A Precursor to the Mirror of Erised

I just finished reading Phantastes: A Faerie Romance by George MacDonald. It has been on my reading list for some time thanks to Dr. Veith and his book Reading Between the Lines. What got me motivated to read it though was finding (at a local bookstore) a bargain copy of The Princess and the Goblin (also by MacDonald) and reading that aloud to the kids. We are now half way through the sequel (The Princess and Curdie). I wanted more MacDonald for my own private reading time.

The copy of Phatastes that I checked out from the library has a wonderful forward by C.S. Lewis who states after reading this book that he "had crossed a great frontier". It was a turning point in his life.

Anyway...as I'm reading along I came upon a chapter that related a story from a library book in Faerie Land. This story tells of a mirror with curious carvings around the frame. As Cosmo looks into this mirror he sees his room reflected but also a lady who, when he turns away from the mirror, is not there. He sits many a night looking and longing for his beautiful lady.

"But as he gazed on the face and form, which now possessed his whole soul, to the exclusion of all other joys and griefs, the longing to speak to her, to know that she heard him, to hear from her one word in return, became so unendurable...." p.97-98

This mirror reminded me (although it was not exact as this was an enchanted mirror that had trapped the lady) of the Mirror of Erised from the Harry Potter series.


Mirror of Erised (from the Harry Potter Lexicon)
A magnificent mirror, as high as a classroom ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. The inscription carved around the top reads "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," which is "I show not your face but your heart's desire" written backwards (that is, in what is called 'mirror writing'). When you look into the mirror, you see the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart. The mirror has trapped people who can't bear to stop staring into it, unsure if what they see is going to actually happen.

and from Dumbledore:
"Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible."

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Oh...I was going to add...Here is a link if you want to listen to the book at LibriVox. It isn't all the way finished however. But that is where I went to find out how to pronounce "Phantastes".

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What happened to August?!?

This past summer had to be one of thee shortest summers yet.

My last post was dtd July 20th...well most of y'all know what happened on the 21st. Yep! We got our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book from Amazon. AND it was Fish Days which meant I had to pretend to have fun out and about when I would have really rather been at home stuffed in the book world. I read a couple chapters that next Sunday. Monday was devoted to reading and I stayed up until 5am Tuesday to finish it. As expected it was certainly a book that I would NOT be able to read aloud to the kiddos. Too many tears throughout the whole book. Good thing the audio version arrived the day after my birthday. (Which also explains why I was so emotional after a bad haircut on my birthday....lack of sleep!)

We had a kagillion VBS meetings those last weeks of July as most of the helpers were not available for meetings after July 30th since we'd be away on the Higher Things youth group trip in North Carolina. We returned from that Aug 4th and VBS was Aug 6 through the 10th. I was elected craft person....never again...thank you very much!

Then throw in a few birthday parties (relatives and friends), a wedding reception, house and nephew sitting for 3 days while the older brother was transported to college and that was pretty much the whorl wind that most call August. There were a few other things that happened these past few weeks but I'm too ashamed to admit the depths of my procrastination.

One would think there wouldn't be much time for knitting and that would be partly true to some extent...but there are always those minutes in the day one can find to stitch a bit...and procrastinate some more....

Before the HT trip I kind of finished the cashmere scarf for myself...although it still isn't blocked yet. I'm debating on whether or not to add a smallish border on the very ends of it. I'll decide after it's blocked.



I'll just show the pictures of the rest of the projects OTN (on the needles):











The other time hole I fell into was Ravelry! My invite came when I was house/nephew sitting and all my pictures of projects were at home on my computer. It probably was a good thing though. I was able to browse to my hearts content without feeling that I should be uploading my projects. I've got most of my finished projects on it already. None of my stash. Yet. I'm loving being able to see other people's projects. You can see how well they liked the pattern, how it fits, what yarns look like knit up etc.

Thanks for the kick in the butt to post something...