A good yarn: The Friday Night Knitting Club

August 6, 9:50 AMNY Literature ExaminerCynthia Diaz

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The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Penguin Books

Before the summer comes to an end, stow the The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs, in a beach bag and head out to the soothing waters of Long Island. An easy beach read for knitters and nonknitters alike, the story is set in Manhattan, mostly in the fictional Walker and Daughter knitting shop on Manhattan’s upper west side—just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Long Island's sand and surf.

A group of regular customers from Georgia Walker’s shop get together for a weekly knit-in after store hours on Friday evenings, thus the book’s title. The women are a sampling of Every Woman and represent a variety of ages, come from an array of backgrounds, and display myriad personalities. The diverse group learns to knit or improve on their knitting as they forge the bonds of friendship while incorporating a time-honored craft that is realizing an exponential increase in popularity in recent years.

In addition to Georgia Walker and her daughter, the cast includes Georgia’s ex-boyfriend and the girl’s father, James. James returns in the hopes of becoming a more important factor in the life of the creative, outspoken, and fiery Dakota, tossing a wrench in Georgia’s well-conceived life plans.

The women who meet each week include Anita, Petra, Darwin, and Lucie, a motherly and well-to-do widow; a women’s studies graduate student; a lawyer who designs and makes purses; and a seemingly quiet, petite woman. And, then there is Kat, a childhood friend of Georgia’s who has become enmeshed with New York society, upsetting Georgia’s insular world as much as James does.

Long Island is home to a number of knitting shops and other venues where new and accomplished knitters meet in much the same way as the women of The Friday Night Knitting Club. If the weather does not suit a reading trip to the beach, perhaps an afternoon with fellow aspiring and established knitters will do. Either way, pack up The Friday Night Knitting Club and a pair of needles and settle in for a yarn about remorse and redemption; charity and childhood; lost loves, forgotten loves, and new loves; and the enduring power of friendship; a tale "woven" with believable characters in locales familiar to all New Yorkers.

Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club is the author’s first novel and a number one New York Times best seller.