The White Goddess

I finished reading this a few weeks ago, and boy was it ever interesting! It slots right into other stuff I'm in to - Avalon & Marion Zimmer-Bradley, and a lot of what Tori Amos has done ('American Doll Posse' and 'The  Beekeeper' spring to mind first of all). And, there's a whole new dimension in my head for U2's 'Mysterious Ways' (which features the holy spirit as a woman), which is also not a bad thing. I'm reminded of the backstory to Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' - it's the worst written book I've ever come across, but the idea behind it was spectacular.

Graves writes about the shift in belief systems aeons ago from matriarchy to patriarchy, and the consequences of that, and it makes sense in all kinds of ways. I don't believe in god, or God. I'm still a member of the church and I've been both christened and confirmed in one, and I've no plans to cancel that membership, simply for the fact that the rituals are so familiar and have other values besides religious ones for me. That's not to say I am now a Goddess-worshipper either - she just makes a whole lot more sense to me. As time goes by, I'm realising that I am far more drawn to cycles than I am to forever....

Anyway! The White Goddess. I'll have to read it a few more times to fully get a grip, because there sure is a LOT of information and names and stories to keep track of, but I am very happy that I finally did read it. Next up is Ulysses..... (she says with a far too optimistic grin).

Puffs of the Day

So the sunflower I did yesterday, before the Endless ones, but didn't post about it because I was way too excited about the other ones. It was made using duplicate stitch at the center of puff and then random daisy stitches for the petals - am loving how it turned out.

The rose and the cup have a bit of a story to them - the yarn came from the stash of my maternal grandmother and the embroidery patterns are from an old book of my paternal grandmother’s (just cut-outs pasted into a notebook, but I’ve known some of these since I was small). I thought it was a very nice way to remember them by combining what they've left me in this way. Both of them were instrumental in teaching me needlecrafts, so it's entirely appropriate that they be part of my hexi-blanket. Can't wait to show these to my mum!

Technical note on the cup puff - the original chart wouldn't fit on the puff, so I counted one half knitted stitch as an embroidery stitch and used the back stitch, and then it worked. Yay!

Endless hexipuffing....

I had an idea (one of several) this morning to do puffs inspired by The Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. The idea was to have a 'D' in the middle and the color scheme based on each character.

So here they are, from the top and clockwise, in the order of age:

Destiny - pale green for his garden and opaque white for the unturned pages in his book
Death - grey/white on black, because she’s just such a cool person.... I initially wanted to put the faint outline of the ankh in the background, but that will be for another puff.
Dream - gold for the dream dust, on midnight blue. I initially wanted to put beads into this for stars, but then didn't bother once I had done Death's puff without the ankh. Maybe there will be deluxe editions of these. Haha.
Destruction - orange brick-like stitch on brown for rust and debris
Desire - I didn't have enough red yarn to do a puff, because the first plan was for a golden 'D' on dark red, but I had some embroidery floss that goes from bright to dark red, which I used on top of the puff, so that the 'D' itself is in a sort of relief (desire taking over). The colours were chosen for the red of the heart's blood, and the gold of Desire's eyes.
Despair - grey on grey. You can barely see the 'D' for which I used cross stitch, but you can feel it if you run your fingers across the puff.....The background grey was a colour to get lost in while I was knitting.....
and in the middle Delirium - green and blue for her eyes, on vivid lilac. I used sort of random stitching for the 'D'. I had also thought maybe I'd embroider tiny butterflies on this one, but yeah that will be for another version as well....

Hobbit Door

Of course I had to have a hobbit door hexipuff! I'd previously done a chart of one, but when it came to embellishment, I was too lazy to go and look at it, so I made it up as I went along - but I think it looks very cute!

Squeeeee! Off to make more hexipuffs!

New Obsession!

Hexipuffs are taking over! I am making a Beekeeper's Quilt (Tiny Owl Knits pattern, check it out on her website or Ravelry), and at first glance I thought it was going to be a loooot of work, what with weaving ends and sewing and all. But it's not! These wee hexagons are so quick, so easy and so much fun to do!

This is what I've got so far, using charts for embroidery that people have posted on Ravelry.

So from the top going clockwise we have a charcoal one with Cassiopeia on it, one lilac one in leftovers from a dress for Anne, one in Socks That Rock courtesy of Julie, one in merino/silk leftovers (8 strands - it's VERY thin), one in grey with embroidered forget-me-nots (and I just noticed that it's upside down in the pic, ooops!), one in my looovely Koigu leftovers and in the middle a plain grey one.

I did the decrease part wrong on all but the Socks That Rock one (well, the second one - Julie let me do two and the first one has the mistake in it as well, but it's not worth redoing any of them. Learning curve :) ).

PS. In Dreams is finished, all I have left to do is block it and weave the 2 ends.... Yay!