Novels of Love and Knitting by Debbie Macomber
Last Updated on January 1, 2019 by lydiaf1963
I recently “discovered” Debbie Macomber. I say “discovered” in quotes because I remember coming across a few of her romance novels in the late 1980s. My mother enjoyed her books, but I felt they were sort of tame. But not too long ago I was looking for a shawl pattern on Ravelry when I came across Alix’s Prayer Shawl, and when I dug into it, I was led to Mrs Macomber’s Blossom Street Series of novels.
The stories center around a yarn shop called A Good Yarn, located on Blossom Street in Seattle, Washington. It’s owned by Lydia Hoffman, a two time cancer survivor who learned how to knit during her treatments. Lydia’s sister Margaret helps in the shop. The two have one of those prickly sibling relationships which is explored in several of the novels in the series.
In an effort to bring in more business, Lydia offers a baby blanket class for beginning knitters. Her very first students form a community and their stories intertwine. There’s Alix (with an i), a tough girl with a chip on her shoulder: making the blanket is part of her community service requirement. Jacqueline Donnelly an older woman with an unhappy marriage and a daughter in law who drives her crazy has trouble seeing past Alix’s rough side. Rounding out the class is Carol Girard, who desperately wants a child of her own. She making a blanket as a gesture of faith that her desire will be fulfilled.
Meanwhile Lydia struggles to trust that Brad’s interest in her won’t disappear when he finds out she’s a cancer survivor.
Each woman’s story is explored during the making of the baby blankets and Debbie Macomber tells their tales with a great amount of compassion, good humor, and understanding of women’s relationships as her characters overcome personality differences and learn to support each other through their individual difficulties.
I also chuckled in sympathy with the new knitters as they eventually learned to conquer their sticks and string to make something beautiful.
In the second book, Lydia and Alix’s stories continue and new characters become students. Alix is preparing for her wedding while juggling work, her classes at the culinary school and the well intentioned attempts of her friend Jaqueline to make Alix’s wedding a sensation. Meanwhile, Lydia and Brad have gotten serious. At least it seems that way, until Brad’s ex-wife makes a reappearance.
Lydia’s new students have joined some of the regulars to learn how to make socks. Elise is nearly retired and has lost most of her savings in a real estate scheme. She’s living with her daughter’s family while her lawsuit is being resolved. Courtney Polanski lost her mother four years ago and her father has taken an engineering job outside of the US. The circumstances mean Courtney is spending her senior year in a new high school while living with her grandmother. Courtney is also struggling with her weight which makes her feel self conscious on top of being the new kid.
Finally, Bethanne’s husband of nearly twenty years tells her on Valentine’s Day that he’s in love with someone else. Not only is she depressed, she’s forced to enter the workforce after spending her entire married life as a homemaker and supporting her ex’s career. Bethanne’s children push her into taking the class as a way to meet new people. It’s wonderful how Courtney and Bethanne in particular come into their own and learn to move forward with their lives after devastating losses.
As in the first novel the stories are handled with a poignancy that avoids being cloying. It’s a testament to Debbie Macomber’s skill as a writer the characters retain their unique voices.
All in all there are TEN novels in the Blossom Street series, plus novellas and a few knitting companion books based on the patterns discussed in the novels. Some are stand alone stories while others follow a similar format to the first two by following the lives of a group of knitting students.
As you read the series you’ll learn more about Lydia and Margaret’s relationship and how they struggle to deal with their aging mother. Some characters, like Alix, are revisited frequently and Bethanne makes a success of herself and meets someone special on a cross country road trip in A Turn in the Road. Her ex-husband remains a jerk throughout, however.
I have really enjoyed the Blossom Street stories and appreciate the way Debbie Macomber handles the physical aspects of romantic relationships. You know they’re happening, but she doesn’t go into a lot of detail. This is funny to me now, since I used to find her work awfully tame.
Debbie Macomber is a prolific writer who started out writing for Silhouette and later Harlequin Books. She has over 200 million copies in print, including an annual Christmas novel. Her books have been made into movies and TV Series. Many of her out of print novels have been made available digitally (and inexpensively) for Kindle.
