Skeinspotting

Books

I read every day for at least an hour or two. I have been keeping this up recently but have been very bad at noting the books on my blog.

Anyway, recently, I got hooked on Stephanie Meyer's series of teenage vampire books known as The Twilight Saga. They are supposed to be for 'young' people, but they are such an easy read and so much fun, I couldn't help reading the whole series...and I am on the last book, Breaking Dawn book 4, at the moment.


Overall I enjoyed the read. There were some things that annoyed me, the relationship between Bella the Heroine and the two boys who love her, one a werewolf and one a vampire could get a bit sickly at points. Then I would hit a section that was so sensual, so unusual it would cancel out the yucky bits.
Some of the middle books really did feel like middle books though. Unlike Harry Potter where every book is a story of its own and can stand in its own right, the sequel books in this series did heavily rely on people being fans of the earlier books. One of the middle books felt so disjointed and disembodied on its own, I almost felt like this might have been a series of 3 books originally, but greed by the publishers to push a 4th book meant the whole story across the series got stretched out a bit and then filled in.



Never mind though, I still could not put them down. And I am an advocate of children's or teenagers' books. Quite often, they are written in plain language but with unashamed passion and emotion. And because kiddies books need to grab the attention of young people more than they would for adults, the subject matter and plots are often a lot more exciting and action packed.

However, I did also see transparently that a publisher releasing books for young people had taken on a moral obligation not to have anything too lewd etc....so I feel that is the reason Bella and Edward do no more than kissing....unless they decide to get hitched...so the author had really kept it a bit 'Christian' although it was in keeping with the characters.

Having lived with someone for well over 20 yrs without being married, I do get sick of people thinking our relationship is not that serious etc and not respecting our commitments that we have taken on without getting married. My partner is every bit as important as a husband, and should be considered to be related to me, but sadly he isn't and often it is unspoken judgements by people. We are not Christian, so do not wish to get married in a Christian tradition...if we ever got handfasted, I bet we would have to still do a civil ceremony to make it legal....and the cost of doing it properly without any support from family has really made us use that money for more important things.



Back to the Twilight Saga, they turned the first book of this series into a movie. Not sure how I feel about that film, some parts were good but others were really cringy and high school-ish.

This also ties in with knitting. Some time ago, I came across a knitter who had knitted the gorgeous socks below with a floating ribbon on the cuff, which she had to duplicate stitch otherwise it would need to be done in intarsia. I admired it, and then was told it was based on the cover of Eclipse, the 3rd book in the Meyer series. It didn't really register at the time. But here are the socks, designed by Julie Miller


There are 14 separate groups for Twilight fans on Ravelry, and a whole group of knitters who have designed Twilight inspired projects. I still think the above is the best for its instantly recognisable imagery.



I also like the Bella's La Push Hat above. In one scene in the film, Bella and school friends go to the Native American reservation area to a beach called La Push. It was such a rainy windy cold day, they filmed it in a small camper van and Bella wore a crochet hat that looked just like a flower pot...


and loads of people have attempted to copy it. Some with success like the one above by Jenn Mainwaring, and others not quite matching the original. There are knitted versions too, but the one above is my favourite.



There is a group dedicated to designs which are planned to be put into a knitting book related to this series, much in the same way as the Harry Potter knitting book Charmed Knits. The designer Marilee Norris of the above tote, has a number of bags and totes all with charted artwork and quotes from the series. There is a sequel film to Twilight, based on the New Moon book coming out in November this year. If you want to see more about each character in this vampire soap opera, and want to see more about the interesting actors that took part in both movies then see the Twilight blog.

Teens have gone mad for the Edward Cullen character, who is the main hero of the first book. Also, the actor that plays him, Rob Pattinson seems to have a big following not just as an actor (he is British by the way) but also as a musician. His song Let me Sign

Let Me Sign - Rob Pattinson


was featured with Bella's Death scene....and I have to say he has an interesting and tortured voice. I hope he has good friends around him, because he gives the public impression of a tortured soul who is so deep, he might not live that long!! He is probably totally different when he is out of the public eye, one gets the feeling he acts using good old fashioned method acting techniques so gets absorbed with the vampire, living forever and looking for the love of his life role.