PieceWork September/October 2011

Curl up in your favorite comfy space and get to know some amazing literary characters, each of whom is a needleworker in PieceWork's 2nd annual issue devoted to Needlework in Literature!

For example, from the prolific English author Patricia Wentworth, we have ace British detective Miss Silver, who "is aware that her knitting conveys an impression that helps her in her profession. She takes advantage of that, but her knitting is not a prop. She is a real knitter and takes her knitting wherever she goes." Then there's Eliza, Countess of Zeur, a double agent working as a spy for Louis XIV and William of Orange who features prominently in Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver: "Eliza has been observing troop movements and supplies of materiel, then translating them into binary code which she conceals in cross-stitches on her sampler." Sneaky! And get your needles and hooks ready to dive into the eight projects--from cross-stitch and needle lace to knitting and filet crochet--inspired by the books mentioned above, along with George Eliot's Mill on the Floss, an original short story, a poem, a centuries-old legend, and more. Indulge yourself!