Knit Two — Kate Jacobs

Now a freshman at NYU, Dakota Walker continues to work part-time at the Manhattan knitting store founded by her mother, Georgia. Dakota has come to rely on the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club for help, even as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventysomething Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children. As the club's projects -- an afghan, baby booties, a wedding coat -- are pieced together, so is their understanding of the patterns underlying the stresses and joys of being a mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Because it isn't the difficulty of the garment that makes you a great knitter: it's the care and attention you bring to the craft -- as well as how you adapt to surprises.