The Great Christmas Knit Off by Alexandra Brown

On May the fourth Sybil Bloom is stood up at the alter by Luke her Stars Wars fanatic husband to be.  Luke fails to show for the wedding and runs off with Sasha, Sybil's twin sister.  Sybil, known as Sybs to her friends, is heartbroken and turns to her passion for knitting for comfort.  A few months on and Sybs is still struggling to concentrate at work, and when she reads a story in the local paper about an error made with a housing payment at the local council which is being investigated, she panics as this error could have been made by her.  

Sybs decides to get away for a few days and visit her friend Cher who has taken over as landlady at The Duck and Puddle Pub in Tindledale.  Sybs hastily packs a bag and, along with her scotty dog Basil, gets a train to Tindledale.  Things then don't go according to plan as Cher is away on a course but all the villagers of Tindledale are very friendly and immediately word goes round and everyone knows who she is and offers help and friendship.  Sybs visits 'Hettie's House of Haberdashery' which would have been the shop she has always dreamed of running, had it not been so very old fashioned.  Hettie is struggling to cope with the shop and is being pressured by her nasty nephew into selling up as he wants to develop the land into new housing.  Sybs and Hettie strike up an immediate friendship and work together on Sybs project to knit a Christmas jumper in just a few days. 

Sybs helps Hettie to re-arrange the shop and, together with some of the local villagers, they start a 'knit and natter' group and come up with ideas to help Hettie to save the shop.  

This is a lovely story of Sybs getting over her heartbreak, finding new friends and helping Hettie with whom she shares a passion for knitting and other crafts. 

There is a Christmas pudding knitting pattern at the end of the book.  

I have also read 'Cupcakes at Carrington's' by the same author.