Friends--And Then Some (20 page)

A GOOD YARN is wedged between a florist and a beauty shop. An alleyway runs behind the shop. The shop has a second-floor apartment and large display windows with striped awnings. Whiskers, the cat, sleeps in the display windows.

SUSANNAH’S GARDEN is a florist next door to A Good Yarn.

THE BEAUTY SHOP is on the other side of A Good Yarn. Perhaps one day we’ll find out more about what’s happening in there.

THE FRENCH CAFÉ serves delicious meals across the street from A Good Yarn. It also has a striped awning.

BLOSSOM STREET BOOKS is three doors down from A Good Yarn. It hosts regular book-club events and its owner lives upstairs.

IT FIGURES is the local exercise salon.

THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY is a wonderful resource for the town.

THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET
is the first book that I wrote in the Blossom Street series, and it introduces Lydia Hoffman. Lydia is a cancer survivor who opens her yarn shop, A Good Yarn, in 2004 as a leap of faith and a show of confidence in the future. Lydia hopes to bring in customers by offering a beginner’s baby-blanket knitting class. She chooses a pattern designed by Ann Norling—and you can find this pattern on my website, by the way. The first people to sign up are a diverse group of ladies.

LYDIA HOFFMAN
Owner of A Good Yarn Shop.

WHISKERS
The shop’s calico cat.

BRAD GOETZ UPS
driver. A Good Yarn Shop is on his route, and he’s quite interested in Lydia!

CODY GOETZ
Brad’s son from a previous marriage.

MARGARET
Lydia’s sister. Works at A Good Yarn Shop and teaches crochet.

ALIX TOWNSEND
Shows up at Lydia’s shop to learn how to knit. She needs to do community service for a marijuana possession charge that she accepted to protect her roommate. Alix dresses like a “goth” and wears a black leather jacket year round. She works at a video store on Blossom Street.

JACQUELINE DONOVAN
An unhappy socialite whose marriage is on the rocks. She takes the baby-blanket knitting class to try to welcome a pregnant daughter-in-law into the family.

CAROL GIRARD
Attorney who desperately wants to have a baby. She and her husband are going through IVF treatments. Carol hopes a positive attitude and the process of knitting a baby blanket will help her to conceive.

A GOOD YARN
is the second book, written to accommodate reader demand! I wasn’t necessarily planning another trip to Blossom Street, but my readers had to know what happened next. Lydia and Brad are becoming involved, but Brad’s ex-wife, Janice, is making demands. Suddenly Lydia is unsure of her place in Brad and Cody’s life. Lydia’s shop is thriving, and she’s now offering a sock knitting class. The sock pattern, designed by Nancy Bush, is available exclusively in the book.

ELISE BEAUMONT
A retired librarian and knitter who has had to move in with her grown daughter, Aurora, and Aurora’s husband, David, after losing her life savings. Elise is thrown into a panic when she learns her ex-husband, Maverick, a professional gambler, is coming to visit with hopes of establishing a relationship with his daughter.

BETHANNE HAMLIN
Has dedicated her life to her husband, Grant, and her two children, Andrew and Annie. After twenty years of marriage, Grant is leaving her for a younger woman. She’s all alone in a big house. She finds a connection with the women at A Good Yarn.

COURTNEY PULANSKI
A teenager who has come to live with her grandmother. Dragged to A Good Yarn shop and senior swimming sessions, Courtney learns how to build friendships and find self-confidence.

ALIX TOWNSEND
Continues to knit and is a frequent customer at A Good Yarn. She has completed a course of study as a pastry chef and is now working at the French Café across from A Good Yarn.

COLETTE BLAKE
Lydia’s renter above the shop.

SUSANNAH NELSON
Owns Susannah’s Garden, a flower shop next door.