The Mysterious Case of the Amoebas and the Staircase and Other Knitting Fables

Cybil had always thought that if she were Scheherazade, she would enchant the Shah by mesmerizing him with her knitwear rather than by telling stories.

Marguerite and Barton liked to wear outfits that not only matched each other's but also evoked the brickwork, chrome, and black leather decor of their condo.

Rusty and Henrietta had no qualms about letting the world know about their poultry fetish cosplay.

Geraldine saw herself as an über mother, who knitted her own styling pantsuits and dragged her daughter Jemima to the top of mountaintops to show her what she could achieve while simultaneously looking fabulous. Her friends and family, who had repeatedly tried and failed to convince Geraldine to dial it back a little for pity's sake, had been secretly contributing to a therapy fund for Jemima for years.

Twyla had always had a fondness for the halcyon days of 1980s knitwear, when it was an unwritten rule that one must style one's hair in geometric shapes that coordinated with one's knitwear and jewelry.

Paulette, self-published author of many mystery novels, liked to knit whenever she was having problems with her current manuscript. This was the sweater she had produced while working on The Mysterious Case of the Amoebas and the Staircase, and she hardly knew which creation she was prouder of.

Errol felt one was never too old to enjoy the Harry Potter series. As he liked to explain to others, he still enjoyed it just as much as when he was a kid, but now he'd moved on to doing so in a very adult way -- that is, one with much more depth and nuance.

Alastair decided he need to stop inviting Errol to his backyard crafting cosplay events. Sure, Errol always kept to the letter of Alastair's rule that all guests must show up in costumes they had made themselves, but he always got the tone wrong.

Lena had hoped that wearing what was essentially a crafted lampshade on her head would help make her the life of Alastair's party, but here she was, a painfully shy wallflower yet again.

Melba decided to wear the costume she had created for her role as Nick Bottom in her women's college stage production of Midsummer Night's Dream to Alastair's party.