Story? On a Wednesday? No Way!

(Last sentence of last entry) I'm off track again, I'm sorry. Where was I? Oh, my father had decided I would marry one of his war buddies and I was about to bolt... Chapter the Third in which Plans are Set in Motion and Much Theivery Occurs The man they had chosen for me was nice enough but he was easily three times my age. I think they chose him because he was the most tolerant man my father knew and he had been a widower for some time. He already had his heirs established, they chose him because they didn't think I could screw up his life. They underestimated me. Now, I suppose I should take a moment here, Beatrix, to say that my parents didn't hate me. I know it seems like I was only a problem to them but that's not how it was. I think in a small way I reminded my father of himself a bit. I think I may have even been his favorite. The thing was, I really was a troublemaker. I was constantly causing problems. It's a wonder my parents didn't send me off as soon as they could. Anyhow they had made tennative arrangements to marry me off and I wasn't about to do it. I stole some supplies from my father's army: a bedroll, water bags, some better knives, saddle bags, a short sword, some of the pages' clothes and such. It took all my best trickery and the better part of two months to get it all. I packed my treasures in the saddle bags, those I couldn't bear to part with: my knitting needles, a few bits of ribbons and some combs for my rebellious hair, a few special trinkets and jewelry (if I had to I could use it to barter with), and one dress. Once I knew I had everything I needed (apart from the food and water which would be easy enough to come by when the timing was right) I set about the two most difficult parts of my task: contacting Penryn and securing a horse. As it turned out contacting Penryn was easier than it should have been. By sheer coincidence the message I sent went by way of a messenger with a serious drinking problem. He ran into her in a tavern only three townships away. Neither of them should have been there (I had, in fact, sent him in the opposite direction) but there you have it. She didn't bother to send a message back with the drunken messenger but instead snuck into town and let her sister in the kitchen know of her presence and to alert me that she wished to speak with me. Durring the nine days it took the messenger to get to her I was busy. I was trying to figure out where I would go if I couldn't contact Penryn and when I should give up on her and bolt. I knew it could take months and that if I had to leave before she knew about it I may not ever be able to reach her. Being young I decided not to worry about that (luckily I didn't have to but I didn't know that yet) and I started watching the stables for a time when a horse could be stolen. Now, I've told you that we were central in this war-mongering that was going on to fight off the Northerners but I may not have told you why. I'm getting lost in my narrative, Beatrix. Don't worry though the boring set up is almost over and the action and romance is about to start. The reason why we were so central was partly because of our location and partly because we had the best horses and horsemen. So as you can imagine, the horse were guarded very well. To well for me to get my hands on one without an accomplice within the guard. I needed help and then it finally dawned on me that I might be able to convince Bolan. I didn't want him to get in trouble so I had to come up with a plan to get the horse on someone else's watch perhaps using him as a distraction. No matter what the plan I was sure it would take some convincing so I started in on him right away. The next time I went down to the stables I pulled him aside. Nothing suspicious there since I was about the only person who could stand him and often enlisted his help for things like elaborate practical jokes on pompous army captains. I told you I was trouble. We were good enough that though everyone knew it was one or both of us no one could ever prove it. Not even a little bit. Anyway, I told him how I planned to leave and that I had everything I needed except the horse. "You want me to help you steal a horse?" he asked, scrunching up his eyebrows like he was in pain. "Well... yes I suppose that's what it ammounts to," I replied as stoically as possible. "Do you know how hard it would be to steal a horse from here?" he countered, roll9ing his eyes a bit. "Moderately?" I asked feigning ignorance. "Oh, moderately. Moderately. Mmm-hmm. Alright, no problem then," was the snarky response. "So? Will you help me do it? It would be a challenge," I said attempting to bait him. "Of course I will. You know I can't resist the oppertunity to make any of the captains look rediculous. In fact, I already have a plan..." And did he ever, Beatrix! Not only did he have a plan that could get me a horse but it would completely humiliate the Horse Captain who was a drunk jerk most of the time (to clarify, the rest of the time he was a lecherous twit). Actually, it wasn't much of a plan. It was mostly just drugging the Horse Captain so that we could take a horse on his watch but still, there was a bit of cunning that would be involved in getting a whole horse out of the grounds unseen, or rather, unnoticed. So, as you can see, when Penryn's sister gave me word of her presence, I was already ready to go but Penryn had concerns. She was afraid that I wouldn't be prepared for life outside of a palace. She was afraid that I might treat her as a servant. She was afraid my father might think I was kidnapped or that if he found out I was with her she would be in serious trouble. I did my best to ease her concerns and after a few days I convinced her. I told her of my plan to not be noticed and how I had already made plans to get a horse. She told me of a few other things I should pack and that we should be on our way as soon as possible since sooner or later someone would discover that she was around. Everything was going pretty much according to my plan. In fact everything went perfectly until I had made it just outside of town, horse and all. That's when it all started to fall apart... (Chapter Two, Chapter Four)

Ta-Da! More Story!

Chapter the Second, in Which we learn Penryn Really is a Witch and a few Marriages are Arranged The whole town was as busy as I had ever seen it. New troops were arriving all the time and all my sisters were busy trying to choose the most handsome captains for their husbands. All the while I was just so excited to see Penryn again and to show her what I had done. What she had to show me, however was even more impressive: a garment made with a special yarn, not so fine as that for stockings, that the men were to wear under their armor. She told us that it was made with a special charm in it to protect them from harm. It was true, Penryn was a witch and we were very glad to have her on our side. The secret to this new garment was in the song. Do you remember how I told you Penryn taught me songs that contained the patterns so I would remember them? Well, that's not all the songs did. Each different song contained different charms, some would make the wearer more beautiful, others helped them find contentment, still others were for luck, or wealth. What Penryn had done was found a way to intergrate several of these charms together along with one of protection in a simply spendid tunic that the men could wear under their armour. I don't know how well they believed her that they would be protected but since these new garments fit better than their baggy tunics and the winter in the North where the would be fighting was quite harsh, they were happy to receive them. It was such an exciting season, there were weddings to prepare for. Several of the ladies in the court were getting married as well as two of my sisters. No, my oldest sister did not marry Durrow, she was too old for him according to my parents. She married another ally's son and was soon gone to have heirs or whatever it was that my sisters did when they married. My second sister was married to a man that provided horses to my father, as I remember she was completely in love with him and we were all very happy for her. "What about the handsome prince?! Prince Durrow?" Beatrix blurted out. "I'm getting to it, dear." Durrow was very upset at the loss of my sister. He really did fancy her and was not thrilled that my father thought he was too young for her. He vowed that he would not marry anyone from our court... But he didn't exactly announce it, he just became very withdrawn. When the troops were rallied and the war began he was more than ready to go and prove himself, in a tunic that I had knit, no less. I only finnished three tunics before the men left for the war: one for Durrow, one for my father, and one that I made first which was full of mistakes because of the intricacies of the pattern. That one I gave to one of the pages that was always goofing around and made us laugh, Bolan (first one, first column). I had no idea whether or not it would protect him but it was better than nothing and he was a nice guy so I gave it to him. After so long with all those extra people around it was mind numbingly dull when they all left, taking with them a good half of the men and boys from our own land. I didn't realize then that not all of them would come back. I thought they would go, fight their war, and all come home in a few weeks or maybe months. But they were fighting the savage Northerners and they were gone for eight months, home for one and then gone again. It was a long boring time that I likely don't need to go into detail about since that isn't the point of this story. "Beatrix, what did you want me to tell you about? You've got me reminicing now and I've lost my point." "You were going t tell me the story about how you learned to knit and how Grandpa slayed a dragon to build your house out of it's scales." "Ah, yes. Then I'll skip a bit." Penryn came and went teaching me not only knitting charms but some other useful things like medicines and how to find water with a pendulum on long journeys. My father and his armies subdued the Northerners, or at least beat them back to where they weren't a threat. All the men who wore the tunics Penryn and I had made came home no worse for the wear, and speaking our praises. By this time I think two years had gone by, maybe three. I'm too old now to remember. Anyhow, time had gone by and my mother was starting to fear that I was getting too old to be married off. I didn't really want to be married off but I wasn't thrilled with my current life either so I decided to wait and see who they'd chosen and if I didn't like the match I figured that I would go off with Penryn or something. I had no idea what the real world was like or what kind of crazy trouble I was in for. Or the kind of trouble that I was about to get others into, namely Durrow, Penryn, and Bolan. I wonder if I had known then what I know now, would I risk their lives to escape a life of boredom? It hardly seems fair. How selfish I was! I'm off track again, I'm sorry. Where was I? Oh, my father had decided I would marry one of his war buddies and I was about to bolt... More on Thursday! Sorry, if this one wasn't up to snuff but I was having trouble getting into it today. Plus, I'm hungry! I need breakfast! (Chapter One, Chapter Three)

The story continues:

Chapter One, in which Grandma learns to knit and we meet a handsome prince. When I was a girl I didn't spin yarn or wind it into balls for my grandmother like you do, Beatrix. When I was a girl I did embroidery and I did it badly. Likely as badly as I would do it now, blind as a bat, because I hated it. I hated everything I was supposed to do because most of it was boring to me and the parts that weren't boring, like learning to read, were wasted on the most rediculous subjects. One day, in my twelfth year, after I had bled on yet another piece of expensive fabric because I was distracted during my "work", my nurse had enough and sent me down to the ovens to learn to help with meal preperation. She thought after a dreary afternoon of difficult and heavy work I'd be glad to embroider the next day. She was wrong. Instead I learned the fun of baking bread, or rather, playing with bread dough. Soon I was spending all my time helping with stews, learning to skin small game, and of course playing in the bread dough. I became the charge of the head of the kitchen who recognized some small talent in me and decided to introduce me, covertly, to her sister. Penryn (third row, center) was an anomally to me. She was young, pretty enough, but had no husband and no children. She rode her own horse. She was different from any woman I had seen yet in my short life. She was also the purveyor of special goods that sent the whole kingdom into a frenzy whenever she came through: knitted hose. My dear Beatrix, in those days knitting was very new to us. All our cloth was woven, which was fine for a good many things, but the knitted hose were clearly supperior. So much so that people were willing to trade almost anything for a knitted garment even though they had to trade with Penryn who was... less than respectable, some even said she was a witch. So of course I liked her right away since my boring nursemaids and mother didn't (though they bought much of her goods) and as it turned out she liked me also. I reminded Penryn of herself a bit, I think, and she was all too happy to show me how to do this craft of hers. She stayed with her sister for several weeks showing me the basics of how to knit and teaching me special songs that would help me learn the stitch patterns. Finally, though, it was time for her to move on. She had exotic places to go and get supplies for her next batch of finery (those goods would change the whole future of everyone in the kingdom but I'll get to that later). Before Penryn left she presented a gift to parents, a case of knitting needles. Some were made from a dark black wood no one in our kingdom had ever seen and topped with little figures of animals carved from bone and others were made from wood that was striped, those had a point at each end. My father graciously accepted the gift from the strange woman but said to her that they were of no use as we didn't know the secrets of her craft. She told him that the needles were magic and that they would choose who truly owned them, that they should belong to whomever could use them. She tricked my father based on her reputation and it worked like a charm. She knew they'd never give a precious treasure like that, however useless to them, to an unruly girl without good reason. Soon enough it was like that Arthur and the sword in the stone that they speak of in the west, who could use the needles? I knew they wouldn't let me try since I was young and they had little faith in my ability to do anything but cause trouble so I came up with a plan. I did a great deal of hiding and sneaking and spontaneous hugging to get ahold of all threee keys needed to get into the wing, the room, and the case that the needles were held in. I waited until the night before the next big attempt to find a woman who could use them (it didn't even occur to them that some man might be able to use them, like the men who make all the fishnets, I'm sure they could have figured it out with a little time). I snuck in with a ball of fine wool I had taken right out of the waever's basket. I selected a set of needles and cast on, hoping I could remeber all that Penryn had taught me. I knitted and sang my pattern song, working as quickly as my clumsy little fingers would allow. My mistakes were few thanks to the song and by the time I fell asleep I had several inches of a tube that would become my very first stocking. It wasn't thin and fine like Penryn's because all I had was wool, not the slick thin fiber that she used, but I thought it would get my point across. Morning came and with it the bustle of everyone's early work. I had gone missing in the night so the women were frantically looking for me before my mother found out that I was gone. It didn't take long for mother to hear of it and join in the search adding more of the house staff to the task. In my father's realm it was a day as usual but with the small bonus of having just about every woman in the kingdom parade through the stronghold in their finest dress. There was training of troops to be done, however, and he had recieved a new group from an ally that included that regent's son. It was very important business to train and look after the boy since he was a probable husband for one of my sisters (certainly not for me, I was no prize and this was a good ally perhaps even a friend). It was he who finally found me, lost as he was, on his way to find my father. Durrow was everything you would expect from a handsome prince. Except he wasn't tall. He was still young, five years older than I, he still had a little height yet to acheive, though when he did he was still not the tallest man but not the shortest either. He was lean from training and riding. His hair was dark but streaked a bit from the sun, clear tanned skin, and shining eyes. If he had found anyone of my sisters I'm sure they would have been caught in those eyes, they would have been stricken with his handsome face but not I. "What are you doing in here?" I asked this stranger. "I'm looking for King Samus, I was told he was this way," he replied with a smile. "It looks as though I'm lost. What are you doing?" "It doesn't concern you. What should concern you is being found all alone with the King's young daughter who went missing last night. I'm sure the whole place is in a tizzy looking for me." "Ah, it's you they're looking for," he cocked his head to the side and his smile grew, "with all the hustle I thought they were looking for someone important." "No, they're looking for someone who is a constant source of trouble. Why else would they be in such a hurry? They must hide me before people start arriving to try the needles." "So Miss Trouble, what are you doing? Sabotage of some kind?" "No, smart guy, I was trying the needles myself. With much more success than anyone else." "Really?" "Yes really," I held up my work to show him. "Well done. Now if you could just point me in the direction of your father, I'll get out of your way." "I have no idea where he is." "Good, thank you," he said stile with that insipid smile and turned and left, stopping in the hall to tell where I was and ask directions to my father. I'd like to say that what happened next was that everyone came running in to see what I had done and lauded me as a hero and that Durrow was won over by my beauty and obvious skill and we all lived happily ever after but that's not what happened. What did happen was that my nurse came in and scolded me followed by my mother who scolded me. When I showed them my work they were amazed for a number of reasons but decided not to change the day's plans. They just had me go through the line with everyone else. I did get the needles and to me they were magic. They gave me freedom. Freedom from embroidery and kitchen work. They let me do what I wanted and go where I wanted, within a few limits. I was finally someone other than just a troublemaker. I saw much of Durrow that year, as he lived with us, and I grew to like him though he was smug. He took a fancy to my oldest sister and came to me often to find out what to say to her or give to her. There was quite a bit of training going on and new groups of men and boys arrived all the time to meet with my father and learn to ride and train their horses like he trained his. I had no idea this was because there was a coming threat, I just thought it was good fortune to have new people to meet with new stories to tell. The year went by very quickly and soon I was accomplished at making crude stockings and breeches for my newest sibling. Before we knew it, Penryn came back to trade with us and she had something new, something that would become very important... See you back next week! (Prologue Link, Chapter Two Link)

Knitting a Soap Opera

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for awhile, a weekly serial that I post on my blog. I've had the first paragraph taunting me for quite some time and I think I'm just going to go for it. Clearly those who read my blog like reading. Most of you like knitting. I'm sure one or two of you may think I'm funny. Roll that all together and it's the perfect audience for my story of a knitting grandma (don't worry, she's not JUST a knitting grandma, and she's not a stereotype either) and how she got to where she is. The story takes place in an imaginary land in an imaginary time because I don't want to do any research. Suffice to say it's an Arthurian, middle ages, type feel I'm going for. Also all the characters will be named for patterns or yarns whose links will be given upon the character's first appearence. With no further ado the story: The prolouge, in which we learn very little but much set-up is acheived. "Knit, knit, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, knit, knit, purl..." the clear voice chanted as she worked through a pattern she had memorized in her youth. Even though she could no longer see she still always knit the sweaters outside in the sunlight, just like the other women who needed the light to see the complex patterns work up in the traditonal dark grey yarn that was spun in the village. When she sat out on the porch she felt like she could still see the land around her since it never changed. The marsh not far off, full of the sounds of birds, and the rolling hills to the south from which her granddaughter would soon come. The familiar sounds and smells of her home were enough for her to remember the last time she had seen it years before. It was the last thing she had seen and though sh'ed never seen her granddaughter's face she didn't regret it. "Grandma!" came the call from the hills, Beatrix was coming. "Grandma!" she called again, she was deffinately in a tizzy about something. "What's the matter Beatrix?" "Grandma! Grandpa called you a witch! Grandpa called you a witch!" the little girl threw herself down next to her grandmother, completelty out of breath now that she had used the last of it to tattle on her ornery grandfather. "Oh he did, did he? What else did he say?" "Grandpa said that I'm a princess because you used to be a princess but that now you're just an old haggy swamp witch that curses everybody!" "Oh really?" she chocked back a chuckle. "I think Grandpa was pulling your leg, Beatrix. Have you ever seen me curse anybody?" "No." "And do I look like a haggy old swamp witch?" "No but sometimes in town I hear people say there's a swamp witch." "Okay, I'll tell you the truth, I am a swamp witch but I only do nice things for the people in town, I don't curse anyone. I just knit out here by the marsh, how could that be any harm to anyone?" "I guess it's not." "Good girl, now you wind up that new wool into a ball for the Swamp Witch would you?" "Yes Grandma." The girl happily went to work winding away at the rough grey wool that had been delivered since her last visit. Soon the two were in a good rhythm, Beatrix's little hands turning a basket of skeins into a basket of balls and Grandma the Swamp Witch making quick work of the sweater she was making for a boy about to become a soldier. Beatrix would hum a tune and Grandma would chant her pattern. Finally, little Beatrix couldn't contain herself anymore. "Grandma?" "Yes Beatrix?" "Were you really a princess?" "Grandpa says a lot of things dear, not many of them are altogether true." "Is your house really made of dragon scales?" "What?" "Grandpa told me your house looks funny because it's made out of dragon scales. He said he slayed a dragon and made your house out of so it could never burn down." "He told you what?" Grandma was clearly irate. "He slayed a dragon? He told you he slayed a dragon? Well, Beatrix, I guess it's time you heard the truth. I did used to be a princess and how I got here by the marsh, married to your grandpa is a very long story." "I have time Grandma, I have lots of yarn to wind still and a whole basket of fleece to spin when I'm done with that," Beatrix said quickly, trying to contain her excitement at the prospect of being a possible princess. "Alright, I'll start at the beggining when I was a princess. Before I even learned to knit which is what changed my life forever..." Tune in again next week for chapter one! (Later Edit: Here's a direct link to Chapter One)