Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

Goodreads Summary:

The sequel to the number-one New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, KNIT TWO returns to Walker and Daughter, the Manhattan knitting store founded by Georgia Walker and her young daughter, Dakota. Dakota is now an eighteen-year-old freshman at NYU, running the little yarn shop part-time with help from the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club.

Drawn together by the sense of family the club has created, the knitters rely on one another as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventy something Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children.

As the club's projects - an afghan, baby booties, a wedding coat - are pieced together, so is their understanding of the patterns underlying the stresses and joys of being mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Because it isn't the difficulty of the garment that makes you a great knitter: it's the care and attention you bring to the craft - as well as how you adapt to surprises.

My Thoughts;

Sometimes when I read a book I can feel it lifting me up a little bit, in ways that it probably wouldn't if I was in a different place in my life reading the same book. When I picked this sequel up I was in the need of female energy and down time. This book isn't a masterpiece but it really was what I needed when I read it. I like all the different female voices that are in this book. It is hard to be a woman and know what that means when you have everyone else telling you their opinion. Growing up is hard and I don't think that process ever stops. This book points out that just because you have reached a certain age doesn't mean you have all the answers and everything is suddenly easy. I didn't love this book as much as the first but it is worth the read.

Also I would like to say this book makes me want to pick up my crocheting that has been sitting around for months. I hope I can find time throughout the semester to catch up a little on some projects. I always think about when my Mother taught me how to crochet when I read the knitting books. It was frustrating when I was young but now it is incredibly relaxing to feel the yarn glide through my fingers. I love watching something come to life. Recently, I finished a project for my older brother who lives in the Emerald City. It was really cool to see something I made on his bed. I have also made things for my other older brother in Bean Town. Not everyone has a little sister who is handy with a crochet hook, I hope they know that. ;)

I would recommend this book to fans of Kate Jacobs and anyone in the need of an uplifting read about real-ish people.

While writing this review I was listening to an NPR interview with George Takei about his time in a Japanese interment camp as a child. You can listen to it here George Takei