Isola by Allegra Goodman.
Narrated in the first person, this novel tells the story of Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval who was a real person who was marooned on an island for defiance. She lived there for 2 years and survived attacks by polar bears. Her story is found in Marguerite of Navarre’s (1492-1549) The Heptameron.
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
A murder mystery set in the 21st century. Narrated in the first person by an ambitious art historian of the Renaissance. Quite a twist at the end. Reminds me of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
Trouble Water by Sharon Shinn
A romantasy. The female protagonist parallels her other ones like Rachel from Archangel. A diverting read in unsettled times.
Kindred by Octavia Butler.
A compelling and disturbing novel about a Black woman pulled back into the antebellum South whenever her white ancestor needs help beginning when the boy is 3 and almost drowns in a river.
Today sitting in the sunshine with my dog curled up beside me, I finished Cecilia Blomdahl’s book Life on Svalbard, in which she documents with photography and words her experience living in the northernmost human town. Svalbard belongs to Norway, but anyone of any nationality can live on Svalbard without a visa provided they secure a job and a dwelling place before arriving. Tourists can come, of course, and stay at one of the hotels.
Blomdahl’s lyrical writing and beautiful photography make me want to book a trip there to experience one of the seasons she describes: Polar Night, Pastel Winter, Sunny Winter, Polar Day, Golden Autumn. I am most fascinated by Polar Night with the chance of seeing the aurora borealis during the DAY!
Here is a link to her website: https://www.ceciliablomdahl.com/svalbard
Atalanta is told from the point of view of the woman in Greek mythology famed for her fleetness of foot and her archery prowess.
Jennifer Saint wrote this one in 2023.
A fast, enjoyable read which sneers at the overly masculine Greek heroic ethos epitomized by Jason of the Argonauts, Herakles, and Peleus (father of Achilles — here the apple does not fall from the tree). Atalanta does find two men (Meleager and Hippomenes) who recognize her as an equal.
Stone Blind (2022) by Natalie Haynes: tells the story of Medusa, the human Gorgon whom Perseus slays to save his mother. Multiple voices and cynical feminism. Medusa and her two immortal Gorgon sisters live apart from all human and divine beings because they have been exiled for their ugliness. The Olympian gods are not favorably depicted — very post-modern critique of them. Especially Athene who is a female vulcan whose intellect makes her incapable (unwilling) to understand or tolerate lesser intelligent beings.
Hera (2024) by Jennifer Saint: tells the story of Hera — her birth, her early goddesshood raised in hiding to protect her from being eaten by her own father, her partnership with Zeus until his meglomania overcame him, her unwilling marriage to Zeus, her desire to punish him for his many betrayals (not just to other women but of the idea of their equality) to her dissolution into modernity as humans stopped worshipping the Greek gods
It would be worthwhile to seek out other books by these two authors.
I want to read books where I know the basic plot. I don’t need my novel reading to hold unpleasant surprises when life right now has more than enough with the current incompetent, chaotic, and destructive administration.
Last year at Maryland Sheep and Wool festival I bought a 5 pound Marino fleece. I scoured the fleece last spring and only just now got around to weighing it. That 5 pound fleece is now 3 pounds.
I can’t believe I washed out 2 pounds of lanolin!
I have carded almost 1 pound of a 5 pound merino fleece, which I bought at the 2024 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Probably when my SH reads this blog (and he reads my posts almost as soon as I publish them) will be yet another confirmation that my STABLE is too big.
Anyway. After carding nearly a pound of wool, I am finally beginning to understand the fleece I bought.
I have developed a process that works for the moment so that carding and spinning an entire fleece does not seem like an impossible undertaking. I focus on 1 ounce or approximately 30 grams at a time.
I weigh an ounce of fiber and then spend about an hour and a half popping the locks and carding them into rolags.
Now when I have a clump of wool, I look for a staple where the wool forms a section — usually between 1-3 inches in width.
If you look in the picture above, do you see that clump that kind of stands apart toward the left? That is what I am looking for. I grasp that section by the cut end and pull it away.
There it is laid out. At the top, you can see the straight edge where the wool was cut from the fleece. At the bottom, you can see the crimped, wavey end of the lock. I separated the cut end a bit so it was more spread out and thus easier to card.
In the picture above, I am popping out the cut end by tapping it into the teeth of the cards and popping it out to separate the fibers. I turn it over and then do the other side of the cut end. Then I flip the lock and pop open the curly end on both sides.
Here is a picture of a lock with one side “popped.” See how the fibers are fanning out and have more air to them?
And here is a picture of a fully loaded comb and the resulting rolags.
I used to think that carding wood was tedious and boring and avoided it whenever possible. The wool I carded never seemed to produce a smooth yarn. Now I finally understand that it was my fiber preparation that was the problem and not my spinning.
I checked out two books from the library and will be returning them today.
The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis. It is a post-feminist, LGBTQ+ retelling of the Eros and Psyche store. The narration alternates between Psyche’s first person and Eros’s third person limited. The author uses Greek mythology to explore threats to 21st century gender expression and identify
Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier. This is first-person narration from a woman who wants to become a physician but is limited by society rules and gender expectations and limitations.
For Christmas, I was gifted with a blending board. This is a tool that fiber folks use to mix wool roving to create unique rolags. There is a term only for fiber artists. A rolag is a cigar of wool made from rolling the wool from hand cards or pulling a cigar of wool from a blending board. A rolag arranges the wool fibers in a tight tube for woolen spinning.
Here is the blending board after loading with three different colors of wool: grey, pink, and mauve.
I used 2 dowels to pull the wool off the board into rolags. I had enough wool to load the blending board twice. By the end of the process, there were 7 rolags ready to spin into yarn.
For the love of spinning
THE JOY OF GARDENING IN THE SHADOWS
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