This is my favorite Elizabeth Zimmerman book, hands down, even though it has the least amount of knitting in it.  Maybe there is a connection there, because her hard core knitting advice books frustrate me.  You may have read my review of Knitting Without Tears, which is so chock full of information, none of which is organized or cross-referenced or findable at all, that it practically brings me to tears.

 In contrast, The Opinionated Knitter is a straight up coffee table book, perfect for curling up with on a rainy afternoon.  It collects the best of Zimmerman's newsletters, which she mailed out to subscribers between 1958 and 1968.  Each newsletter starts out with an anecdote, and I have always felt that Zimmerman's true knack was for anecdotal writing.  It then includes a pattern of extreme pithiness (given the compressed format of the mailed newsletter), which is sometimes modified by notes added for the publication of the book.  

It also includes a great whack of beautiful pictures, of classic Zimmerman garments (many of them knit by Zimmerman herself) being worn by white people.  (Not to belabor a point, but there are eight models, all of them white as the day is long.)  This is one of the few Zimmerman books with photographs, and so far as I know, the only one with color photographs.  The photographs are wonderful, and done with a minimum of the artiness that so often obscures the knit garment itself.  

The Opinionated Knitter is also notable for showing what an excellent saleswoman Zimmerman was.  It's easy to forget that she wasn't just publishing her books and newsletter out of the goodness of her heart; she was a woman running a business, selling wool yarns designed and manufactured to her exacting specifications, as well as her own small publishing company.

We usually think of Elizabeth Zimmerman as a knitter's knitter, the woman who designed the EPS sweater system and popularized knitting in the round.  But I think it's important to pay tribute to her as an entrepreneur as well.  The world was unfriendly, if not openly hostile, to the idea of women running their own businesses in the 50s and 60s.  Have you seen any episodes of "Mad Men"?  I have spoken to women who worked in offices during that time period, and they attest that it is entirely accurate.  

I expect that Elizabeth Zimmerman has been passed over for "feminist icon" status because she devoted her life to knitting, which was so often seen as "women's work," as a demeaning and subservient activity.  This does an injustice both to Elizabeth Zimmerman and to the world of knitting, of course, but that won't stop people.

At any rate, I enjoyed reading her exhortations to buy her Sheepswool yarn, and her pragmatic comments like this one about knitted caps, "This adds up to pleasant knitting for presents, and excellent profit-making for bazaars."

The Opinionated Knitter also includes accolades and anecdotes from knitters who were helped by Zimemrman, either in person or through her many media appearances and publications.  It stands as a testimony to Zimmerman's life's work, and she deserves every bit of it.