When Sandra is widowed tragically in her early 40s, with no children to distract her, and a career as a college lecturer only keeping her mildly busy, she feels she needs a new direction in her life. This comes in the unlikely shape of Martha, a woman she meets completely randomly when they both stop to help in a medical emergency in a shopping mall.

Martha has also experienced grief, but appears to have worked it through. She is also a keen, talented, but almost obsessive knitter, who lives and breathes her skill. Sandra is fascinated by her work, and eager to develop other strands to her career, decides to organise an exhibition on the history of women’s clothing and textiles, asking Martha to help her by creating replicas of various items.

What follows is not a conventional friendship, nor a conventional healing, but whatever it is, it changes Sandra’s life very much for the better…

Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
My new son-in-law, who is crazily in love with my daughter.

What are you reading at the moment?
Nicholas Jose's Original Face, a Julian May fantasy, Jared Diamond's Collapse.

Which author do you most admire?
One of the authors I most admire is Australian author Helen Garner. She's fearless. She takes enormous risks, with superb poise and elegance.

What's your earliest memory?
Sitting in the bath and being told someone had died.

How do you spoil yourself?
Bath, fire, pyjamas, book, cocoa.

Who do you turn to in a crisis?
My best friend. I’m married to him.

What makes you angry?
Injustice. And I get stroppy if people are careless with things I value.

Have you ever had any other jobs apart from writing?
Plenty. Knitting one-off garments for boutique designers, washing dishes in a seedy hotel (I got the sack), packing pills for a pharmaceutical company, teaching, making ironing boards. 

Are you in love?
Yep. 32 years worth.

What's your worst vice?
Not telling anybody any of THOSE!

Where do you write?
Mainly in my study. But I carry a notebook for odd moments and those flying ideas.

Where's your favourite city?
Adelaide, South Australia, where I live. It's quiet with a fantastic Mediterranean climate. We're growing about fifty food-bearing plants and shrubs.  I can get to the CBD in 20 minutes and the airport in 30 minutes, but I still see cows on the hill from my study window. Knittting is set in Adelaide.

Did you enjoy school?
I didn't mind the class work, but I hated the lunch times. Socially I was a late developer, but when I was about fourteen I discovered Shakespeare, hockey and friends, and life became much more interesting!