more victorian mayhem

So as part of my rather sudden obsession with comics/graphic novels (I blame reading Watchmen on a recent 10 hour train journey and just being OMG NEED MORE at the end of it), I am currently reading this:


The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
WHY have I not read this before? It's almost as if while I was asleep Alan Moore crept into my brain, extracted everything I love, and then wrote a comic about it. It's got the lot: laudanum! Urchins! Shady dealings in Victorian London! Mina Murray and her red scarf! Mechanical squid ship! Home for Wayward Girls! The Rue Morgue!
And I'm not even halfway through volume 1 yet! Better get the smelling salts.....

Dickensian Urchin Mitts

Fingerless Mitts
Originally uploaded by miss_reecie

When I was growing up in England my Aunt Sue used to baby-sit me on Saturday mornings when my parents were working at the Petticoat Lane Markets in London. We used to play lots of board games, but our favourite was The Dickens Game. I used to read a lot too and she had a beautiful first edition of A Child's History of England which I always admired. Years later I finally managed to find this wonderful edition in Berkelouw Books.

It seemed a fitting match for these mitts which I whipped up over the weekend in between essay writing. They're the Garter Stitch Mitts from Ysolda Teague. I used Grignasco Tango (the poor woman's Rowan Felted Tweed) in grey for added urchin-ness, and still have about a third of the ball left. The concept of grafting 42 garter stitches quite frankly terrified me (i hate grafting) but it was surprisingly easier than stockinette grafting, and looks really neat.

So now I'm off to beg for pie. "I'd kiss you but doctor says I'm sick".

Pass the Laudanum

In my ongoing quest to become a Victorian urchin, for my next knit I'm going to whip up some of these Garter Stitch Mitts which will no doubt be useful to wear while begging for pie at people's windows on my way to the workhouse.

Also I'm making a mad dash to Kinokuniya in my lunch break tomorrow to pick up some recommended steampunk fiction. It's in the young adult section, but lately I've been enjoying young adult stuff a lot, perhaps because my poor little brain can't really take in much else after days reading High Court cases. Anyway, the books I'll be purchasing are: -

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick which is about an orphan living in a Paris train station, featuring automatons and mad scientists or something, as well as being an homage of sorts to Georges Melies (woo!)
  
• Mortal Engines (Vol 1 of the Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve, which is set in post-apocalyptic Victorian London and features lots of zeppelins and mad explorers.

Any steampunk aficionados out there? Has anyone read these, or have any other steampunk recommendations? It has rapidly become my new favourite subgenre.

the screw is turning

it would appear i can't seem to get enough of these faux victorian knitwear designs. this is Darcy from the new Kim Hargreaves book, the Dark House Collection. it already has me conjuring up mad scenarios involving hauntings, laudanum, shadowy religious figures.....and several hanks of black cotton.