Marla here, and I’m delighted to introduce a new-to-me author because we might be related. Okay, maybe not, but she’s from Broken Arrow, and I was just visiting my niece there last month. It’s a suburb of Tulsa, where I grew up, and also my grandmother was hugely into crochet, and also we might own the same flowered chair, and we write cozies, so that’s all the evidence I need! Courtny writes the Literary Stitches Mysteries, and she’s giving away a copy of Book One, Deadly Drafts, at the end of this post, so keep reading! Take it away, Courtny….

My Sleuth Solves Murders, but I Can’t Solve Row Four

I write the Literary Stitches cozy mystery series about two sisters, Addie and Winnie, and their grandmother, Maemó, who runs a craft and bookshop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the town where I actually live. Winnie and Maemó are talented crafters who sew, embroider, and crochet, while Addie sticks mostly to books and writing, with the occasional murder investigation thrown in.

This may lead readers to believe that I am also a talented crafter, so I would like to clear that up immediately. I am crafty in the sense that I own a lot of craft supplies and regularly convince myself that purchasing them is the same thing as having a hobby.

Recently, I crocheted a book cover decorated with mushrooms. It turned out adorable, which gave me exactly the confidence I needed to make a terrible decision. I decided to expand my horizons and make myself a beautiful floral shirt.

I completed the starting chain and survived Rows One and Two. By Row Three, I had made the flower petals that would line the shirt, and I was feeling dangerously confident. Then I counted my stitches.

Ninety-three.

The pattern said I should have ninety-one, but two over wasn’t bad. I could do a decrease, right? Then I’d be golden.

I had done it. I was a crochet prodigy. Clearly, I had been underestimating myself my entire life. Soon, I would have an Etsy shop. People would ask ME for patterns. Perhaps there would be a crochet book deal, and I could quit my day job in education.

Then I completed Row Four and counted again.

ONE HUNDRED TWELVE STITCHES.

Somewhere between one row and the next, nineteen additional stitches had clawed their way into existence. I counted again.

Still 112.

that point, the crochet project stopped being relaxing and became a full criminal investigation. Where had the extra stitches come from? Was the yarn acting alone, or were the stitch markers I had painstakingly put in conspiring with it? Had the pattern been lying from the beginning?

Unlike the mysteries I write, this one lacked a satisfying reveal. I pulled the row out and tried again. I reread the pattern, asked for help, and stared at the diagrams until my eyes crossed. Eventually, I reached a point where I no longer crocheted because I enjoyed it. I was crocheting because I refused to let a ball of yarn think it had beaten me.

The yarn had absolutely beaten me.

So, I frogged the entire project. For anyone unfamiliar with crochet terminology, frogging means pulling out your stitches because you have to “rip it, rip it.” This is an adorable name for destroying several hours of your own work while questioning every decision that brought you to this moment.

As a writer, I should be used to this. Sometimes a chapter goes wrong, and no amount of rearranging paragraphs or adding witty dialogue can save it. Eventually, you have to delete the whole thing and start over.

The difference is that Google Docs has never tangled itself around my fingers while I did it.

Will I crochet again? Yes. I already have a granny-square sweater in mind.

Will I continue writing fictional women who are far more competent at crafting than I am? Absolutely.

That is the beauty of fiction. My characters only have 112 stitches when I tell them they do.

Readers, have you ever tried a supposedly relaxing hobby that made you question your intelligence, patience, or ability to count?

Comment by midnight, July 24, for a chance to win an ebook copy of Deadly Drafts. Winner will be contacted by email.

ABOUT COURTNY:

Courtny Bradley is an Oklahoma author who writes cozy mysteries filled with quirky communities, creative women, and murders that have a habit of interrupting perfectly good plans. She is the author of Deadly Drafts, the first book in the Literary Stitches Mysteries, and Death on Deck, the first Cruising Crew Mystery. The second Literary Stitches Mystery, Fatal Finish, will be released in April 2027. Courtny is also an innovation specialist in her local school district, a content creator known as Courtagonist, and a mom of two boys, which means she spends most days juggling stories, technology, and someone asking her for a snack.

Substack: The Courtagonist