Shall we call it the “summer of love”? While Emil and Allison explore whether their connection rises (or deepens) to the level of love, Kassandra finds a new attraction as well.

And just as Jeeves was the fulcrum for Allison and Emil, she also plays her part in introducing Kassandra to what might become a passion. 

In this case, however, it is a passion not for a person, but for a new form of art: knitting.

The Stitch and Bitch Club still meets regularly at the coffee shop, and now Kassandra joins them when she’s not working there. Jeeves has patiently taught her the basics, and the other members offer tips and insights and, importantly, spare yarn.

Her artist’s eye sees similar patterns and potentials in the whirls and grids of stitches that she creates in metal and found materials. And yarn is so much more pliable, so much more portable. She can do a few stitches anytime, anywhere, almost. She experiments, tries something, hates it, rips it out: no harm done. Entranced with the ease of it all, Kassandra begins incorporating bits and pieces of the natural world: feathers, leaves, the papery remnants of wasps’ nests. 

These pieces, she does not bring to the Stitch and Bitch meetings. They are too messy, for one thing: leaves fall apart, crumble, and Kassandra doesn’t want whoever is working that shift to have to deal with the detritus. 

They are also too personal, too fragile, too – newborn. 

So she brings her “scarves” – long strips of knots the ladies can relate to, help with, coo over, admire. And as she learns the joys of watching her fingers work the needles, and the needles create a workable fabric, Kassandra also falls a little in love with the companionship of the older women. They are accepting, kind, sarcastic, funny, intelligent, and caring. Their moral compasses all seem clearly pointed, holding steady. 

Kassandra asks Jeeves about this, the sense that the women know right from wrong so decidedly, when so much of morality appears gray to her.

“Well, my dear, the older you become, you realize that there are only a few moral principles: be kind, work for the highest good for all, never turn away from someone in need. You hold those so clearly because you realize all the rest is noise in the system. In fact, this might be a key to a content life: hold fewer things, ideas, beliefs; but hold them deeply.”

Kassandra nods, taking this in. She is content, mostly, but to make this a true summer of love, let’s extend her romantic heart a bit, and give it a reason to flutter, on the next truly warm day of the season.