Vlad the Destroyer Shawl

Nov 13: Cast on, finished setup chart, started main body.

Nov 14: Hit a wee snag. Got to row 7 of main body chart and the number of stitches on the chart didn’t match what was on my needles before the marker. Thanks to reading through the forums for the Scary Lace knit-a-long, I realized that this project is not “marker friendly”.

Markers need to “move” on rows 7, 9 and 11, so I suggest not using them at all. Just use one to mark the absentee “centre” stitch, so you can check to make sure everything is properly mirrored on both sides, but it’s best to just count this one.

The “extra” 6th stitch from row 5 becomes part of the ssk of the red-outlined pattern repeat in row 7. So, if you insist on using markers, this is how row 7 would proceed for you: k2, yo, k1, yo, k2, PM, begin pattern repeat (moving extra stitch from row 5 to the left of the marker).

Nov 15: Moving along well now that I’ve divorced myself from all but one central marker. Finished two repeats of main chart, hoping to complete up to four tonight, but I’ve started drinking wine, so we’ll see…

Apr 01: Should not have taken this long to finish, but I set it down for several months, went to Thailand, and started the process of selling my condo, so give a girl a break. Bound off with super-stretchy bind off (backwards YO between every st), blocked out it is very nice. Purple colour worked well. 🙂

Audiobook: Listened to lots of Dorothy L. Sayers while knitting this, including “Five Red Herrings”, “Strong Poison” and “Have His Carcase” – on and off, not all three right through!.

Marzi by Marzena Sowa

[rating=4] ‘Marzi’ is a memoir of childhood in Communist Poland, written by Marzena Sowa with beautiful illustrations by her French partner, Sylvain Savoia. The limited palette of grey, beige and orange worked well, giving an historical sepia look that reinforced the mood of poverty and limited resources. I liked Savoia’s puckish sense of humour, clean lettering and sharp ink lines.

Interesting to read these stories of deprivation, oppression and rebellion against a sinister but elusive “Big Brother” during the heyday of ‘The Hunger Games’. It’s not exactly post-apocalyptic, but Chernobyl is a close call.

Marzi’s Poland is a real world parallel to Katniss’ Panem, but told from the perspective of a small child who doesn’t understand what is happening around her. Marzi is not an emotionless warrior: she’s scared of spiders, likes sitting in trees and imagines the rich inner lives of ants and mushrooms in the forest. As an only child and a little girl in a big family, Marzi is awed and confused by her mother’s passionate Catholicism, but loves her factory-working, cigarette-smoking father and fears for his safety when the labour strikes start. She plays pranks like a brat, envies her neighbors, is a picky eater who hates meat. We read about her pets, her games, her clothes, her friends, her passion for France. All the things that make Marzi both unique and universal.

As an added bonus, I learned quite a bit about Polish history and geography including a mini-tour of Krakow with its fire-breathing dragon statue, Polish customs like the Christmas Carp, Polish farm life, and most of all Polish politics. Hard to believe that Marzi was born in 1979 and I was born 1977, and that all these things – Communism, Chernobyl, Catholicism – were impacting another little girl at the same time as my safe, plentiful, church-free Canadian childhood was taking place.

Liked this? You might also enjoy: Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis’, Jason Lutes’ ‘Berlin: City of Stones’, Chester Brown’s ‘I Never Liked You’, Jason Little’s ‘Shutterbug Follies’ or David Small’s ‘Stitches’.

4 of 5 stars / bookshelves: graphic-novel, 240 pages, Publisher: Vertigo (Oct 25 2011)
Read from February 21 to March 01, 2012