Faerie Knitting Page 8
That day finally came one autumn. She was told she was going to the market in the next town, but that was untrue, and if anything was to be sold, it was she. The cart kept on through the woods. The world was orange and gold and red. The niece was marveling over the great beauty of the countryside when all at once everything changed. A wall ringed a wicked land. There was dark magic here, and no birds flew in the trees; every woodland creature hid at the approach of the cart.
At last they came to a walled tower. The stones were the color of blood.
What is this place? she asked the driver.
Your husband’s house, he said.
It was an arranged marriage. The uncle would have his gold and the husband would have his bride and she would have no say in the matter. She was taken into the tower over a path of stones that cried when you stepped on them. She lowered her eyes as she was introduced to her husband-to-be. He was very old, and his mouth turned down. He had already had three wives who had displeased him, but they were gone, and he looked pleased as punch when she came toward him. He appreciated her long black hair, her dark eyes, her youth. She insisted there had been a mistake; the situation was impossible, unthinkable. But no, she was the bride-to-be. He had the contract signed by her uncle in hand.
She was given a room where her wedding dress had already been hung in the closet and her wedding shoes were beside the bed. The dress was red and the shoes were crimson rather than white, and she could tell they had been worn by her predecessors. There were tears on the sleeves and blonde hairs on the collar, and on the soles of the shoes there was a thin layer of mud. She thought about escaping, but the windows were locked and the latch on the door would not be moved. When her dinner was brought up, she questioned the housemaid about her husband-to-be.
A terrible man, the housemaid said. A hunter.
What does he hunt? the niece asked.
The housemaid was old enough to be the girl’s mother, and she had a kind heart. Out of pity she took the girl to a great hall. There were the pelts of bears and wolves. He keeps them as pets; then, when he’s bored, he skins them.
In a cage, a fox was chained and starved.
The niece couldn’t abide seeing a creature treated so.
Tell the man who is to be my husband I want the fox as my pet. In return, I will never say an unkind word to him.
The fox was brought to her room that evening. She signed a contract that she would never speak ill of her husband once they had married, then she took the fox from his cage and gave him milk and bread. He looked at her with dark eyes filled with gratitude. That night he slept at her feet.
The housemaid came to her the following morning. The older woman hadn’t slept a wink all night. There is one thing I haven’t told you, she confided. He is a hunter of women as well. He has destroyed everyone who has ever been near him. What do you think happened to his other wives? They were married in red to hide the scars they would carry.
Would no one defy him? the girl asked.
Where do you think the members of his family who opposed him are today? I am one of them. I am his sister, yet look what I have become.
The girl brooded then, and shed some tears. There was no way to run. She would be spied by the old man’s watchmen if she tried to flee.
Not if you’re invisible, the housemaid said.
How is that possible?
Impossible things are possible here. That is the danger of the place. But it may be your salvation.
The housemaid brought leaves from the trees in the woods and a pair of knitting needles. No one will see you if you are a tree, she said.
The wedding was the next day, so the niece knitted all through the night. When she was done she had made a hood the color of the elms and the oaks in the forest. The housemaid brought her to a secret door, but before she unlocked it, the housemaid wanted one promise: the niece must take the fox with her. She kissed the housemaid’s cheek and promised she would. Then she and the fox went through the door.
It was the hour before light opened the sky. They went as quickly as they could, the fox leading the way through the twists and turns of the forest, across meadows and hills. When the sun at last began to rise, the niece slipped on the hood she had knitted, and in that instant she disappeared. She was invisible to the eyes of the guards who had been sent to find her. She might as well have been an elm or an oak, a stand of trees moving in the wind.
She might have lost her way a thousand times if it hadn’t been for her companion. At last they came to the wall that kept the dark magic contained. The fox scrambled up and the niece followed, and once they were on the other side she took her hood off and the fox could see her as the woman she was, and she could see him as a handsome man, the nephew of the one who had once been her groom-to-be, who ruled a land that became nothing more than a memory as she and the housemaid’s son walked hand in hand toward town.
Invisible Hood
DIFFICULTY: Advanced beginner
MATERIALS
Noro Kureyon Air (109yd/100m, 3.5oz/100g) 100% Wool, 2 skeins in color #263 Tomato, Black, Brown.
Or any bulky-weight yarn that meets gauge.
Approximately 1yd/1m of thinner yarn in matching color for seaming hem of hood.
Size 11 (8.0mm) needles or size to obtain gauge.
Additional needle for 3-needle bind off.
Darning needle.
One 5/8"/15mm button.
SIZES
One size (see Knitting Wisdom).
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
19"/48cm circumference at neck, 28"/71cm circumference at top, 181/4"/46.5cm length.
GAUGE
91/2 sts x 15 rows = 4"/10cm in Stockinette stitch, after blocking.
Take time to check your gauge.
Knitting Wisdom
There is no need to work a buttonhole, as the stitches are big, and wool will stretch to allow a button through.
The pattern is written in one generous size. To make this smaller, maybe to fit a child or just to be a bit snugger, switch to a worsted-weight yarn. To make it even more generous and billowy, stay with a bulky yarn but use a larger needle for a looser gauge.
STITCH GUIDE
For abbreviations, stitches, and techniques, see Glossary.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cast on 80 sts.
Row 1 (RS): K2, *k1, p4; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3.
Row 2 (WS): K2, p1, *k4, p1; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.
Rep rows 1 and 2 once more.
Decrease on next RS row as follows: K2, *k1, p1, p2tog, p1; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3. 65 sts.
Next row (WS): K2, p1, *k3, p1; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.
Next row (RS): K2, *k1, p3; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3.
Work next WS row even as established.
Decrease on next RS row as follows: K2, *k1, p1, p2tog; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3. 50 sts.
Next row (WS): K2, p1, *k2, p1; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.
Next row (RS): K2, *k1, p2; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3.
Work even for 3 more rows.
Decrease on next RS row as follows: K2, *k1, p2tog; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3. 35 sts.
Next row (WS): K2, p1, *k1, p1; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.
Next row (RS): K2, *k1, p1; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3.
Work even for 3 more rows.
Increase on next RS row as follows: K2, M1, *k3, M1; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3. 46 sts.
Next row (WS): K2, purl to last 2 sts, k2.
Next row (RS): Knit.
Work next WS row even as established.
Begin front hood increases on next RS row as follows: K2, yo, knit to last 2 sts, yo, k2. 2 sts increased.
Next row (WS): K2, purl to last 2 sts, k2.
Rep last 2 rows 9 more times. 66 sts.
Work even, maintaining 2 st garter edges, for 24 rows.
FINISHING
Divide sts evenly in half onto 2 needles and fold hood with RS together. Join top of hood with
3-needle bind off. Darn ends. Where hood frames face, fold garter edge to inside and, using thinner yarn and darning needle, sew hem, starting from first yarn over increase row at left side and ending at first yarn over increase row on right side.
Sew button to right side, just above collar on garter edge.
Chapter 14
Thorn
er baby was asleep in the cradle when there was a knock on the door. It was late, and the night was dark, and the dog growled. But the knocking went on. It just wouldn’t stop. It echoed down the hall. The mother didn’t want the baby to wake, so she answered the door. She knew as soon as she did it that it was a mistake. The wind was cold, the leaves were piled up at the door, and there wasn’t a star in the sky.
A woman had come to call, one the baby’s mother had never seen before. She introduced herself as a new neighbor. Would it be possible for her to visit and have a cup of tea? Nothing fancy, but with a bit of sugar and milk? It was late, too late for visitors, but snow had begun to fall, and the kindhearted mother invited her guest in even though the room had grown colder in her presence. The stranger wore a black cape and her hair was held up with a silver pin in the shape of a branch of thorns. She looked young at first, but if you gazed at her through narrowed eyes she appeared to be old. She was so grateful to be taken in. She was lost, she said, and needed to get her bearings. Still the dog growled low in his throat, the way he did when there were wolves nearby.
The baby was asleep in her cradle. She was beautiful and sweet, a treasure her mother was grateful for each and every day. Most visitors cooed and rejoiced over the baby’s charms, but the visitor said nothing. She didn’t even glance in the baby’s direction. She didn’t have to. She had been watching her through the windows for days.
The dog had begun to bark and needed to be tied up. The mother offered a comfortable chair to her guest, then she went to put the kettle on. In the time it took to do that and return with two cups of tea, the baby was gone. The dog stood in the doorway and howled. He pulled until he broke his leash so he could run across the snowy field. The mother chased after the dog in a panic. He tracked the baby to a house far away, on the other side of the woods, in a place so dark no one ever went there. It was surrounded by thorns, impassable. The mother did her best to get through, but her hands were cut to pieces and she was forced to back away weeping.
She ran to the house of her sisters, the dog at her heels. They heard her story, then told her what she must do. She must take the thorn trees and grind them into powder that must be added to a pot of dye that was the color of roses. She was then to knit and dye a blanket, one they vowed would always protect her child.
The mother did as she was told. When she was done, and the blanket was completed, she ran until she reached the edge of the woods filled with thorn trees. It was still impassable. The mother called to a crow to take the blanket to her baby, but how could a bird wrap a child in its wings? She called to a rabbit that darted under the thorns, but how could a rabbit whisper to her child not to cry? As she stood there, a soldier rode by, dressed all in metal. He was done with wars and was looking for a different sort of life, so he stopped and went to the young mother and asked how he might offer his help.
She told him her story and handed him the blanket, made of thorns and roses and her own tears. At that moment he realized he had found the life he wanted. He left the horse behind and made his way into the forest. It was dark and darker still. The thorns hit against his armor. Each time this happened he heard a ping that meant go back, but he went forward instead. Soon he came to a clearing in which there was a house made of black stones, surrounded by black rosebushes that had no flowers, only thorns. He looked in the window and spied the baby in a cradle and a very old woman, older than the thorn trees. She was asleep when he came through the door, so without a word he picked up the baby and wrapped her in the blanket that would ensure she would never come to harm.
When he brought the baby out of the forest, the look on her mother’s face made him fall in love with her. At night the child dreamed of the day when she’d been found, when she was placed in her mother’s arms as the tangle of thorns disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. She slept with the blanket until she had a child of her own, and then every night she wrapped up her own daughter, making certain she was always protected from harm.
Thorn Blanket
DIFFICULTY: Intermediate
MATERIALS
Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash (220yd/200m, 100g/3.5oz) 100% Superwash Wool, 8 skeins in color #902 Soft Pink.
Or any worsted-weight yarn that meets gauge (see Knitting Wisdom).
Size 8 (5.0mm) 32"/80cm needles or size to obtain gauge.
Stitch markers.
Darning needle.
SIZES
One size (see Knitting Wisdom).
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
39"/99cm width, 41"/104cm length.
GAUGE
22 sts x 28 rows = 4"/10cm in Thorn Blanket stitch, after blocking.
Take time to check your gauge.
Knitting Wisdom
Place markers for 2 garter selvedge stitches on each side of row 1 of edge ribbing.
Place pattern repeat markers after edge ribbing on set-up row, then slip markers in all following rows.
Blanket cast on is 2 selvedge stitches + multiple of 20 + 9 + 2 selvedge stitches. To resize blanket, add or remove stitches in multiples of 20.
A smaller version of this blanket is shown in Pale Aqua. I used String Breeze, a cotton/silk/cashmere blend, for this version and cast on 153 stitches for a finished blanket measuring 28"/71cm × 33"/84cm.
For baby blankets, refer to yarn label for washing instructions. I suggest washing before gifting. Use a lingerie bag and wash on gentle cycle to keep the blanket from stretching out of shape. Run in dryer until damp, then lay flat to dry if fiber allows or roll in towel first to eliminate moisture, then lay flat to dry. Include the lingerie bag and a note with easy washing instructions with the gift.
STITCH GUIDE
3/3 LC (3 Over 3 Left Cross)
Slip 3 sts to cable needle and hold to front, k3, k3 from cable needle.
3/3 RC (3 Over 3 Right Cross)
Slip 3 sts to cable needle and hold to back, k3, k3 from cable needle.
For more stitches, abbreviations, and techniques, see Glossary.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cast on 213 sts. Work edge ribbing as follows:
Row 1 (RS): K2, place selv marker, *k1, p1; rep from * to last 3 sts, k1, place selv marker, k2.
Row 2 (WS): K2, sm, *p1, k1; rep from * to last 3 sts, p1, sm, k2.
Row 3: Rep row 1.
Row 4: Rep row 2.
Row 5: Rep row 1.
Set up for Thorn Blanket stitch on next WS row as follows: K2, sm, [p1, k1] 4 times, p1, *pm, k1, p9, pm, [k1, p1] 5 times; rep from * 9 more times, sm, k2.
Change to Thorn Blanket stitch, working Thorn Blanket Chart between selv markers, or follow written pattern as follows:
Row 1 (RS): K2, *[k1b (see Glossary), p1] 5 times, k3, 3/3 RC, p1; rep from * 9 more times, [k1b, p1] 4 times, k1b, k2.
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 (WS): K2, [p1, k1] 4 times, p1, *k1, p9, [k1, p1] 5 times; rep from * 9 more times, k2.
Row 3: K2, *[k1b, p1] 5 times, k9, p1; rep from * 9 more times, [k1b, p1] 4 times, k1b, k2.
Row 5: K2, *[k1b, p1] 5 times, 3/3 LC, k3, p1; rep from * 9 more times, [k1b, p1] 4 times, k1b, k2.
Row 7: Rep row 3.
Row 9: Rep row 1.
Row 11: Rep row 3.
Row 13: Rep row 5.
Row 14: K2, p9, [k1, p9] 20 times, k2.
Row 15: K2, *k3, 3/3 RC, p1, [k1b, p1] 5 times; rep from * 9 more times, k3, 3/3 RC, k2.
Rows 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26: K2, p9, *[k1, p1] 5 times, k1, p9; rep from * 9 more times, k2.
Row 17: K2, *k9, p1, [k1b, p1] 5 times; rep from * 9 more times, k11.
Row 19: K2, *3/3 LC, k3, p1, [k1b, p1] 5 times; rep from * 9 more times, 3/3 LC, k5.<
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Row 21: Rep row 17.
Row 23: Rep row 15.
Row 25: Rep row 17.
Row 27: Rep row 19.
Row 28: K2, p9, [k1, p9] 20 times, k2.
Rep rows 1–28 of Thorn Blanket stitch 8 more times.
Work rows 1–27 of Thorn Blanket stitch once more.
Change to edge ribbing and remove markers on next WS row:
Row 1 (WS): K2, *p1, k1; rep from * to last 3 sts, p1, k2.
Row 2 (RS): K2, *k1, p1; rep from * to last 3 sts, k3.
Row 3: Rep row 1.
Row 4: Rep row 2.
Row 5: Rep row 1.
Bind off in pattern on next RS row.
FINISHING
Darn ends. Wash blanket gently before gifting or using (see Knitting Wisdom).
Thorn Blanket Chart
Rows 14 and 28 are highlighted as a reminder that they are different from previous WS rows.
Thorn Blanket Chart Key
About the Authors
Author photo by Deborah Feingold
Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman is the New York Timesxs bestselling author of more than thirty works of acclaimed fiction, including The Rules of Magic, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers. She has been in love with fairy tales since she began to read. Connect with Alice at AliceHoffman.com, on Instagram (@ahoffmanwriter), on Twitter (@ahoffmanwriter), or on Facebook (@AliceHoffmanAuthor).