The vast majority of my job is pretty awesome. I get to share the craft of knitting with other people, I meet (at least online) others who share the same passion, I get to play with yarn and needles and call it work (well, someone is paying me, after all). I get yarn samples and products to test from time to time, and I get lots of books to review.

The old and the new: The Principles of Knitting. Photo © Sarah E. White.

Lots. All the time. And I want to read and tell you about all of them. Unfortunately, to catch up with my backlog I'd probably need no more books to be published for about a year!

But one book I am particularly glad to see land on my doorstep is the new edition of The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt. The original was published in 1988 and when out of print in the 1990s, and it has been extremely coveted ever since, with copies sometimes fetching hundreds of dollars. A few years ago the book was considered one of the most sought-after rare craft book titles.

Its reprinting has long been rumored, then it really was happening, then it was delayed (a couple times) but now it's real and set to be released Feb. 14 -- tell your sweetie now!

My copy arrived a couple of days ago and I wish I could lock myself away and devour it. For now, a few observations.

• The original book weighed in at just over 4 pounds; the new one is nearly 5 (4 pounds, 7.4 ounces to be precise, or barely less than my daughter when she was born!)
• The first edition was about 588 pages; the second is 734. That increase added about 100,000 words to the text, Hiatt says in the introduction to the new edition.
• The index alone is 39 pages; the bibliography is 8, up from just 3 in the original.
• Though Hiatt says she only intended to edit a handful of chapters, this book represents a pretty thorough revamping of the original, with major edits, clarifications, more drawings and photos (and spot color!) and some reorganization.
• Even more so than in the original, the book covers pretty much everything in the world of knitting, from methods of casting on, knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing and binding off to color, surface decoration, double-knit fabrics, felting, pattern design, information on yarn and tools and much more.
• Though its size is daunting, Hiatt says the book was written with beginners always in mind and the new introduction provides advice about how newer knitters (and others who don't want to -- or can't possibly! -- read the book cover to cover) might approach the book.
• Hiatt shares her vast knowledge with such grace that knitters will want to spend as much time with her as they can.

When my husband saw the book, he said "it looks like a chemistry textbook." I said, "well, it's a knitting textbook." And it is, in a sense, a master course for a lifetime of good knitting.

Are you excited about the re-release of Principles? Answer the poll and tell me your thoughts in the comments.

I have had an iPhone for a while, but I'm not a big seeker of apps. I know there are probably tons of good knitting apps out there (if you know of some, please let me know and I'll check them out!) but I reason that I spend enough time on my real computer so I don't need to go looking for reasons to spend more time on my phone. The Facebook and Pinterest apps are quite enough, thanks!

But Jonelle Beck, one of the awesome chicas behind SWTC yarns, asked me to take a look at her new Yarn Store GPS app, and I was happy to oblige.

It's a brilliant concept that, with the help of users, is sure to be an awesome resource, but that right now is clearly in its infancy.

As the name implies, the app will help users find yarn stores wherever they happen to be (in the United States, at least, and a handful are listed so far for Canada). You can sort by state and by whether you want to look at online only stores, farm and family shops, or options for spinners and weavers; you can also browse all kinds of stores. Clicking on a shop brings up a map, a photo if there is one 00 a lot of shops don't have them yet -- and a description of the store complete with hours, a link to the shop's website and its phone number so you can call the shop right out of the app if you want to.

Users can add comments, questions or other information and report errors in what's provided. You can also see the comments that have been made about all shops in a stream (if a particular store has comments you can see them on that store's "page"). You can locate yarn stores on a map of the United States based on your location and see a slideshow of images from different stores, which will be more interesting when more stores have images.

Users can also send general comments, including tipping the developers off to yarn stores they might have missed. So you can see how the users play a huge role both in providing reviews of various stores and keeping the app updated when stores open, close or change hands.

The app retails for $2.99 and while it might not be all that impressive yet, I'm sure it will be a great go-to for travelers and new-to-town folks who want to get the scoop on a yarn store, wherever they are, before stepping in the door.

I would like to apologize to anyone living in the South who actually wanted snow this year. I've completely jinxed us.

I hope these little cuties get some use! © Sarah E. White.

You see, last year, when we had one snow that was more than a foot where I live, I was completely unprepared. My girl had no good shoes for going out in the snow, and no mittens to keep her warm had she wanted to (she did not like the snow at all, so it was OK).

This year, she has snow boots, fleece-lined pants, a good warm coat and, to top it all off, I made her mittens.

So, sorry, there will be no snow this year.

For the rest of you, these cute little mittens are just about the easiest thing in the world of mittens, and they're a great blank slate for any kind of embellishment you might want to add. I'm kind of thinking hearts since it's almost Valentine's Day...maybe we'll get some colder weather by then!

Lots of the stories about knitting out there this week also have something to do with sports, which is somewhat unusual. An Associated Press story tells all about the Super Scarves project that brought in thousands more scarves than the goal of 3,000 scarves to be given to volunteers at the Super Bowl. Each of the scarves has an official Super Bowl logo sewn onto it, attached by hand by an inmate at the Indiana Women's Prison. The record for the most scarves produced goes to Bev Meska, an 82-year-old crocheter who made a staggering 250 scarves.

A lot of sports fans are already thinking about the Olympics, and though this one isn't technically about knitting, it is about a BBC Sports reporter not knowing the difference between knitting and crochet. Rachel Cawthorn is a 24-year-old canoeist who holds a world record and is the first British rower to receive an Olympic medal. She's gearing up for the home Games, but she loves to relax by reading Harry Potter and crocheting amigirumi. If you want to read about an Olympian who really knits, check out my interview with Hannah Kearney, who nabbed a gold in freestyle skiing - moguls in 2010.

Speaking of the Olympics, a group of farmers in New Zealand says that sheep shearing ought to be an Olympic sport. The New Zealand Federated Farmers issued a statement saying that competitive shearers (yes, there is such a thing) are truly athletes who "take it to another level" that should be acknowledged. It's unlikely to become an Olympic sport, though, because of the small number of people around the world who participate in the event. But those who do it really are amazing: the men's record for sheep shearing is a whopping 749 lambs in eight hours; the women's record is 507. Wow.

In charity knitting news, crafters in Casper, Wyo., have been working on knit breasts for mastectomy patients and have donated an estimated 50 pairs. Kids at a South Carolina elementary school are loom knitting hats to give to a domestic violence shelter, and knitters in Idaho gave been busy knitting 149 hats for participants in a Relay for Life event with a really short deadline.

Clara Parkes offers a great roundup of the goings on at the recent Vogue Knitting Live! event in New York City, including the statement by Vogue Knitting editor Trisha Malcolm that ponchos are here to stay because they're "the upmarket version of the snuggle." Darn.

If you're still looking for some crafty ways to celebrate the Lunar New Year, check out this excellent roundup of mostly knit objects from Your Knitting Life (still getting used to that one; it's the former Knitting Today magazine).

And finally, your adorable knit of the week comes from the Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in the UK, where one of the gardeners has been immortalizing the others in yarn. Sue Ball has so far stitched up four of her colleagues into dolls about 10 inches tall, complete with their zoo badges and important accoutrements, such as a knit stocking cap and chainsaw for one and cream cakes for another. Fun!