For me, knitting is a comfort activity. It stimulates me creatively, but the repetitive motions of knitting and purling are incredibly soothing. I don’t knit as much in the summer, but now that fall is upon us (at least, it is here), I want the cozy feeling of curling up with a movie and my latest knitting project.

When I picked up The Knitting Diaries, I was hoping for the same feeling of coziness. Normally I don’t read a lot of sweet contemporaries, but it was storming out, I was achy from fibro, and the fact that all the stories featured knitting compelled me to try the anthology.

The first novella, The Twenty-First Wish, was by Debbie Macomber, and I was prepared to skim it. Macomber tends to be too twee for me, a little saccharine sweet, and her dialogue always feels forced. The story is set her in Blossom Street series and will have more context for readers of the series as multiple characters make appearances. The story features Anne Marie Roche, a widow who adopted a ten-year-old girl, Ellen. Ellen has a list of twenty wishes. One of them was to learn to knit–which she did with Anne Marie. One was to meet her father, which also happened.

Tim is Ellen’s biological father, but didn’t find out that she existed until after Ellen was adopted by Anne Marie. He’s also not listed on her birth certificate so he has no legal parental rights (I’m honestly not sure if that’s how the law works or not). When the story opens, Anne Marie has made space for Tim in Ellen’s life, and things seem to be going well. She’s also got some feelings for Tim and he’s got some feelings for her, and the whole thing is a mess because neither of them really trust what they’re feeling and they both worry about how a relationship between them would affect Ellen if it fell apart. Plus there were some hurt feelings from a previous book, and now Anne Marie has a boyfriend who’s kind of an ass.

I did like that Anne Marie and Ellen knit together every day. Knitting (and crochet, and needlepoint) are a lot like reading romance, something that’s very often passed down from one woman to another, whether it be from mother to daughter, friend to friend, aunt to niece, etc. There’s a connection between generations that’s very cool. My mother and I set aside time to knit together, a hobby that we both love, so I really identified with that section of the novella.

Otherwise, the story is syrupy sweet and relies a lot on backstory from previous books. I didn’t have a problem jumping right in, but it’s hard to develop a complicated relationship/ custody arrangement in a short number of pages. Of the three novellas it was my least favorite, and I’d give it a C.

The second novella Coming Unraveled by Susan Mallery was my favorite. Robyn Mulligan left her Texas town to be a star on Broadway. Three years later she’s returned, broke and disillusioned. She’s working in her grandmother’s yarn store where she meets grumpy cowboy, TJ Passman. TJ learned to knit as a means of rehabbing his hands after an accident. Sexy male knitter, folks. TJ is also teaching the local high school football team to knit to improve their focus and there is a scene where a football player wants to knit a puppet for his little sister and I got all sniffly.

Anyway, Robyn and TJ find each other attractive but are at odds for hand wavey reasons. The story is really about them coming to accept how their lives turned out versus what they hoped for, and figuring out how to move on with each other. It’s a cute, sexy story (the only story with sex in the book), and I really enjoyed it. I’ll read anything about a hot male knitter. I’d give it an A.

The final story, Return to Summer Island, kicked me right in the feels. I actually cried. Caro McNeal is an avid knitter, but a car accident crushes her hand and she’s not sure she’ll be able to knit ever again. She goes home to Summer Island to rehab and struggles with relearning everything that requires manual dexterity.

She meets a sexy marine named Gage, and they have one afternoon together before he has to go back to Afghanistan. They agree to keep in touch via email, and later Caro discovers that Gage had to surrender his dog, Bogart, and cat, Bacall, to the local shelter when his caregiver option fell through last minute.

She and the local vet/ shelter operator come to an arrangement to care for the animals, and Caro sends Gage pet updates via email. It means so much to him and Skye’s descriptions of the cat’s despondency over her owner’s absence had tears rolling down my face. Caro’s pet updates and Gage’s emails encouraging her through her rehab had me crying. The idea of a soldier surrendering his pets because he’s deployed had me clutching Dewey to my chest and sobbing, while he looked at Rich for help. I’m not much of a crier until animals are involved. Sad cats and dogs will make me a blubbery mess. Basically it’s a super emotional story, but it’s romance so it also has a happy ending. This novella also gets an A.

Averaging all the grades together, I’m giving The Knitting Diaries a B+. I loved 2/3 of the book, and the whole reading experience left me warm and fuzzy. The book also comes with three knitting patterns (one for a purse, one for a puppet, one for arm warmers), but the patterns don’t  contain pictures which I find unhelpful. I’d definitely recommend this anthology for knitters or anyone looking for a comfort read. Just bring tissues.