Knitter's Bookshelf

Have you ever really wanted to give up something but just not been able to manage it? Lydia Goetz does, so she starts a “Knit to Quit” class in Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber.

Lydia, the owner of A Good Yarn, and her husband, Brad, have decided they are ready to adopt a baby. Lydia cannot have children herself, but the couple wants a little sibling for Brad’s 9-year-old son Cody. They are unsure when their social worker asks them to take in a problematic 12-year-old girl for emergency foster care. But it’s only for two nights.[Read More]

Over the holidays, Dakota Walker has a number of important decisions to make as she tries to figure out what she wants from her life, in Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs.

Dakota has dreamed of becoming a pastry chef since, as a child, she baked for her Mum and the ladies in the Friday Night Knitting Club.  Now in NYU, her big break has finally come in the shape of a trial at New York’s famous V hotel kitchen over Christmas.  She has pre-cooked her father, James’, Christmas meal so she has everything arranged.  What could go wrong?[Read More]

Bethanne Hamlin has a life-changing decision to make, on a road trip of a lifetime across America with her daughter and her ex-Mother-in-law, in A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber.

Bethanne was devastated when, after a twenty-year marriage, her husband Grant left her for a younger woman.  As a sort of therapy, she joined a knitting group at Lydia Goetz’ yarn store, A Good Yarn.  Gradually she was able to pick herself up – largely from the friendships she made in the knitting group.  She started her own business called Parties.  And now, six years later, she is a changed woman and her business is flourishing.  However, Grant has contacted Bethanne again as he wants to give their marriage a second chance. [Read More]

When Kate Shackleton’s friend Tabitha asks her to investigate her father’s disappearance from a small Yorkshire village, scandalous secrets are uncovered and Kate’s life is put in danger, in Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody.

Kate Shackleton is an independent 31-year-old who was a volunteer nurse during World War I.  She is as clever as she is elegant and has sufficient means to choose how she lives her life, which was rare for single women in 1920’s England. [Read More]

When Casey Feldstein finds herself in charge of a yarn retreat, she feels out of her depth, in Yarn to Go by Betty Hechtman.  So, how will she manage after one of her knitting class is found murdered?

Casey has a habit of not sticking with a job for very long; she has been a substitute teacher, an office worker and a temp in a detective agency.  And, when her aunt Joan died in a car accident, she was happy to move into her aunt’s guesthouse on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula in Northern California.  She has found a niche there, as a dessert chef, baking treats for local businesses. [Read More]

Murder comes too close to home for Ari when she finds a dead body in her knitting shop, in Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger.

This is the first of a new knitting mystery series, by the author of the “Gilded Age” mysteries.  29 year old Ariadne (or Ari for short) owns Ariadne’s Web, a popular knitting shop in the small town of Freeport, New England.  As well as running the shop, Ari creates knitting patterns and looks after her 7 year old daughter, Megan.[Read More]

Free-range knitter is a humorous mix of articles on knitters, knitting and related topics, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

This is the second book of knitting essays by New York Times best seller, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who is also known as the Yarn Harlot in her popular blog of the same name.  Her first also is called Yarn Harlot.  Although I have been a keen reader of her blog, this is the first time that I have reviewed any of her books.

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The Red Thread written by Ann Hood is the fictional story of longing, loss and ultimate realisation experienced through the adoption of new born babies from China to America.

Maya Lange runs an adoption agency in Providence, R.I.  She calls it the Red Thread after a Chinese belief that there is an invisible thread that links children with all of the people who will be part of their lives.  The thread can carry across oceans and shortens over time.  Maya has so far arranged the adoption of over 450 Chinese baby girls.  She takes the American couples through the adoption process until, after a wait of about a year, they travel to China to pick up their babies.

Maya knows that the couples will face many issues during the process and that some may even drop out.  The couples rely on her efficiency and organisation.  However, behind this professional front, Maya has an inner belief that there is a magical destiny bringing each of the couples and babies together.  She uses this conviction so that she can cope with her tragic past; her own baby daughter died in an accident years ago and this broke her marriage apart.[Read More]

Katie Bonner finds herself in charge of an artist co-operative and the chief suspect for the previous owner’s murder, in A Crafty Killing by Lorraine Bartlett.

Katie Bonner is young and ambitious.  She knows what she wants but instead, like many people, she is stuck in a dead end job with a nasty boss.

Katie and her husband, Chad, split up over Artisan’s Alley, an artist co-operative in nearby McKinley Mill.  Chad invested all of their savings into it as he could see its potential.  But all Katie could see was a rundown shambles which was far from Katie’s dream project.  Then soon after Chad moved out, he was killed in a car accident.[Read More]

Is love enough, too much or is it time to leave?

In Back on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber, Lydia Hoffman’s new knitting class brings together women facing very real problems in their lives. They find the solutions when they share their hopes and fears whilst at the same time taking part in a little bit of knitting.

Lydia is a cancer survivor who recently opened a new yarn store called A Good Yarn on Blossom Street in Seattle. Margaret, Lydia’s sister, also works at the yarn shop. Her daughter Julia has recently learned to drive and when Margaret lets Julia drive her brand new car she is shocked, to find that she has been the victim of a carjacking. The culprit had escaped and left Julia in hospital and the family is understandably upset and emotional. But Lydia is astonished when she discovers her sister’s reaction to the incident.[Read More]