Friday Night Knitting Club

I was very excited to pick up a copy of "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs at a thrift store a while back. I'd heard about this book but knew very little about it and decided it was totally worth the dollar to read (but then I don't know what books aren't?!) I finally finished reading it last night - after all, there's no better cold remedy than a hot bath and a good book.

The story is based around Georgia Walker, a single mother who runs a successful yarn shop while raising her pre-teen daughter. A knitting club forms at her shop and the group of women become a support group for each other as they deal with what life has to throw at them.

As an avid yarn fanatic, I loved the concept of a solid story built around a yarn shop in the first place. I enjoyed the characters that are presented in this book - they all have their flaws and even the characters that weren't my favorite in the beginning had thoroughly grown on me by the end. The way the author integrates knitting techniques with representations of life is done very cleverly and the last few chapters of the book really did leave me crying in the bathtub! It may not be the best novel ever written but it was certainly an enjoyable read.

One of the things that this book really had me thinking about is the bond that can form between people who may hardly know each other but have a commonality due to something such as knitting. I think about the websites craftster.org, or ravelry.com, where relative strangers from different sides of the world with a common interest learn so much about each other that a bond forms between them. I've seen many occasions when someone will come into the forums on one of those sites to ask for advice, or seek support, from these "strangers" and reading this book really reflected that for me.

I hear here's a movie in the works but no information released just yet. It'll be interesting to find out more! Has anybody else read this and what did you think?