Chicks with Sticks (It's a Purl Thing)

A fun, frothy novel about friendship and knitting.
Scottie feels like her whole world is turning upside down. Then she discovers knitting, and it’s as if she s been thrown a cashmerino lifeline. Soon Scottie and her best friend Amanda, along with new friends Bella and Tay, find themselves hanging at their local yarn store, a magical place called KnitWit, bound together by a yen for yarn and a hunger for friendship. Their stitches and their relationships become so intertwined that it’s hard to remember which came first: the girls or the purls.

Scottie is going through a hard time after the death of her beloved aunt. She also feels disconnected from her school friends, who are more interested in boys and clothes than she (and also have more means to afford designer things). She discovers solace in knitting and through a twist of fate, her estranged bestie and two other girls from their school show up at the same LYS (Local Yarn Store). The girls bond through love of yarn.
The prose is sprinkled with both teenage jargon and fiber-speak, and while I'm familiar with the latter, it almost seemed as if the author was trying too hard to capture the dialogue of her young characters. I wonder whether an actual teenager would find it more authentic than I did, because I really don't show more know how teenagers talk nowadays (or in 2005 when this book was written). The Chicago setting, however, is very authentic and several local landmarks as well as the Metra system are accurately portrayed. I am interested enough to try to track down the other two books in this series, though they seem rather difficult to come by. show less

I picked up this book to read part of during lunch because I was curious what it would be like and ended up reading the whole thing. The plot is dumb -- four very different girls, all bond over knitting. But can they come out to a hostile world? No, not about their sexuality - about their love of knitting. That's about what I expected. However, the characters were more interesting than the plot, and the author has a knack for description. I really liked her description of the meditative aspects of knitting and the sensual aspects of yarn. Hmmm, there's definitely a sexual undercurrent in that book.

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

Fifteen-year-old Scottie has trains roaring through her dreams at night, resulting in hours of early morning insomnia. It's been like this since Aunt Roz's funeral. To make it worse, she's begun to feel like a stranger in her own home-turned-art gallery. Her mother spends days in a trance creating bizarre paintings that have become the new "must-have" art, and her dad spends hours on the phone schmoozing potential buyers and scheduling the next art party.

Scottie's parents don't seem to remember she exists and Scottie fears that she's becoming invisible to her best friend, Amanda, as well. Amanda has left her for the popular clique as she developed curves that Scottie is, so far, lacking. show more Scottie's life is falling apart. Only a ball of yarn and a couple of needles keep her from becoming completely frayed.

Early one morning, once again wide-awake, she discovers the knitting her Aunt Lucille had pressed into her hands at her Aunt Roz's shivah, under a pile of clothes on the rug at her feet. Intrigued, she tries a stitch, surprised she can remember the "spike, loop, swish" knitting motion. One stitch turns into an entire row. Scottie feels the tension leaving her shoulders. Without thinking, she crams her knitting into her book bag as she prepares to leave for school.

Under pressure with Amanda and her new friends at lunch, Scottie whips out her swatch and ball of yarn and begins knitting. So much for being invisible. Scottie becomes so hooked on knitting that she goes in search of a store named KnitWit and finds herself staying for a free class offered by the owner, Alice. Fate intervenes and Amanda shows up, along with other girls from her school, Tay and Bella.

It doesn't take long before they become the "Chicks with Sticks" and Scottie finds comfort in finally belonging somewhere. But will the feeling last? It seems friends are dropping as often as she drops stitches. Amanda deserts her to free-form with her new knitting friends after her Learning Disability session at the college. Bella becomes so engrossed in knitting that she prefers solitude with her afghan. And Tay blames Scottie for the problems between her and Josh. And when she finally gets the nerve to tell her parents that she's a knitter, they get all excited that she's decided to be a "fiber artist," whatever that is. She turns to Alice only to find KnitWit's doors are closed on their meeting night.

Elizabeth Lenhard has created a warm, woolly read in IT'S A PURL THING. As a knitter, I found myself itching to grab my needles and feel the familiar comfort of K3, P3 of my current work-in-progress in soft homespun lavender. Teens are taking up their needles and creating beautiful works of art. I encourage you to join them. But before you do, take a moment to curl up with IT'S A PURL THING. show less

I keep reading knitting group books and thinking, "I want to be part of such a magical activity!" But like Scottie, I was reminded that it isn't the knitting, it's the relationships. Scottie finds herself becoming a part of an unlikely group of girls pulled together by their attraction to knitting. She is hoping that this is the solution to her grief over her aunt's death and her parents distractedness. In some ways, it is part of the solution, but Scottie's journey also includes self discovery as well. And the knitting is just fun!

Scottie's insomnia is getting worse and worse. Her favorite aunt just died, her best friend since forever is making new, more popular friends, and her parents don't seem to notice she exists. On yet another sleepless night as she listens to the trains click by, she discovers a wadded up ball of yarn and some knitting needles pressed upon her at her aunt's funeral. Something about the click-swish of the yarn as she knits soothes her. Gradually, the power of yarn expands to encompass not only Scottie, but best friend Amanda, odd girl Bella, and tough kid Tay. As the girls bond during visits to KnitWit, the local yarn store, they discover that they have far more in common than they originally thought.

Knitting, fate, the power of friendship show more and keeping faith are all wound up in this story of four girls and a modern day knitting circle. On the positive side, the yarn descriptions had me yearning for a visit to KnitWit myself, and although I haven't tried the mitten pattern yet, I know I'm going to. And I have a date with the sequel, Chicks with Sticks (knit two together) tonight.

On the negative, there are some loose ends and some moments of unreality (what's up in the epilogue, for instance?) -- which I'm going to hope are tied up in the sequel. show less

I've read young adult fiction, and I've read books about knitting, but I've never run across a book that combines the two. In Chicks with Sticks, knitting is the glue that bonds together 4 very different young women, each with their own issues. Each chapter is themed with a knitting instruction, often cleverly. I enjoyed the premise, but the book was fairly predictable. Also, the girls seemed to pick up new skills at a tremendous pace, never having difficulties, not to mention finding time to finish many complicated projects in a remarkably short period of time. Not the most realistic, but a reasonably enjoyable read.