Chicks with Sticks (It's a Purl Thing)

If you are a teen, YA reader, knitter, or all of the above, you might want to consider reading this fun and funny book.
Yes, it is written for teen knitters ("chicks" with "sticks," just like the main characters).
Yes, it is Chick Lit.
Yes, it actually has patterns in the back (nice patterns, though;

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I've tried them!)

Yes, it is a good book! Give it a chance, and you may just be drawn into KnitWit and Scottie's world.

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I loved this book of friendship and knitting. If you have ever been in a knitting group you know how diverse folks of all ages find common ground over the needles.

I've read young adult fiction, and I've read books about knitting, but I've never run across a book that combines the two. In Chicks with Sticks, knitting is the glue that bonds together 4 very different young women, each with their own issues. Each chapter is themed with a knitting instruction,

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often cleverly. I enjoyed the premise, but the book was fairly predictable. Also, the girls seemed to pick up new skills at a tremendous pace, never having difficulties, not to mention finding time to finish many complicated projects in a remarkably short period of time. Not the most realistic, but a reasonably enjoyable read.

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Scottie's insomnia is getting worse and worse. Her favorite aunt just died, her best friend since forever is making new, more popular friends, and her parents don't seem to notice she exists. On yet another sleepless night as she listens to the trains click by, she discovers a wadded up ball of

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yarn and some knitting needles pressed upon her at her aunt's funeral. Something about the click-swish of the yarn as she knits soothes her. Gradually, the power of yarn expands to encompass not only Scottie, but best friend Amanda, odd girl Bella, and tough kid Tay. As the girls bond during visits to KnitWit, the local yarn store, they discover that they have far more in common than they originally thought.

Knitting, fate, the power of friendship and keeping faith are all wound up in this story of four girls and a modern day knitting circle. On the positive side, the yarn descriptions had me yearning for a visit to KnitWit myself, and although I haven't tried the mitten pattern yet, I know I'm going to. And I have a date with the sequel, Chicks with Sticks (knit two together) tonight.

On the negative, there are some loose ends and some moments of unreality (what's up in the epilogue, for instance?) -- which I'm going to hope are tied up in the sequel.

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Chicks with Sticks is yet another novel about four best friends. The story is far from ordinary though. These girls arent friends from the beginning, and the knitting scene gives it a new twist. Plus, the charactors are super fun. Although, this book got very slow and boring in the middle, once I

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got threw that part I could really appreciate the book for the lovley story it is. The next books in the seris are even better.

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I keep reading knitting group books and thinking, "I want to be part of such a magical activity!" But like Scottie, I was reminded that it isn't the knitting, it's the relationships. Scottie finds herself becoming a part of an unlikely group of girls pulled together by their attraction to knitting.

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She is hoping that this is the solution to her grief over her aunt's death and her parents distractedness. In some ways, it is part of the solution, but Scottie's journey also includes self discovery as well. And the knitting is just fun!

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I wanted to like this mostly because I wanted to have a knitting book about which to rave to my friends who knit. This one is cute but somewhat lacking in substance. The characters are engaging though the plotting is predictable. Fun for a beach read, if you are a knitter & a YA fan.

Scottie is going through a hard time after the death of her beloved aunt. She also feels disconnected from her school friends, who are more interested in boys and clothes than she (and also have more means to afford designer things). She discovers solace in knitting and through a twist of fate, her

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estranged bestie and two other girls from their school show up at the same LYS (Local Yarn Store). The girls bond through love of yarn.
The prose is sprinkled with both teenage jargon and fiber-speak, and while I'm familiar with the latter, it almost seemed as if the author was trying too hard to capture the dialogue of her young characters. I wonder whether an actual teenager would find it more authentic than I did, because I really don't know how teenagers talk nowadays (or in 2005 when this book was written). The Chicago setting, however, is very authentic and several local landmarks as well as the Metra system are accurately portrayed. I am interested enough to try to track down the other two books in this series, though they seem rather difficult to come by.

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