Alanna Okun Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Alanna Okun is an American author, writer, editor, and finally a crafter. She currently resides in New York.

She was born on February 7, 1982. Her work has been seen in many publications including Vogue Knitting, Apartment Therapy, Brooklyn Magazine, The Billfold, The Hairpin, and National Public Radio, as well as others.

Alanna is working as a senior editor at Racked. She spent some time working at the site BuzzFeed previous to landing the editor gig. She has not only had her work appear in print, but she has also appeared in a personal sense as she has made more than one appearance as herself on television.

She has appeared on television segments for such programs as Good Morning America, The Today Show, as well as a variety of national and local television shows and radio shows too.

Alanna Okun first became a published author when her first book was released in print by Flatiron Books. It is titled The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater and it came out March 20, 2018. The book is a memoir and it contains the variety of truths that the author gleaned about life through the process of crafting. It’s a fresh take on her life and what becoming a person that is into crafts has been able to teach her.

When it comes to this writer, it’s her personal opinion that people who do crafting are people that know things. They are aware of how they can take one simple material or a couple of materials and put them all together in unusual ways to make something wonderful.

They are aware of how they can take huge piles stacked up high of colored yarn and put them together with needles in order to make scarves and booties and sweaters. Something that has no form with a little intention is crafted into something with form.

Crafters may have access to things that others do not in forms of knowledge. They are aware that even though you are able to knit a wide variety of items, some things you should just avoid knitting. Such as bikini tops, to give an example.

Alanna also says that crafters might sense that knitting a hat for a baby that was just born is not simply about putting together something small to be functional in nature. It is a way to respond to the beginning of a newer life coming into the world.

Sometimes the way that you can appreciate life starting can also help you to accept that the endings of life are going to happen and it is just something that is inevitable and happens with the passing of time. They also might know that when choosing to knit a sweater for your current boyfriend, the odds may be better than usual that you’re going to tank your relationship.

In fact, you may even find that your relationship ends before you can even put the final stitch in place. Alanna is aware of the fact that she uses doing crafts to try and reduce her anxiety and keep it at bay a lot of the time. But there’s nothing the matter with that and at the end of your session, you have something cool to use or to decorate with.

The author says that no one will end up ever being as good a teacher of knitting to her as her grandmother. She also says that she knows that when we find out or know how little we are in control of other things in our lives and in the universe, we will at least be able to have an influence on the string, sticks, and the fabric that we have ready to go and craft with.

While we can’t always have our way in life, crafting allows people a chance to make the things that they want to happen come to life. It is a way to manifest this and beauty and control and create something in the world that is solely there because we did it. We chose to bring that to life and it is there and no one can deny that.

This author takes the reader on a printed exploration of her mind and her past, putting herself totally out on the page. Picking up this book from your local library or book store is a journey into the world and thoughts of this writer who is not afraid to lay out the facts of her life nor the parts of herself that she would not normally bring up at a coffee date with a stranger but puts so bravely into print. You can also go online to find excerpts of this book or to get access to the whole thing online.

A combination of life insights and a pondering of what we must face as humans, this is a unique look at what crafting can offer people but at the same time, what it has come to offer her and those that she knows. While this may sound serious to some readers, Okun has a delightful sense of humor that fully manifests here.

When it comes to crafting, there is a lot to get over. She is able to find the funny side when it comes to all of the indignities that crafters must come to face in the end on a pretty much daily basis. For instance, you might have been doing great and moving full steam ahead when knitting a pair of socks, but now that you have gotten to the second one, it seems that you do not have the same energy and momentum.

While this is a very real syndrome, there is more to this intriguing memoir than may first the eye. It will certainly ring true with those who love to do crafts but also anyone that enjoys a well thought out and honest look at someone’s point of view.

For those who love to make things and craft, readers in general, and lovers of well-written non fiction books, this collection of essays is a sometimes serious, often funny, and always enjoyable exploration of the life and mind of Alanna Okun. Check this book out and see for yourself!