Anne Canadeo - While My Pretty One Knits (Black Sheep Knitting Mysteries)

While My Pretty One Knits

Meet the Black Sheep Knitters

Maggie Messina, owner of the Black Sheep Knitting Shop, is a retired high school art teacher who runs her little slice of knitters' paradise with the kind of vibrant energy that leaves her friends dazzled! From novice to pro, knitters come to Maggie as much for her up-to-the-minute offerings like organic wool as for her encouragement and friendship. Her only detractor? The owner of a rival shop who resents Maggie's success....

Lucy Binger left Boston when her marriage ended, and found herself shifting gears to run her graphic design business from the coastal cottage she and her sister inherited. After big-city living, she now finds contentment on a front porch in tiny Plum Harbor, knitting with her closest friends.

Dana Haeger is a psychologist with a busy local practice. A stylishly polished professional with a quick wit, she slips out to Maggie's shop whenever her schedule allows--after all, knitting is the best form of therapy!

Suzanne Cavanaugh is a typical working supermom--a Realtor with a million demands on her time, from coaching soccer to showing houses to attending the PTA. But she carves out a little "me" time with the Black Sheep Knitters.

Phoebe Meyer, a college student complete with magenta highlights and nose stud, lives in the apartment above Maggie's shop. She's Maggie's indispensable helper (when she's not in class)--and part of the new wave of young knitters.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Anne Canadeo

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-2693-6
ISBN-10: 1-4391-2693-3

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This book is dedicated with love and gratitude to my grandmother, Anna Cavaliere, who lived to knit beautiful things and loved to tell--or listen to--a good story even more. Grandma had a sharp, irreverent sense of humor. She liked to stay up late, knitting and watching old movies, and I watched them with her. Mysteries were among the tales she loved best and I hold many memories of sitting beside her as knitting needles clicked intently while we watched her favorites like The Big Sleep or The Curse of the Maltese Falcon , episodes of Columbo and Perry Mason , of course. I can still hear the pounding theme music and see my grandmother's mesmerized expression. She sometimes tried to teach me how to knit, but the lessons never seemed to stick. What did stick is best evidenced in this book. A thoroughly creative soul, I'm certain she's been standing by, directing my progress, stitch by stitch. I hope she is pleased with the finished product.

While My Pretty One Knits

Contents

Chapter One

M aggie, you've got to be kidding...do you want to kill me?" Lucy Binger tried to stare down her best friend, but it was no use.

Maggie Messina had already settled in to her furniture moving stance--knees bent, jaw set, a determined grip on the far end of an antique love seat.

"Come on, Lucy. You can do this." When that coaxing tone failed, she said, "It's the absolute last time, I promise ."

Lucy shot her a dark look, then finally took hold of her end and hoisted the couch up. Taking the high road, she thought, by not harping on the fact that they'd moved this particular piece of furniture around the shop three times, each trip reportedly the last.

"I owe you one," Maggie said.

"You owe me a few," Lucy replied with a grunt.

"Absolutely...watch the molding, please?"

Maggie swung her end through the doorway while Lucy hung on to the other side for dear life.

Lucy was trying hard not to destroy the decor, but angling the couch around the coral-colored walls, tall armoires, and baskets brimming with yarn was no mean feat.

Maggie's knitting shop, the Black Sheep, covered the first floor of a meticulously restored Victorian, the kind real-estate brokers might call "a jewel box." Lucy knew that was just a clever way of saying the rooms were small and tight, designed for diminutive, nineteenth-century folk, but these days more suited to retail space.

Finally, they reached the corner Maggie had staked out as the sofa's latest landing strip. Or close enough, Lucy decided. She dropped her end, then collapsed on the cushions, her long legs dangling over one side.

"Okay, furniture is set. How about the fireworks?" Lucy turned her head and caught Maggie's eye. "Don't you need a permit for that?"

"All right. I did get a little carried away. But Cara's practically famous. It's a big deal for me, having her here. I'm expecting a full house. Did I tell you?"

Lucy smiled and nodded. Maggie had told her. A few times.

"So Cara was a student of yours, right?" Lucy folded one arm under her head. "When was that again?"

"Almost ten years ago." Maggie sat on an armchair near the love seat and rubbed the back of her neck. "She went to college in New York after high school, the Fashion Institute of Technology."

"Did she stay in touch?"

"Oh, a little. When her first book came out, I sent her a note and she wrote back. She'd returned to Boston by then and was writing for Knitting Now! Cara comes back to town fairly often to see her family. She stopped in to say hello one day and mentioned she was working on a new book about felting. So I asked if she'd give a talk here and she agreed. Pretty good for me," Maggie added. "Her publisher is sending her out to five or six cities. Bookshops and the big arts and crafts chain stores."

"That is a coup. You must have been one of her favorite teachers."

"Maybe." Maggie's tone was modest, but Lucy knew she'd been very popular with students. Maggie not only looked half her age, but had the kind of energy and outlook that would always make her seem young.

Maggie had left teaching four years ago, after her husband, Bill, had died. She'd always talked about opening a knitting shop some far-off day, perhaps when she retired. But at that low point in her life, she needed a new plan to pull her through and didn't see any reason to put off her heart's desire.

"Cara was one of those kids who hung out in the art room. You know the type. I encouraged her, I guess. I had a feeling she'd do something with herself in the real world."

Lucy wasn't sure if the wondrous world of knitting had that much overlap with the real world. But she knew what Maggie meant and Cara Newhouse was clearly a bona fide success in both realms.

Felting Fever, the book Cara would sign tomorrow, was her second in less than two years. Her first, Ready, Set, Knit! , had turned out to be one of the bestselling titles for novice knitters ever. All before Cara had even hit thirty.

Slouching toward thirty-three, with no national book tours penciled into her datebook, Lucy knew she was a little jealous.

"I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say, but Cara might have her own TV show soon." Maggie picked up a fringed couch pillow that had slipped overboard and slapped it back into shape. "Some producer type is coming tomorrow to tape her demonstration. It's just a screen test. It won't actually be on TV," Maggie clarified. "But the Plum Harbor Times is sending a reporter. We could make the front page."