The Friday Night Knitting Club Review

I'm currently on a splendid week and a half vacation to visit my boyfriend in San Diego. It's completely awesome, and the perfect way to end my summer.

Now, before you all start dreaming up pictures of him and I surfing, laying out on the beach, and wandering around with mouse ears for ten days, I have to break it to you. He's here for an internship, and works 8 to 5 on weekdays.

So I'm left to my own devices. :) My plans are generally to laze about, read, knit, and cook some easy meals to leave in his freezer so he doesn't starve when I head back to school.

Since posting may get lighter once school is back in session (and I'm not to regular about it when I'm doing nothing all week) I am going to try and keep updating throughout my vaca.

So, my first order of business was to snuggle up in a sunbeam on his balcony (be jealous, there is an awesome view) and get some reading done. As all other college students and most adults I've ever met can relate to, I could not remember the last time I had read for pleasure and not a class.

I wanted to read something different than the depressing works of great literature I've been reading in advance classes for years now. I wanted something with characters that are relateable in this century, possibly by a living author. I also wanted a storyline that wouldn't bore me to tears and something that could be easily shlepped to the beach if I didn't finish it before this weekend.

I selected The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, and trust me, the possibility of not finishing it before this weekend flew out the window. I was expecting a cute, little story about a group of women in a yarn shop, discussing their daily lives over yarn. What I got was a compelling, couldn't put it down, story of many strong women's lives, whose only similarity was a weekly knitting club they all attend.

There are a great many characters to keep up with, which allows the story to draw the reader in and not let go for 366 pages. It is a fictional book, yet so based in reality that you find yourself in one, if not all, of the characters shoes.

It re-ignited my urge to knit, with a beautiful reminder that the way a person knits reveals a lot about the knitter. Each character has her own, unique knitting style, which allows a special knitters-only insight into their soul. The main character, Georgia Walker, stitches are dependably perfect. She is the rock for the group, and an inspiration to those reading.

I took a look at my own stitches, on some headbands I'm working on for my young cousins, and I realized that my stitches say a lot about me too. They are perfectly even, I've never had any issues with tension. Intricate patterns to keep me interests, and like most of my projects, for someone else.

Those are the patterns I finish. I've knit entire sweaters for myself, only to end before sewing the ends in, or finishing the last sleeve. I'm a giver. I will always enjoy gifting my creations over keeping them.

You could call this book a simple story about Georgia Walker's yarn shop, but the soul of this story moves far beyond a crafting story.

I do hope you pick up this book. It's a great end of summer beach-y read, which will help you relax, even if you are at home.