Laurie Perry didn't know how to knit when her husband announced he was leaving her to "get his creativity back." But it was ultimately knitting and the love of a few friends that got her through the heartbreak, loneliness and disconnected period that followed.
While this book isn't completely about knitting, it is a look into how one of the Internet's most entertaining knitting bloggers got her start in the craft. It's also a cautionary tale about divorce, dating and getting your life back.
The Unraveling
It's fair to say that Laurie Perry snapped a bit when her husband, Charlie, announced he was leaving on an otherwise normal Thursday night. He said he needed "to be free of responsibility," which must have meant free of her and their four cats. He moved out, leaving their furry family, and Perry eventually moved into a tiny house in the valley, filled with the detritus of her marriage.
She filled her days with her job as a graphic designer for a bank, and filled her nights with lots of smoking, drinking and listening to Patsy Cline and George Jones. She shopped at the 7-11 and didn't unpack the boxes for months.
Eventually a friend dragged her to a knitting class and that, as they say, was that.
"Frankly, I had no interest in knitting, and besides, I didn't want to leave the house," she writes. "It was a Saturday, after all, and it was about to be five o'clock somewhere. But I went to this knitting class because my friend was concerned for my sanity and probably needed to see proof of life...And it took. Before long I was completely obsessed, knitting through sleepless nights and hours alone."
Knitting Becomes an Obsession
In not too much time, Perry was spending a lot of her free time knitting and talking obsessively with her coworkers about her newfound hobby.
Eventually she discovered knitting blogs and websites, and decided to start her own, Crazy Aunt Purl. Through the blog she met the local Stitch 'n Bitch group and eventually found the courage to visit the group in West Hollywood and found that the people there didn't meet her stereotype of what California knitters would be like.
"But the women (and one man!) we met that night were smart and funny and diverse and welcoming and lovely, and all I can tell you is that at some point we began a critical analysis of cheeseburger offerings in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan region and that made me feel like I was finally, at last, At Home," she writes.
Knitting made her happy, and it seemed to be the first step toward reclaiming her identity.
Not Just Knitting
The book covers a large amount of territory--her divorce, finally getting rid of all the stuff from her marriage, starting to date again, traveling with friends, feeding the cats and trying not to go too crazy as she gets to know who she really is.
This book is very true and honest and gets to the heart of what it feels like to get through a divorce. While it's not a self-help book, it probably would help other women going through divorces, if only because it lets them know that feeling unhinged is normal and that, in time, you can find yourself again.
Ultimately, Perry likes the person she is on the other side of divorce much more than she did the married woman.
"My life might have stayed cluttered up with old junk," she writes. "Had Charlie stayed, I might have never figured out what kind of woman I am."
Patterns
In addition to the story about knitting's part in Perry's divorce experience, she also shares some "knitting recipes" for knitters to try, including:
- Flower pom-poms
- Felted bracelet bag
- Easy wine bag
- Knit cat tunnel
The patterns are easy enough for new knitters but could also make fun quick and easy projects for more experienced knitters. And even the patterns are funny, so they're worth reading even if you never make the projects.
