Wonder Woman's big news

by Teresa Murphy

Working so closely with Superman, Wonderwoman felt the tension growing. It was only a matter of time before they professed their undying love for each other. Now that the honeymoon has ended, Wonderwoman has a special surprise for Superman. How does she tell him the big news? With a miniature knitted superman outfit, that's how!


Knitted with size 1 super steel turbo needles and 100% kryptonite free lycra yarn.

Tea with the Pacific Wrap

[The inspiration for Andrea Sinclair's design comes from Tea with the Black Dragon by RA Macavoy. The first few lines quoted below are also from the book and are used here to set the scene. Andrea writes: "She's a fiddle player, a student of Zen, and in this delicious little mystery she flys from New York to California to meet with her estranged daughter, bumps into the most interesting man (who used to be a dragon), gets kidnapped and rescued. Throughout it all she stays calm, and who could do that without some engrossing knitting?" Quite!]

Martha Macnamara stood at the Pacific, her toes digging into the froth. She had come the length of the country in one day's flight, and she had trouble believing that this was a different ocean. 'Oh go on, admit it,' she grumbled, kicking the ivory scum from a pile of kelp. 'You're all the same water.'

Perhaps not. She peered at the line where the iron blue of the sky hit the soft-colored water. So bare a sky did not shine over Coney Island. A gull plunged, kissed the water and veered right and away, all ten yards from Mrs. Macnamara. Her head rose to follow its flight...

...and her knitting lifted in an unconscious echo of its movement.

The motion drew her attention back to where her fingers had stilled and now she saw it. The sky and water did blend differently here, and the currents mimicked the transitions in her knitting. She had fallen in love with the rich greens and blues in the store, imaging an ocean less grey and brown than her own. Normally Martha preferred solid colors that showed off her clever, patient stitch work, like the grey/brown wool that snuggled the swooping cables around her cardigan. But these soft color transitions swirled and dashed together in the decreases just like the ocean before her. That the yarn contained seaweed was a novelty that did not ruffle her sensibilities, though it had been a stretch. It reminded her of one grand Zen teacher who never let her sit down. Just as soon as she was comfortably arranged for Zazen, for sitting, off they must go to another rock, another patch of moss, another park bench, this view, that texture, that scent but no, no, let's try this one. She had laughed, grumbled and finally asked pointedly why the sitting practice never seemed to sit down. 'Why should Zen be comfortable?' the teacher replied 'What does your soul's sitting have to do with your body?' and off they had moved to the next place and the next after that.

So Martha let her hands move while her soul sat, contended to be watching the stitches slide together and around each other, the intricate dance of lace. In this row there are three stitches between the decreases. Work an even string of purls across the back, now there are four stitches between the decreases. She knew that in a few rows the pattern would come crashing back together, one stitch between, then two, then three again over and over. The border moved with a different rhythm than the body of the rectangular wrap she was inventing, in and out instead of out and in, but it didn't matter. The two together harmonized unexpectedly. The faint smell of seaweed she had noticed when she bought the yarn was stronger now, intensified by the breeze coming in off the water.

The chilly air stirred the silk and once again Martha was grateful she had decided to travel with such a delicate project. It tucked neatly into her purse as she remembered another teacher's words. "'If you would know the way,' she recited to herself, 'observe the subtlety of water.' Martha considered these words as she watched the waves fling themselves roaring onto the sand. What was subtle in such a display of power?" Perhaps the master spoke more of her knitting than any actual ocean. 'Yarn, wrap and ocean. All Pacific,' she murmured to herself as she watched the waves, smiling.

Buffy and the Vampire's Web

Hazel Young has bravely stepped up to the challenge — the first storyteller to test out our new space — despite never having watched Buffy! Great job, Hazel. (But you really missed out on a great show. Go borrow some DVDs and catch up from the beginning... let me know if you get hooked!)

It was three in the afternoon, but there was no light. The sky was thunderous, the air dank and putrid. Once more the atmosphere of danger was palpable.

Buffy was crouched on a platform balanced on the roof rafters of the old barn. As soon as she saw the shadow creeping across the straw littered floor, she leapt down, blonde hair flying, determination written on her face and brandishing a stake in each hand. The shadow had been created by two zombie like vampires who plodded slowly across the floor intent on reaching a rusty lever which, Buffy surmised, could only be yet another key to the portals of hell.

The vampires advanced, their faces expressionless but every muscle tensed against attack.

Buffy lunged at the first vampire and would have plunged the stake deep into its heart, but as soon as the stake hit the vampire's chest, a web of fibres sprang out from his rotten wool vest, coiling themselves around Buffy's arms and rendering her helpless.

“What the..?!” shrieked Buffy, struggling to free herself.

“Cool,” murmured Xander, sliding off the platform to help her.

“Cool, nothing!” snapped Buffy, “Giles told me I would have no problem dealing with these two!” Giles, Buffy's mentor, had researched every means of opening the portal and had concluded that the attempt that would be made today would be easily foiled.

As the fibres crept up Buffy's arms, the second vampire, whose menacing facial expression was becoming ever more clear, laughed maniacally as he bore down on the hapless Buffy. Xander, turning paler by the minute, breathed, “Yes, he said it only needed one slayer.” He was trying to unwrap the web from Buffy's arms but the more he tried to loosen the fibres, the tighter they gripped!

“Stop that!” screamed Buffy, furiously, “You're just making it worse! Pull the second stake through the web and use it on Laughing Larry, there.”

“I, I ...can't,” stammered Xander, “I'm not a slayer!”

“But I'm a slayer when I can draw on Buffy's power!” Willow tore into the barn, drew a blade from her belt, slashed at the fibres and yanked the stake from the web. She advanced on the second vampire who, by this time, was trying to attack Buffy with the gnarled and slimy instruments that served him as hands. Then, as luck would have it, he became entangled in the first vampire's web. As he struggled the fibres drew tighter around him and looser around Buffy's arms. She pulled her arms free, cursing at the painful red weals that criss-crossed her skin.

“Interesting. Their defence mechanism has tied them up together!” observed Xander.

Forgetting the pain Buffy cried, “OK, now we can finish the job!” She seemed a little too enthusiastic in Xander's opinion.

In tandem Willow and Buffy drew back their arms, ready to thrust the stakes into the chests of their adversaries.

Thunder and lightning crashed around the barn. Suddenly a bolt of lightning flashed through the barn door, striking the two vampires, who disappeared in a shimmer of sparks leaving a web of wool behind.

Almost immediately recovering from the shock, Willow laughed and pointed at the floor. “Buffy, the stakes and the web look just like some giant knitting project!”

That's very funny, but look at my arms,” snapped Buffy. “I'm going to look awful in my sleeveless dress at the dance tonight.”

“You could put some make-up on them,” offered Willow.

Xander, who had been silently wondering whether the main powers at play here hadn't been Willow's rather than Buffy's, offered his suggestion.

“I bet your mum has some of those long gloves that go over your elbows. You know, they were real popular in the 50s,” said Xander.

“What the heck do you know about it?” teased Buffy, “but I hate wearing gloves. I can't use my fingers. Still, maybe it would work tonight”

Exhausted, she lay back against a bale of hay, focusing on the enormous knitting project in front of her and thought to herself, “I'm always getting beaten up and getting splinters in the palms of my hands. I'm going to knit myself some lacy sleeves that come down over my hands but not my fingers. Just like those medieval gowns.”

“Wake up, Buffy or you won't be going to the dance!” Willow was nudging her gently.

“OK,” sighed Buffy and then, “On Monday I'm going to join the knitting group!”

“What!” Xander and Willow exclaimed. “And when exactly do you think you'll have time to knit?” questioned Xander.

“Oh, I'm going to make time,” said Buffy... and she did.






Author's disclaimer
If you are a Buffy aficianado you will no doubt find it obvious thet I have never seen a complete episode of Buffy in my life. I apologise therefore if my portrayal of Buffy and her friends is totally unrecognisable, but my inspiration came from the the stakes themselves!

Once upon a blog...

If you've found this site so soon, then you probably already know about the Purlescence Storytellers challenge. We had such fun for six months, I couldn't bear to shut it down completely. But it was an awful lot of work. So here's the new plan. I'll post a new challenge here every month, and you'll have just that month to design something. Email me (purlescence AT gmail DOT com) your submissions and I'll post them here. Everything will get posted; this is no longer a competition, more of a fun challenge for those who want to participate. With maybe a few spot prizes.

How far this goes is really up to all of you. I know you have enjoyed Storytellers (almost) as much as I have. I'd love to see you having just as much fun with this — and the best part is, you'll be able to see so much more of the talent that came my way every month, now that I'm not trying to limit myself to the few "best"!

That's enough introduction. Time to get cracking. The first challenge (which will last, unusually, until the end of June) puts you up against one of my very favourites... none other than the slayer herself. (Come on. You've never looked at those giant Lantern Moon needles and wondered?) You've got plenty of time for this first one, so no excuses: tell us, what would Buffy knit?