Knitter's Bookshelf

Can a wish change your life?

In Twenty Wishes, by Debbie Macomber, a group of four widows contemplate their deepest desires and set about changing their destinies.[Read More]

When Maggie Messina is accused of a rival shop owner’s shocking murder, the Black Sheep knitters are formed to defend their friend. The peaceful town of Plum Harbor, Massachusetts is the setting for While My Pretty One Knits, the first of Anne Canadeo’s Black Sheep Knitter mysteries.

A group of keen knitters meet every week in the little New England coastal village to knit, gossip and catch up on local small town news. There is Maggie the owner of the Black Sheep, Lucy a divorcee graphic designer, Dana a psychologist, Suzanne a mum and estate agent and Phoebe a funky college student who is also Maggie’s tenant.[Read More]

Christmas Letters is the fourth in the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber. Katherine O’Connor likes Christmas and writing Christmas letters for colleagues in a Blossom Street cafe. She is faced with a dilemma, therefore, when she meets a man who has fundamentally opposite views but whom she also finds irresistible.

Katherine O’Connor (or K.O. to her friends) leads a busy life at Christmas time in Seattle. Not only does she transcribe medical texts, but she also has a holiday sideline writing Christmas letters for people who are too busy to write their own. K.O. spends her mornings in the French Cafe on Blossom Street using her laptop to create a more exciting and interesting story out of people’s lives.[Read More]

Although Kelly Flynn is a relatively new knitter, she is keen to join her friends with a charity knitting project, in Fleece Navidad by Maggie Sefton. Kelly also must solve the unexpected death of one of her knitting companions, in the sixth of the Knitting Mystery series.

Caffeine addict, Kelly Flynn lives adjacent to the House of Lambspun in Fort Connor, Colorado knitting shop. This Christmas, Kelly and her fellow knitters are working on charity knitting projects. The local librarian, Juliet Renfrow, is organising the season’s good will venture to create knitted gifts and all of the regulars are helping out.

Juliet Renfrow is a quiet “little brown wren” of a woman who is known for her stunning handmade capes. Her creations have been in great demand in the lead up to Christmas. But Juliet also has another reason to be happy; she is in love! Juliet’s beau is Jeremy Cunningham, a retired university professor. The couple are the perfect match and are so sweet together.[Read More]

How could I resist the very first tales about Miss Marple; the original murder mystery knitter who we have all come to know and love?

The Thirteen Problems is a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie. I decided that it was time for me to read them as they are almost 90 years old; they were first published individually in various monthly magazines between 1927 and 1931.

As well as being the earliest tale about Miss Marple, the first story (The Tuesday Night Club) also introduces the writer Raymond West (Miss Marple’s nephew) and ex-police commissioner Sir Henry Clithering.[Read More]

When their shepherd, George, is murdered, his flock believe that one of the villagers carried out the deed. And they are determined to uncover his killer. But to find the murderer means delving into the murky world of the humans, in Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.

One beautiful morning, in the small Irish village of Glennkill, a shepherd’s body is discovered pinned to the ground by a spade. Now George Glenn was very good to his sheep (despite the fact that he wore sweaters made of Norwegian wool) and was a devoted shepherd. He even read stories to them each and every evening. And it is one of these tales, a detective story, which inspires his flock to discover who killed their beloved master.[Read More]

How does a mother cope with the loss of her child? The Knitting Circle, by Ann Hood, is a poignant story about tragedy, kindness and friendship.

The story opens in September a few months after the death of Mary’s five year old daughter, Stella. Stella became ill with meningitis and died suddenly from a virulent strain of meningitis. Stella was the centre of Mary’s life. Now Mary’s life is falling apart. She feels paralysed and spends her days in a daze. Mary struggles even to get up out of her bed. Mary has a job writing reviews of books, restaurants and movies for a local newspaper in Providence, Rhode Island. But she seems to have lost the ability to write. She isn’t able to do simple daily chores like cooking or shopping. Everything she does reminds her of Stella and these thoughts are just too painful.[Read More]

The Seaside Knitters aim to clear the name of Willow, a young artist, who is prime suspect in the murder of a local art gallery owner, in Patterns in the Sand by  Sally Goldenbaum.

When Willow Adams visits Izzy Chambers and the Seaside Knitters from Boston, to demonstrate fibre art, she is welcomed wholeheartedly by Izzy, Nell, Birdie and Cass.  Close to Izzy and Nell’s yarn shop in Sea Harbour, Maine is Canary Cove, a busy artist’s colony where a summer art festival is soon to get underway. The knitters see this as the perfect backdrop for showcasing Willow’s talents.[Read More]

A group of knitters, who meet in Izzy Chambers’ knitting shop in Sea Harbour, Massachusetts, set about solving the murder of their friend Angie, after the local police write it off as an accident, in Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum.

Nell Endicott is thrilled when her 31 year old niece Izzy Chambers decides to move to Sea Harbour and set up a yarn shop beside the sea.  Izzy gave up her career as a defence attorney in Boston, aged thirty, and has carved out a success in something she really loves.[Read More]

The Friday Night Knitting Club Knit Two by Kate Jacobs follows the lives of Dakota, Catherine and company after the loss of their beloved club founder Georgia Walker.

It is five years after Georgia’s tragic death from ovarian cancer, but her yarn store, Walker and Daughter, and her knitting club have continued due to the friends she left behind. The remaining members of the Friday Night Knitting Club are of mixed age and backgrounds, but they are connected by Georgia and by the knitting club that she created in her shop.[Read More]