JcSparks.com

Alias Grace is the third Margaret Atwood book I have read. After loving The Handmaid’s Tale and hating The Robber Bride, I was uncertain whether I wanted to venture further into Atwood’s oeuvre, but Alias Grace fell into my hands used and with a high recommendation. I decided to give it a try, and I found it a fascinating read.

This book covers territory far removed from those of the other two books mentioned: it is a work of historical fiction based on a real convicted Canadian murderess, Grace Marks, who lived in Ontario in the mid-nineteenth century. Atwood’s version of the story is told from several perspectives, mostly from those of Grace and an alienist, Dr. Simon Jordan, who hopes to determine whether Grace is innocent or guilty, sane or insane. Intermixed with their narratives are letters between Dr. Jordan and others, and quotations from contemporary accounts of the events surrounding the murders of Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear, including Grace’s own confession. Up until the last, Atwood dangles questions before us: Is Grace truly amnesiac about the murders themselves? Was she out of her mind, or acting as a cold, calculating, jealous woman? Was she dragged into passive participation by James McDermott, who was quickly hanged for the murders? Was she acted on by other, unseen forces?

The narrative proceeds slowly, but with a richness of detail that lent it authenticity beyond the contemporary documentation of the crime. It was particularly interesting to me because I know very little about Canadian history, and Atwood’s narratives bring it to life. My biggest complaint would have to be the closure of Dr. Jordan’s story-line; he exits abruptly, and without closure in his relationship to Grace, because of a peripheral event in his own narrative. Most of the questions proposed by Atwood in the course of the book were left unanswered, but that doesn’t bother me so much, since several possibilities were hinted at—one of which is subtly indicated by the title—and the guilt of the actual Grace Marks, remained a point of contention even after her eventual pardon. This was a fascinating, beautifully written book, and it is one I would recommend.

I had the opportunity to visit a new (to me) yarn store in Portland this weekend, with two ladies I recently taught to knit. Having only been to a few yarn stores myself, mostly the ones in the Salem area, it was a real treat to visit a larger yarn store. The Yarn Garden was a wonderful store, packed with yarn and people. I got to meet a lot of yarns I had heard people raving about, but had never seen in person. My only complaint about this store is that the prices were often difficult to make out, as they don’t mark individual skeins. After spending at least an hour there, I did a fairly good job fighting off temptation, and only made one purchase: 2 skeins of Misty Baby Alpaca Chunky in aubergine, to make myself a scarf and hat.

This yarn is unbelievably soft and cuddly, with really decent yardage for such a large-gauge yarn. I might have to start making the scarf this evening, if my hands are too cold and stiff for knitting with cotton.

Speaking of which, I am making progress on the baby blanket, with 7 squares of 16 now complete. There’s not really much else to say about it right now.

Finally, I got a few good photos of the first Flower Basket Shawl. It is really lovely, and I hope the recipient will be as pleased with it as I was.

In order to write a review, or even a summary of this volume, I was forced to look back through the contents to recall what important events happened. I was relieved to discover that I was not mistaken in thinking that not much really happened over the course of these 350-odd pages. It begins with the conclusion of Dr. Bartlett’s transmission of Clementina’s plight. This is followed by a number of minor domestic events: Sir Charles orchestrates the reunion of his good friend Beauchamp with his father and step-mother, and set up seemingly several dozen weddings, including the wedding of his own sister Charlotte to Lord G—-. The latter relationship is interesting in large part because it is in some ways an extension of that of Anna Howe and Mr. Hickman, who had not yet married at the end of Clarissa. Charlotte is clearly at fault much of the time, but I have no doubt that she will improve herself by the end of the book, under the angelic influences of her brother’s and Miss Byron’s relationship.

The biggest revelation occurs in the very end of the book, when Sir Charles returns to Bologna in a renewed attempt to restore Jeronymo’s body and Clementina’s mind to health, by his visit and the assistance of an English doctor. In the last few pages, we hear from Sir Charles’s own pen an admission of his attachment to Harriet, which has been strongly hinted at by all parties but never confessed by the man himself.

Having racked my brain to think of something more interesting than a synopsis to say about this volume, I am at a loss. So I’ll just post the link to the text and leave it at that:

Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4

Onward and upward.

Well, I think it is safe to say that the Flower Basket Shawl makes a quick, enjoyable knit. After starting the first of three such shawls just yesterday afternoon, I have already finished it, and it is blocking as we speak. It was a clear, well-written pattern, with rather clever construction given the fact that it is a triangle. (You knit from the center neck edge down, starting with only 2 stitches.) So here are some photos to document the process. First is a photo of the piece shortly before binding off.

Here is what it looked like immediately after binding off, still all curled up and begging to be blocked.

Immediately after that photo I soaked the shawl in water, squeezed it dry in a handtowel, and blocked it with straight pins. Sorry for the green towel it is drying on—I wasn’t considering photo opportunities when I pinned it out.

I’ll probably take one more photo when I unpin it, hopefully in such a manner as to show off the lovely lace pattern that I managed to obscure completely above.

Well, by now my mom is in the air on her way home, so I’m back on my own. To console myself, I decided to post some photos of a few recently finished and barely begun projects.

First is the Culdesac Vest. I really liked this pattern, and I think I will enjoy wearing it, now that we found suitable buttons. I, however, need to stop being fooled into thinking I have a waist—seems like every time I make a pattern that has lovely waist shaping, it ends up kinda baggy under the arms because I am closer to pear-shaped. It’s not too bad here, though.

Next up is the Juliet Pullover. I love the finished fabric and the drape in the sleeves, but I am not altogether satisfied with the neck. It seems much larger than I remember, trying it on before I did the ribbons. If it bothers me enough, I might try ripping out the neck edging and firming it up a bit more. Recommendations are welcome.

I also finished a scarf made from Trendsetter Jupiter, which I seem to have forgotten to photograph. It’s lovely, soft and black, with multicolored loops of mohair every so often; I worked it up in alternating bands of stockinette and reverse stockinette.

Next on the List

As part of my birthday, my mom and I went to the yarn stores in Salem and did some shopping for projects. These will be mostly gifts, so I won’t go into details, but here are the goods:

First up is a baby blanket I’m making for… someone. I won’t say who just in case. The pattern is from an old Knitter’s—actually, it was the first knitting magazine I ever purchased, I believe. I have used this pattern once before and it made a lovely blankie. We even found the exact color of Reynolds Saucy called for in the pattern. This time around I had to substitute the contrast yarn, but I think I found something that will work nicely, Cascade Pearls. This is the priority project right now, and very easy knitting. As you can see, I am already on the second square after working for just a short time yesterday evening.

We also got a passel of fingering weight yarn to make several Flower Basket Shawls, from the pattern in this fall’s Interweave Knits. The yarn in the plastic bag is Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Fingering for my mom’s version—luscious 100% silk in the Spring Frost colorway. It has a lot of yardage, so there might be enough leftover to make a little tidbit for myself. Below that are two colorways of Cherry Tree Hill Glitter Alpaca, Birches and Northern Lights. It’s all wonderfully soft yarn, and I am excited to be able to work with it for the first time.

I haven’t posted for a while, so I thought I would write up a kind of general entry of what I have been up to. Hopefully I will have some fodder for specific posts by the weekend.

I have had the wonderful company of my mother for the past week and a half. Despite the fact that I had to work (I’m saving my vacation days for Christmas break), we have had a good time in the off-hours: shopping, watching DVDs, shopping, exercising, knitting, and shopping. We got to go to a few restaurants that are out of my reach without a car, and went to see Hero. The fuzzies were a little disconcerted about the closed home-theatre room door (where her suitcases are), but they have survived admirably, and will get their room back in a few more days.

I don’t usually mention exercising on the blog, but I am so pleased with my improvement in yesterday’s gym session that I had to comment: I used the elliptical trainer for 40 minutes yesterday, for a distance of over three miles. That’s a personal best for me, so I had to share.

Finally, my work on Project Gutenberg continues. I am now approaching the end of Sir Charles Volume 4. The White Peacock has been on the back burner for several weeks now, so I think when I finish Volume 4, I will go back to the Lawrence.

–Julie

I don’t think I have posted any info about my printmaking efforts since starting this blog. This past week or two I began work on a new woodcut for a print exchange, and decided to take a few pictures along the way.

First I choose a design and work it up on paper. In recent months I have started doing Xerox transfers to put the design on the block: basically I make a fresh Xerox, and tape it facedown to the block. Then I moisten a cotton ball with oil of wintergreen, lift the paper from the block and wipe down the back side of the Xerox with the oily cotton. The paper darkens, and there is a bit of shine on the copy side where the toner is activated; then I place the paper firmly on the block, cover it with scrap paper, and run it through the press. The Xerox toner transfers to the block, leaving a reversed image on the block, so that the final print looks like my original image.

I then go back over the Xerox with a Sharpie to emphasize the lines, as I do reduction plates and the toner fades a bit after the first printing. In this case, I also used a white pencil to mark out the highlights on the block, to strengthen the design in my mind. Then I carve.

Once I felt good about the placement of the white highlights, I test-printed, cut a bit more, and printed the first color of my edition, in this case burnt umber. You can see in the printed image that I used a stippling technique for this print, made with an etching needle. It was my first experience with stippling, and I was afraid the little holes would get flooded with ink as I printed, but they showed up very nicely.

This woodcut is going to be a light-over-dark reduction print, so I am currently carving from the block all the places that will remain umber; the rest of the print will be a yet-to-be-determined midtone. I’ll post another photo when it is finished, sometime before the end of the month.

Despite of (or perhaps due to) a cold that has kept me somewhat out of commission this week, I was able to make more progress on the Culdesac Vest over the past few days. Last night I finished the left front, and began the considerable finishing for this piece.

At this point I have sewn the shoulder seams, finished the cabley bits that wrap around the back of the neck, and knit the armhole edgings. Next I will work the buttonhole bands around the front, sew the side seams, and weave in ends. Oh, and that whole pesky blocking thing, and finding buttons. If not for that last, I could confidently say that I could be wearing this vest in a week’s time.

Here are some photos (finally!) of the projects I have been working on recently. First is the finished front of Juliet, all blocked and waiting to be seamed:

And here is part of what I worked on this past weekend, the back of the Culdesac Vest:

The above photo doesn’t really show up the lovely cables—I blame it on poor lighting—so I have attempted to tweak a close-up for a better view.

I also finished the right front and have started the left front of this vest. It is coming together nicely, and since I figured out a silly error (my fault) on the first front yesterday evening, I have been cruising along. Reading over the finishing instructions, I am now confident that I will actually be able to finish this project with the needles I have, and may even be able to wear it this fall, assuming that I can find buttons for it.

In finishing the third volume of Sir Charles, I have only a few notes to make. First of all, I was fortunate to be directed to another online version of Sir Charles Grandison, at Blackmask. This version does seem to be somewhat different than the version I am using, but it has saved me some degree of typing time. My version of this volume should be on Project Gutenberg before too long; I’ll provide the link when it is.

As far as the contents of this volume, the main plot of Harriet’s concealed love for Sir Charles continues. She has the wholehearted support of Sir Charles’s sisters, as well as her own family, but continues to feel herself unworthy of his attention. There are some developments in the story of Emily Jervois, Sir Charles’s ward, but the main event is the discovery of Sir Charles’s Italian affair with Clementina della Porretta, an aristocratic young woman from Bologna. As it might be imagined, it is revealed (largely through a series of excerpts from Sir Charles’s previous letters to Dr. Bartlett) that his intentions were entirely honorable, and possibly founded as much—or more—on compassion as love. The revelation (naturally) causes Harriet to take Clementina’s part more than her own.

I found the most interesting aspect of this volume to be the strong references to Shakespeare. Sir Charles first knows Clementina as a sort of voluntary English “tutor,” and Clementina specifically refers to both Hamlet and Twelfth Night, even quoting from the latter. Further than this, however, Clementina’s story seems to have many purposeful parallels to that of Ophelia in Hamlet: torn between her duty to family and religion and her love for the foreign “heretic” Sir Charles, Clementina goes gently mad. Other specific references to Hamlet: Clementina’s parents, on several occasions, arrange for Sir Charles to speak with her, eavesdropping on their conversations first without his knowledge, then with it; later, Clementina, thinking herself refused by Sir Charles, desires to “go her ways to a nunnery.” Very interesting stuff; I haven’t read Twelfth Night yet (sad to say), but I believe one of the characters is called Olivia, as is a spiteful Italian lady in Sir Charles.