Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Book Review: On Skein of Death

by

I’m not normally a mystery reader but if you add a knitting-related hook I can be persuaded.

On Skein of Death by Allie Pleiter takes place in Collinstown, Maryland, where Libby Beckett has just opened her dream yarn shop called Y.A.R.N. (she says it stands for “you’re absolutely ready now” but she invites customers to add their own acronyms).

She’s excited to welcome up-and-coming knitwear designer Perle Lonager to her shop for a weekend of knitting events, and her handsome beau Henrik coming along just adds to the fun. The town is even planning a yarn day to coincide with the events, where Perle is going to launch a new line of knitting needles.

Instead she’s found strangled by a skein of red yarn before her public lecture was set to begin, setting off a mystery that could put the future of the yarn shop at stake.

The author is both an expert knitter and a mystery writing pro, with more than 50 novels published, so you don’t have to worry that the knitting lingo is going to seem forced (or, worse, be incorrect).

I won’t reveal more but it’s a pretty quick and fun read for those who like knitting and cozy mysteries. It’s a fun one for summer (it looks from Amazon like it will be a series, too!) and available now!

About the book: 302 pages, mass-market paperback. Published 2021 by Berkley Prime Crime.

Comments

  1. Thanks for the kind words! Yes, it will be a series, with KNIT OR DYE TRYING releasing in February. By the way, there’s a full knitting pattern for a the dog sweater mentioned in the story at the back of the book (or via pdf if you get the audiobook version). I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Have you read?

Knit Back at AI Patterns with the AIlephant

Lots of craft designers are understandably frustrated about the proliferation of AI “designed” patterns and photos of projects that have no basis in reality. People who don’t know how to tell if a project is AI are often also frustrated when they see a picture for something but there’s no pattern because it’s not real, or they buy a pattern that doesn’t actually explain how to make the thing or ends up looking totally different from the picture. 

Some designers have taken it upon themselves to try to make some of those AI patterns that we see online, often with hilarious results. 

Katherine Foster was inspired by a famous AI elephant to make what she calls “AIlephant,” which is now a free knitting pattern on Ravelry. 

Her prototype uses worsted weight yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you like to make different sizes of elephants. 

The elephant features a cable running down the trunk and a different cable pattern on the back. It’s worked in pieces that are joined and stuffed as you go. It uses German short row shaping on the body and includes written instructions as well as a chart for the cable patterns. 

Reading through the pattern, it sounds a little fiddly, which makes sense because it was designed to look like a pattern that isn’t real. But it’s doable, as evidenced by the handful of projects you can find on Ravelry. The ears on her version aren’t quite as big and round or maybe don’t sit in quite the same place as the AI version (which if you haven’t seen it there’s a photo of that on the projects page, too). But it’s a pretty honest replica of a dishonest photo, and a really cute elephant in its own right. 

If you make this one I would love to hear about it!

You can grab the free pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Katherine Foster]