aliens, vampires and ghosts

I've started swatching for Jack's Alien Illusion scarf. This swatch is in his first choice of maroon and black. The alien shows up quite well when the swatch is viewed from an oblique angle but I think I'll still swatch in lime green and black to give him a choice.


 I was making good progress, or so I thought , on my Landgirls top until I realised that the right front and left front didn't quite match. GAHH!!   I ripped it back, started knitting again, then decided that I needed a break from the dark jade green wool and Landgirls was put back into the knitting bag to think about what she had done.

So, on with Alien Illusion, in a trad scarf style , not a looped scarf style. Jack is not known for being fashion forward...

I'm enjoying listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula at the moment. I've never got into the Twilight series (too silly, too sparkly) but I used to love watching Christopher Lee as the Count- a proper scary vampire! Heather Ordover at Craftlit is doing Dracula at the moment, and it is pretty spooky stuff. The original novel is in epistolary form (letters and journals, rather than a 3rd person narrator, or the omniscient author's view) and there are some terrific voices there for Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westernra etc. I particularly enjoy Dr Seward's journal which, as he recorded it (on wax cylinders?) rather than wrote it has been produced with an authentic scratchy sound. Dracula is a fantastic study of the late 19th century scientific mind (recordings, photographs and telegrams form  part of the story) battling medieval superstitions. It's fabulous!

Over at Forgotten Classics Julie is covering Genesis and Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart . Hughart's novel is set in an ancient China that never was and features Master Li and his sidekick Number 10 Ox trying to find a rare elixir to save the lives of the children of Ox's village who are all in a coma. Master Li has to be clever and cunning as he tries to outwit the powerful people in his way and even has to tackle a dancing ghost. It's very, very funny and well worth a listen.

So, I'm surrounded by strange beings at the moment and hopefully the knitting will behave itself!