I haven't yet picked up the new Mason-Dixon Knitting book, but I'm eager to do so.  Out of all the knitting books I have ever bought, this is the one that I have worked the most patterns out of.  That counts for a lot, if you ask me!  I would say that at least half of the books I have bought, I haven't worked a single pattern from (yet).  But hey, my knitting bookshelf will come in pretty handy after the zombie apocalypse, when you can't just surf the internet endlessly for hours downloading free knitting patterns.

Mason-Dixon Knitting is the outgrowth of Gardiner and Shayne's popular (and deservedly so) knitting blog.  Called, coincidentally, Mason-Dixon Knitting.  Gardiner and Shayne are old friends who met on a knitting mailing list ages ago.  One of them lives in New York City and the other one lives in the South, but I have to confess I can never remember which is which.  Their knitting blog is a series of conversations back and forth between them, originally written as a kind of standalone email thread, to which we all have been invited.

Mason-Dixon Knitting introduced the knitting world to the humble dishcloth cotton yarn, and the online knitting world hasn't been the same since.  I personally once ordered a collection of yarn from the Elmore Pisgah company.  You have to order from them direct if you want the great colors, like robin's egg blue, or slate gray, or chocolate brown, or a vivid pinkish orange color called "shrimp."

The rise of the washcloth in popularity as a knitting pattern is directly attributable to the work of Gardiner and Shayne.  They have devised a collection of washcloths, from fancy to plain, which exemplify the Mason-Dixon Knitting aesthetic.  This involves the use of subtle color combinations, humble garter stitch, and mitered corners.  

Log cabin knitting is another Mason-Dixon Knitting staple.  Both Gardiner and Shayne are involved in quilting as well, and this informs their choice of knitted blanket designs.  Kay ran across a baby blanket that another knitter had made using a technique that mimicked log cabin quilting.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  Log cabins appear in smaller form, sewn together into one big quilt, and in larger form, like the Moderne Baby Blanket which is one giant log cabin.

There are other patterns in here as well; patterns which I suspect are less successful.  (I'm not sure how many people ended up knitting a nightie.)  And quite a lot of errata, so if you find yourself with a first publication edition of the book, you will want to check the errata list.   

But it also includes the Baby Kimono Jacket, Baby Genius Burp Cloth, and Baby Bib 'O Love, all of which have become very popular among knitters facing a looming baby shower deadline.  Any one of them would be worth the price of admission; a book which includes all three is practically worth its weight in gold.