To be a knitter? According to Darwin; a character in a Kate Jacob’s The Friday Night Knitting club, knitting is as anti-feminist as you can get. It’s old fashioned and way...way...not cool. Which is probably I am such a fan of the practice. In Jacob’s novel we follow the lives of Georgia and Dakota Walker as well as all the characters that make up Georgia’s Tribe. Their yarn shop, Walker and Daughter is just one little place in the sprawling city of New York. The yarn shop has more than just pretty skeins of yarn, and lovely needles. It is also a place for women to come together to talk about their lives and relax and be themselves. Originally the shop was just a shop until Dakota came up with the idea of sharing her delicious home made baked goods with some of the women that always seemed to come into the shop on Friday nights.
With the help of Anita, Georgia’s close friend/benefactor and mother figure, Dakota convinces her mother to start the Friday Night Knitting Club. The club consists of a television producer (Lucie), doctoral student (Darwin), part-time employee and hand bag designer (Peri) and book editor (K.C.). Each of these women come to the group with their own set of issues. Lucie is single, and ready to start a new chapter in her life. So she decides to have a baby - without a father in the picture. Anita, is a woman in her seventies, who is trying to find herself after the death of her husband. Darwin, is the most perplexing character of all, she’s a women’s studies major working on her doctoral thesis. She is trying to understand what it means to be a woman in todays day and age. Peri, is a young woman who is trying to make it in New York. K.C., is the character I most related to, she is in her prime - and suddenly decides to change careers. Also, she is a really horrible knitter. Then we have the non-knitting characters just thrown in....Catherine, Georgia’s high school best friend , who betrayed her years earlier and seems to be looking something. Then there is James, Dakota’s father and Georgia’s ex, he abandoned them around the time Georgia found out she was pregnant. He is back in the city and wants to smooth things over with Georgia and wants to finally get to know his daughter.
This book is a real character study in the complexity of women’s lives. From Catherine’s need to deal with being the trophy wife to a man with to much money and who can’t keep his penis to himself. To Darwin, struggling with a miscarriage and cheating of her husband. And then there is Georgia, trying to balance running a business, being a single mom and deal with her feelings for James. Each woman within this book is someone that you can see in yourself and that is the beauty of the novel. Their complexity makes them extremely relatable. Jacob was also able to carry out a storyline faux pas that could make a reader scream; especially at the beginning of a series. However, this book was so good I am willing to come back for the second book, Knit Two.
Favorite Character : Darwin - she is so ME. She is brainy and awkward, but so endearing. Her friendship with Lucie was charming and made me long to go beg being bestie to have a baby.
Favorite Scene: The Scene between Dakota and her Great Grandmother; it made me cry. And It reminded me of the power of a grandmother’s presence and love.
Oh and another thing to love....all that knitting. Plus the print book has a pattern for a scarf and a recipe for muffins. So you get a sweet and a craft. It’s really a win win.
I gave the audiobook five out of five stars on Goodreads.
My favorite Quotes:
