The author wearing one of her Fair-Isle sweaters in Greenland |
In 2009, Beverley
Oakley published her first novel after marrying the handsome Norwegian bush
pilot she met in Botswana. Since then she's written more than thirteen sizzling
historical romances, mostly set in England during the Georgian, Regency and
Victoria eras and more psychological historicals with less sizzle as Beverley
Eikli. Learn more about her and her books at her website.
Knitting up a Plot
There’s something
mesmerizing and cathartic about the click of the needles and a strand of yarn
running rhythmically over my left forefinger while I watch television or read a
book.
I never took to the
traditional English style of knitting when I learned it at school in Australia,
but after my Norwegian mother-in-law taught me Continental knitting during the
year I spent living with my in-laws, I was hooked.
My husband and I had met
when I was running a safari lodge in Botswana’s Okavango Delt and he was a bush
pilot, flying in the tourists and supplies. After a whirlwind courtship, he took
me to live in Norway with his family while we waited to begin an airborne
geophysical survey contract in Namibia.
The job was continually
delayed but for the next ten months, instead of twiddling my thumbs, I put them
to good use, learning to knit the country’s seemingly complicated traditional
Norwegian Fair-Isle sweaters under the expert guidance of my mother-in-law Elsa,
my many sisters-in-law, and even my teenage nieces. Get-togethers in Norway, I
discovered, were always done over coffee and with the mandatory piece of
knitting in one’s lap.
Norwegian Fair-Isle sweaters
look complicated to make, yet they’re not. There are never more than two colours
in a row and the right, patterned side is always facing you, as the sweater is
knitted on the round and then cut up to then sew in the arms, which are also
knitted on the round. If it’s a cardigan, it’ll be cut down the middle with the
bands knitted on afterwards.
At the end of more than ten
months in Norway, my husband started his one-year survey flying contract in
Namibia, and I joined him, operating the computer equipment in the back of the
aircraft. As I was often the only woman on crew during this and subsequent
three-month contracts in Greenland, Namibia, and Sweden, I found a great friend
in my knitting.
Flying at 250 feet above ground
on survey lines that crisscrossed the terrain at regular intervals of 50 feet
gave me a wonderful bird’s eye view. I was thrilled by rare sights, like a trio
of bat-eared foxes crowding onto the top of an anthill to check us out, or
small village children scurrying from their thatched huts to do the same.
Meanwhile I’d be monitoring the flight data, and all the while I’d have a
growing sweater on my lap. I was known by my fellow crewmembers as the ‘knitting
operator’.
Weaving yarn and weaving
stories go hand in hand and in those days, before my first novel was published,
I would construct elaborate plots in the aircraft, which, if working on a
contract when my husband was flying in a different country, I’d write up when I
got back to my accommodation.
They were fun days, seeing
new countries, partying in nightclubs on the Arctic Circle, cracking my head on
the roof struts in heavy turbulence over Greenland’s ice cap or getting locked
up in French Guiana and having to spend the night, alone, guarded by a 6’4”
French Guianese soldier brandishing an AK-47. That was a scary experience and
worth a story on its own.
However I was fortunate to
have my knitting with me. If you’ve got a ball of wool, a pair of knitting
needles and a good plot brewing, you’ll never be lonely.
The Mysterious Governess, Daughters of Sin, Book 3
Two beautiful sisters – one
illegitimate, the other nobly born – compete for love amidst the scandal and
intrigue of a Regency London Season.
Lissa
Hazlett lives life in the shadows. The beautiful, illegitimate daughter of
Viscount Partington earns her living as an overworked governess while her vain
and spoiled half sister Araminta enjoys London’s social whirl as its most feted
debutante.
When
Lissa’s rare talent as a portraitist brings her unexpectedly into the bosom of
society—and into the midst of a scandal involving Araminta and suspected
English traitor Lord Debenham—she finds an unlikely ally: charming and besotted
Ralph tunley, Lord Debenham’s underpaid, enterprising secretary. Ralph can’t
afford to leave the employ of the villainous viscount much less keep a wife but
he can help Lissa cleverly navigate a perilous web of lies that will ensure
everyone gets what they deserve.
2 comments:
I remember my grandmother watching the Phillies while knitting. Everything she knitted during baseball season ended up being someone's Christmas present (smile!). Thanks for the post.
Hi Angela,
I'm probably like your grandmother, and lots of knitters I know, who just love to be occupied with their knitting while they watch television. I'm busy making my 11-year-old a Norwegian sweater - another one!
Good on your grandmother, I say :)
Post a Comment