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Book Review: On Skein of Death

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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.

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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 a Pet Bed on a Knitting Machine

I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too. 

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin. 

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed. 

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube. 

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle. 

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).