A Good Yarn (Blossom Street)

It's a warm and wonderful story of four lonely woman of various ages at crossroads in their lives, who have nothing in common except a knitting class that they each reluctantly joined. They never expected to find such strong soulmate-like bonds of sisterhood with their classmates, and the support to work through their personal issues and feel whole again. With well-written dialogues and excellent characterizations, Debbie Macomber draws the reader into an emotional connection with this clique, as though we are a member of the group ourselves. I certainly wish A Good Yarn was a shop in my community where I could go to learn to knit and forge lifelong friendships with such compassionate woman!

This book just left right off and I couldn't have been more pleased. Truly money well spent on such a wonderful story about friendships, love, and family. Although once again you can guess for the most part what is going to happen, there are a few surprises.

This book tells us what is going on with Lydia and Brad, a little bit about our first three friends and of course Margaret. This book deals quite a bit more about Margaret in fact. The sisterly bond strengthens and parents get older.

We also meet three new people, whom of course become the best of friends, all the while dealing with life's curve balls.

Enjoy!

What a sweet and delightful novel this one is. Very romantic, full of love and generosity....as well as the women in the knitting class. Debbie Macomber has given us a delightful read. One in which i did not want to put down
also read: Full Bloom by Janet Evanovich and the hot-Fire In The Ice by Katlyn Stewart

This novel kept me up all night last night! Debbie Macomber teases you into reading just one more page all the way through, so don't start it until you have time to read it all at once! And now that I am done I feel like the characters are real people.

I think anyone who reads this book is going to walk into the first yarn store they see and ask to have a class like the characters in the book do. The only thing missing for me was that no men were knitting. Sometimes it seemed like the author was about to have a man or boy knit but she never did.

I learned to knit socks on two circular needles three years ago from Cat Bordhi's excellent book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. A Good Yarn starts right out with a sock pattern by Nancy Bush (she is the matriarch of sock knitting books!) done on double pointed needles, and then the same pattern is given again by Cat Bordhi for two circular needles. The story is about a group of women who learn to knit socks as taught in Cat's book and so I felt like I was right in the room with them, because I knew exactly what they were knitting!

This second knitting novel by Debbie Macomber (the first is Blossom Street) is a wonderful gift for any knitter or even for any woman who appreciates true friends. There's a bunch of knitting novels now, from mysteries to Debbie's wonderful books. I read Knitting: a Novel recently and it is very good too, but not as easy to follow as this one. Cat Bordhi also wrote a novel that has sock knitting in it and even tree house knitting (no kidding). The book is called Treasure Forest. It kept me up all night too turning the next page until the very end.

There's something so soothing about knitting - the sweet clicking of needles weaving yarn into items made with love. It's a very calming hobby and it's no wonder that the beloved craft has made a resurgence in popularity. So it makes perfect sense for best selling author Debbie Macomber to combine her love of knitting and writing as she takes her readers on a trip back to revisit the lovely little yarn shop on Blossom Street in her latest novel, "A Good Yarn."

Lydia Hoffman opened her shop, A Good Yarn, a year ago as a celebration in her life of overcoming cancer twice in her young life. The shop was met with great success, and Lydia had found contentment in her life as she taught her beloved knitting classes and renewed her friendship with her sister Margaret who came to work with her. She also found love with deliveryman Brad Goetz and they planned to be married one day soon.

But life has a way of throwing monkey-wrenches into the best lives, and Lydia soon finds herself dealing with heartache as Brad announces that he is back on speaking terms with his ex-wife. As Lydia reels from this crisis-of-the-heart, her sister Margaret is also dealing with problems in her own homelife, and their mother is beginning to experience declining health problems that keep both sisters busy dealing with her care. But as always, her optimism for life, her love for and of family and friends, and her knitting carry Lydia through this rough bump in her life.

Customers of Lydia's shop flock to her store to find the best yarns and advice on knitting, but they also find warmth and friendship among the threads. In interweaving stories, three new ladies join Lydia's sock knitting class, and although they are all from diverse backgrounds and ages, they soon find a connection to each other as they click their needles away.

Elise Beaumont has recently retired as a school librarian, but
finds her dreams of owning her own home dashed as a con-artist makes off with her investment money. Forced to move in with her daughter, Elise is dismayed when it is announced that her ex-husband, a gambler who had been out of her life for many years, would be paying the family an extended visit. Would their former affection for each other resurface, or would old wounds still be tender? Elise finds an escape in her knitting and joins the sock class as a way of avoiding the tense situations at home.

Bethanne Hamlin thought she had a perfect life - a wonderful husband, nice home, and great kids. Then her world was turned upside down when her husband leaves her for a younger woman, and the stay-at-home mom must learn to make ends meet. As her daughter rebels and the financial situation declines, Bethanne splurges on a knitting class as a way of saving a little of her sanity. As she becomes acquainted with the class, she finds not only friendship but encouragement to pursue her dreams.

It seemed unusual for a teenager to be enrolled in knitting classes, but Courtney Pulanski's grandmother thought it would be good for Courtney to try this new activity, in addition to the swimming classes with her senior citizens class. The young girl has come to live with her grandmother while her father is working out of the country, and is somewhat depressed and overweight. Courtney soon finds a sense of accomplishment in her knitting and is surprised to find that the swimming and a new hobby of bike-riding is actually helping her physical appearance as well. When she befriends Bethanne's daughter and son, life takes on a new dynamic that makes it more bearable than the teen could have imagined.

The ladies from Macomber's book, "The Shop on Blossom Street," make appearances at the shop, interacting with the new ladies and bringing a sense of continuity to the story that I personally hope will continue in future books. (hint, hint!)

"A Good Yarn" is a heart-warming book that evokes laughter and tears. Macomber is a wonderful storyteller with legions of fans both in the reading world and now in the knitting world. This book includes patterns for knitting socks and sage advice from knitting experts sprinkled throughout, tying the story together as neatly as knit one, purl one. Knitters and lovers of women's fiction will find a treasure in among the stitches of this tale.

Sharon Galligar Chance
Wichita Falls Times Record News