Knit Two

Knit Two: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel Kate Jacobs 2.5/5	First Sentence "It was after hours at Walker and Daughter: Knitters, and Dakota stood in the center of the Manhattan yarn shop and wrestled with the cellophane tape."
Publisher's Description: Five years after the death of the knitting store's owner, Georgia Walker, Georgia's daughter, eighteen-year-old Dakota, is running the knitting store part-time, but only with the help of the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club. (Published 2008)
Dear Reader, I am not sure that I would have read this book had it not been available as a free audiobook through my library's Overdrive subscription. I often stumble across books there and will pick up ones that I might not otherwise read, which is sometimes a great thing. I chose this one only because I had read the first book in the series, years ago - right around when it first came out, because someone (my sister?) gave it to me as a gift. I thought it was all right, but pretty indistinguishable from all of the "knitting circle" books that came out around that time: chick lit, about women who bond over knitting. I thought this was an interesting series, though, because not all of the women actually knit - there was more to the story than that. In fact, it was much more about the women's lives than their knitting. So I figured this sequel would be all right for a light summer read. And, it was! I enjoyed the easy prose and relatively simple story line. I am still kind of recovering from the final part of the audiobook--a knitting pattern and two recipes which followed the actual novel.  I couldn't believe that the narrator was reading "knit two, purl five, knit two, purl five, knit two, purl five, knit two, purl five," ad nauseam!  Who in the world is going to sit there pausing their audiobook every few seconds to knit or purl, then pressing "play" again?!  So, that kind of threw me off when I was just beginning to consider this review. I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I remembered the story and characters better from the first novel; I feel like there were a lot of references to the prequel which I have long since forgotten.  However, I think the book stands well enough on its own, as I was still able to understand what was going on.  I did like that the main characters are a range of ages, from eighteen to seventy-eight, all struggling to figure out who they are.  It gave a sense of trueness to the book.  However, it wouldn't have hurt to have added a male knitter into the story!  I certainly know of several; they're not mythical, haha. Some - well, one - of the stories seemed a bit implausible, but at least the author gives a nod to its unbelievability (is that a word?).  And she explains it away as being a part of the magic that is the strong, female friendship that is formed over a knitting group.  This is something I've sort of experienced; I still keep in contact with my lovely girls from my former Boston knitting group, and so I do feel that sometimes knitting can bring people together.  This book lent a bit too much saccharine dreaminess to the idea, but hey - it's a knitting group novel, what do you expect? Overall, this was a fun summer novel.  Great to take up some time while I sat around and knit up a pair of wedding gloves for a friend, and a sweater for myself. Happy reading (and knitting!), Arianna