When I originally moved to San Francisco in '92, the library was the main place I got books.  I was in this hulking, dark, cold building that seemed ancient and ominous.  I would spend whole Saturdays puttering around in there.  I loved it!  

I would camp out in the craft section pouring over cross stitch charts and clip art books or sit in the kids section looking at origami books (they had a super cool Halloween themed one back then).

Right before I moved away, they opened the fancy-dancy new library.  I instantly hated it: bright, airy, and virtually no books out on the floor.  You had to get almost anything you wanted from the page desk.  I don't know what I'm looking for, people!  I'm browsing ... absorbing.

So it was with a little more than hesitation that I ventured out to the fancy-dancy library in search of macramé books.

I ended up with a knitting book and a macramé book.  Yay!  I stuck with what was on the shelves and didn't bother with the page desk.  Maybe next time.

I love that the macramé book is super old.  It's mostly text, and I'm determined to read it.  There seems to be a lot of discussion of history and technique.  And many examples of .... AAAAaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!  Kill it!  Kill it!

This thing scares the bejesus out of me.  It's on the back cover *and* the centerfold.  Gah! Can you imagine seeing this in the half-light of night out of the corner of your eye on your wall?  Terrifying.

Soul-eating wall hangings notwithstanding, I think I'll learn a lot from this book.

I picked up the color knitting book because I'm totally in love with stripes.  The most awesome feature of this book is the bazillion-and-one photos of the different techniques they are talking about.  It's a book after my own heart!  

And not only do they show you all the stitch variations of the knitting techniques they are teaching you, they also show color variations.  There's a lot of reading to be done in this book, too.  I'm excited about learning more knitting skillz.

The one thing I am absolutely loving about the fancy-dancy library is that when it was time to renew my books, the library emailed me.  And I was able to log into their site and renew them online.  And I can put holds on books online, and they'll email me when they are ready.  Yes, welcome to the 20th century, Alice.

Now I just need to stop crafting long enough to read them!