Top 40 Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “SABLE- A common knitting acronym that stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

2. “It took me years and years of trial efforts to work out that there is absolutely no knitting triumph I can achieve that my husband will think is worth being woken up for.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

3. “I am a person who works well under pressure. In fact, I work so well under pressure that at times, I will procrastinate in order to create this pressure.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

4. “Knitting is a boon for those of us who are easily bored. I take my knitting everywhere to take the edge off of moments that would otherwise drive me stark raving mad.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

5. “You don’t knit because you are patient. You are patient because you knit.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

6. “When you are knitting socks and sweaters and scarves, you aren’t just knitting. You are assigning a value to human effort. You are holding back time. You are preserving the simple unchanging act of handwork.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

7. “It’s only knitting and it’s one of the few times in your life when there are no bad consequences to a mistake.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

8. “I recognize that knitting can improve my mood in trying circumstances.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

9. “When confronted with a birthday in a week I will remember that a book can be a really good present, too.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

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10. “With great effort comes great gratification.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

11. “A half finished shawl left on the coffee table isn’t a mess; it’s an object of art.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

12. “As usual, the sock yarns have no idea what is going on.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

13. “A home without books is a body without soul.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

14. “I explain at the parties that I believe knitting is a transformative and intriguing act that can change the life and brain of the person doing it, and that knitting is a perfect metaphor for life and insight into some better ways through it.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

15. “I will resist the urge to underestimate the complexity of knitting.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

16. “There is practically no activity that cannot be enhanced or replaced by knitting, if you really want to get obsessive about it.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

17. “I will always buy extra yarn. I will not try to tempt fate.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

18. “In the nineteeth century, knitting was prescribed to women as a cure for nervousness and hysteria. Many new knitters find this sort of hard to believe because, until you get good at it, knitting seems to cause those ailments. The twitch above my right eye will disappear with knitting practice.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

19. “I will continue to freak out my children by knitting in public. It’s good for them.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

20. “Achieving the state of SABLE is not, as many people who live with these knitters believe, a reason to stop buying yarn, but for the knitter it is an indication to write a will, bequeathing the stash to an appropriate heir.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

21. “The essay is one of my favourite forms of writing, and I feel like what’s inside is really personal, more so than with shorter pieces.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

22. “The only difference between an experienced knitter and new knitter is that the experienced knitter makes bigger mistakes faster. Be bold; there are no terrible consequences in knitting.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

23. “When people see me knitting, I tell them I’m a knitter. Not the sort of knitter they may have run into before, but a passionate, constant, deliberate knitter. I knit everyday, all the time, everywhere I go.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

24. “You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance. – RAY BRADBURY.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

25. “Hat head is a sad affliction wherein the chosen hat and the selected hairstyle are grossly incompatible. The unfortunate combination results in a condition that can be hidden only with the application of another hat.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

26. “Knitters use knitting to value-add to the world.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

27. “Sweaters need to be imagined, dreamed over.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

28. “I’m a knitter. My projects are the ultimate in ’some assembly required.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

29. “Knitters just can’t watch TV without doing something else. Knitters just can’t wait in line, knitters just can’t sit waiting at the doctor’s office. Knitters need knitting to add a layer of interest in other, less constructive ways.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

30. “It is important for knitters to know two things about frogging: that cats are capable of this knitting action, and even seem to enjoy it and seek opportunities to do it; and that foul language is a normal, healthy accompaniment to frogging, whether it is you or the cat that accomplished the task.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

31. “Since I became a knitting humor writer, I seem to be understood a little better – at least for the purposes of social discourse.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

32. “The best reason for a knitter to marry is that you can’t teach the cat to be impressed when you finish a lace scarf.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

33. “The chances of running out of yarn on a project are directly related to the difficulty that you will have getting more.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

34. “I am so uncoordinated that it’s as if the day they were handing out physical prowess I was distracted at the fine motor skills wicket, probably by a knitting pattern, and missed out completely on whatever it is that lets people do standing-up things with their bodies.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

35. “Some knitters say that they buy yarn with no project in mind and wait patiently for the yarn to “speak” to them. This reminds me of Michelangelo, who believed that every block of stone he carved had the statue waiting inside and that all he did was reveal it. I think I’ve had yarn speak to me during the knitting process, and I’ve definitely spoken to it. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong, or maybe my yarn and I aren’t on such good terms, but it really seems to me that all I say is “please” and all it ever says is “no”.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

36. “100 years ago, buying something you could make was considered wasteful; now making something you could buy is considered wasteful. I am not convinced this is a step in the right direction.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

37. “It turns out I will buy any yarn, even yarn I will never use, if the store discounts it by more than 50 percent.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

38. “I will not let the non-knitters of the world decide how normal I am.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

39. “I do know that there isn’t ever going to be a time when there aren’t any knitters.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

40. “Even if he doesn’t know a cable from a bobble, my mate can be my biggest cheerleader.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

41. “The rules of Canadian engagement say that if we encounter a celebrity, we have to pretend we’re not encountering a celebrity.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

42. “It is a little known fact that much like birds, who can always find north, knitters can always find yarn.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

43. “The twitch above my right eye will disappear with knitting practice.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

44. “Did you know that there are $4,000 washing machines? Seriously. If a washer is $4,000 I want it to get the laundry out of my room and bring it back folded after it made me coffee told me it likes my hair.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

45. “Maybe, just maybe, those six balls are a scarf and hat that get tucked away for years and long after I’m gone someone pulls them out and says, “Remember how Grammy was with all the wool? Remember how she knit all the time?” fingering the soft wool and pondering who I was and what I did while I was here.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

46. “It turns out that I will buy any yarn, even yarn I will never use, if the store discounts it by more than 50%. Do not be tricked, not all yarn is meant to be yours. No matter how good a deal it is.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

47. “I have not yet formulated a plan to force people to knit that is likely to be successful, but the one where I locked resistant people in a freezer filled with yarn and needles has promise, if I can work out the ethical issues.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

48. “I’m reasonably sure that Calvin Klein does not knit.”

— Stephanie Pearl-McPhee