K1, p2 ... oops I dropped a stitch

The Friday Night Knitting Club
Kate Jacobs
424 pages; published 2007

Knit and Purl: These stitches are the fundamentals of knitting and are the basics of every garment. The knit stitch is a series of flat, vertical loops that produces a knitted fabric face and the purl stitch is its reverse. One side is smooth, the other bumpy. Knit is what you show the world; purl is the soft, nubbly underside you keep close to the skin. (177)

Walker and Daughter is a small knitting store in the heart of New York City; it stocks yarn, needles and friends.

When Georgia Walter found herself pregnant and alone, she (with the help of business-woman-come-fairy godmother Anita) turns her knitting hobby into a business, and then a way of life to support herself and her daughter Dakota.

A decade later, Georgia’s sense of control over her life starts to crumble as her daughter reaches her frustrated teens; a friend whose betrayal still sings lands back in her life; and James, her former lover suddenly reappears. None of this is what Georgia expected and she’s not quite sure how to handle it all.

But Georgia finds support and salvation in the most unexpected of places: a group of regulars who take it upon themselves to turn up in her store every week – the Friday Night Knitting Club.

Friday Night Knitting Club was our book club read for last month and it was met with mixed responses. For the most part, I enjoyed it. It was a light, quick novel and fairly predictable in places but I had anticipated that going in. Some of the characters I thought interesting – I liked Georgia, control-freak though she was – but others were underdeveloped, even superfluous to the story.

Basically, it’s not a book out to win any literary awards but if the plot interests you or you have a secret passion for knitting or cupcakes then I’d give it a go. Did I love it enough to want to own my own copy? Not really. Did I enjoy it enough to want to read the sequel? Sure did. 3.5/5

Other Reviews

• Chain Reading

Finding Cassie Crazy
Jaclyn Moriarty
383 pages, published 2003

Dear Brooker Kid [...]

My name is Cassie.

[...] I'll tell you something else that I find funny and that is this: counselling. I went to see a counsellor with my mother last night. You might think that's kind of a private thing to reveal in a letter to someone like you, who I've never even met, but you must be forgetting what counselling it. It's where you TELL A STRANGER ALL ABOUT YOURSELF. So telling you that I've been to see a counsellor is nothing. You're not a stranger. You're a Brooker Kid. (p. 25-6)

--

Dear Cassie

Eat shit and die, private school slag.

Yours faithfully

Matthew Dunlop (p.32)

Emily, Lydia and Cassie are best friends and students at the prestigous private school, Ashbury High. When they learn that their English teacher, Mr. Botherit, is instituting a mandatory year 10 penpal program with the neighbouring school, Brookfield High (a school you "can't get in ... unless you have a criminal record", 17), they are less than pleased. They have more important things to worry about than writing to the criminal Brooker kids, things like skipping school to go to the movies, working on becoming a famous novellist and helping Cassie cope with her father's recent death.

Mandatory does, however, mean mandatory and the girls are issued their penpals: Charlie, Seb and Matthew. Despite initial first impressions (ranging from bemusement to downright loathing) the pairs manage to find something to talk about: Emily teaches Charlie how to date a girl (in order to steal away the beautiful Christina); Lydia and Seb engage in a a round of one-up-manship through their "secret assignments"; and Cassie and Matthew find someone with which to talk over their heartache.

The problem with letter writing, however, is that you can never be entirely too sure who it is you're talking to, and when the penpals decide to meet up, they are met with mixed results. The Matthew of her letters is not exactly the young man Cassie meets. In fact, there is no 'Matthew Dunlop' enrolled in Brookfield High at all. Who is he? And what does he want? Is the hatred between the two schools that hard to overcome, and will Cassie manage to hold herself together?

Told entirely through letters, emails, and announcements, Finding Cassie Crazy is a quick and engaging read. Each of the characters have a strong personality that comes through in their letters and I laughed and cried along with them. 4/5