the luckiest woman in the world, having made a livelihood for herself owning a beautiful cafe filled to the brim with knitters and their wares. The smug moo cow (in the nicest way) has decided to put together a book for those of us whose serene knitting stretches to a whole end of the couch, but only if the cats permit.

Valerie Pearson's photography brings the book to life - a magical world where giant alpaca stockinette shawls are appealing, affordable AND practical... and where we have the figure to pull of a lacy knitted mini dress without looking like a Greenpeace rescue mission. Actually, that makes me sound bitter.

It's a beautiful book, full of slightly quirky, if impractical, patterns, helpful anecdotes and a couple of killer recipes for things that'll make your stint into wearing a figure hugging knitted dress even less successful. None of the patterns jump out at me but they're thirty basic patterns that could help the novice knitter in a jam. But it gets me in the mood for knitting, a familiar yearning for soft silk sliding through my fingers and neat rows of multi-coloured ordered stitches...

Is it getting hot in here?

On to Knitting Without Tears. I have been lurking over at Zimmermania to see what all the fuss is about. How can this woman lead so many?

The answer is simple. She needs no lavish photography, soft focus lighting and mindless pondering over fringing. She has the skills to pay the bills - no nonsense, friendly, slightly sassy advice on how to turn out just about any knitted project you could want in a single slender volume. I am intrigued by the prospect of knitting a seamless bottom-up raglan and as soon as this ridiculous sock obsession called Socktoberfest subsides, I'll have one on the needles.

As I become more confident with my knitting, I think I begin to subscribe to Zimmerman's stitching ethos - god quality materials, a dose of common sense and confidence that you can fix most things. Yarn does not have a self-destruct mechanism.

So, two welcome additions to my groaning book shelf.

And I broke the yarn diet again today.

They haven't actually changed much to be honest. I love to wear them to pad around the house but also like wearing them at work, with no shoes, waiting for someone to ask where or why I got those natty socks.