I was happily rereading Patrick O'Brian's first novel of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin's adventures, as one does, when with one of those curious leaps one's mind occasionally makes, I thought, "I'd like a bit of lace around my neck."
Hence, the "Sophie" scarf. I've had this Filatura di Crosa wool in the drawer for an age, and thought now that it would make an interesting lace, sturdy and delicate at the same time. It reminded me of Jack's first ship, which causes a number of raised eyebrows in the book due to her modest and homely looks -- "the little small squat merchantman with two masts?" as Stephen inelegantly puts it -- but which Jack loves dearly. The lace is not a flashy one, but comfortable, like the Sophie herself, who "spread her wings more like an unhurried dove than an eager hawk" (ch.2).
The lace patterns, from Nancie Wiseman’s Lace From the Attic (Interweave Press, 1998) are easily memorized and worked -- I liked the way they went together so easily, the echo of the edging's holes in the main pattern.
The pattern is available here.
"Jack let her pay off until the flurry was over, and then, as he began to bring her back, his hands strong on the spokes, so he came into direct contact with the living essence of the sloop: the vibration beneath his palm, something between a sound and a
flow, came straight up from her rudder, and it joined with the innumerable rhythms, the creak and humming of her hull and rigging. The keen clear wind swept in on his left cheek, and as he bore on the helm so the Sophie answered, quicker and more nervous than he expected. Closer and closer to the wind. They were all staring up and forward: at last, in spite of the fiddle-tight bowline, the foretopgallantsail shivered, and Jack eased off. ‘East by north, a half north,’ he observed with satisfaction" (Master and Commander, ch.2).
So fun to see another knitter who enjoys the Aubrey Maturin books!
Posted by: Lydia | March 31, 2009 at 07:35 PM