Hello. My name is Maggie and I'm a Knitter.

When I say I'm a Knitter I make sure to say it with a capital K. Alright, when I say it you can't really hear the capital K but it's there and if you don't notice the crazy, obsessed person look in my eyes when I start talking about knitting, or yarn, or sweaters, or hats, shawls, scarves... Sorry, I got distracted. If you don't notice The Look and realize you should change the subject while there's still hope, you will quickly come to realize that I love knitting and just about anything to do with yarn and fiber bearing animals. There is a connection here to story characters, both when I'm thinking about my own and other writers'. Generally when a character is described wearing anything knitted, I picture hand knitted, especially when the knitted item was a gift.

Knitters love to knit for characters they love. There are countless patterns for hand knits inspired by Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, John Watson from Sherlock, Sherlock from Sherlock, Jane Austen characters, Lord of the Rings, mythology and Fairy Tales. Pretty much anything with a fandom will have themed knitting projects. I know I have some ideas for a few projects based on characters in some books I've been reading recently.

I'm thinking about a story right now and as soon as I figure out a place to put up an inspiration board there are a couple pictures that will be put up there first. I love John Watson from Steven Moffat's Sherlock and whoever is in charge of the wardrobe for this show is just generally brilliant. May I present the two stand outs of John's sweater collection:

Doesn't he look snugly? In searching for these images I found that there's a Facebook page devoted to John Watson and his sweaters. Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of all of this is. There was one but sometimes thinking about wool, doing Ravelry searches and looking at a cute hobbity,  hedgehog of a guy in a Guernsey sweater makes me go a bit fuzzy headed.

Beards Make Things Better

I was thinking about beards the other day. I've been thinking about beards quite a bit recently to be honest. I wasn't ever a huge fan of beards, although come to think of it they've been growing on me for a while now - not literally, of course. I think I liked the idea of them, their rugged allure. Let's face it, would Tony Stark or Thor be quite as appealing bare faced? I think not.

My new found interest in beards was inspired by Penny Watson. Thank you, Penny.  Sincerely, thank you because I am a convert. I love a good beard now. Let me back up a bit. When I first became interested in romance novels I was introduced to Penny who is one of the friendliest people you could imagine and so generous with her time and expertise. She gave me a list of books I should start out reading. My first romance read was Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid - another absolute peach of a person. I'll write more about my love of Penny Reid and her world another time, but let's stick to beards for now - again not literally. My second, third, and fourth romance novels were Sweet Inspiration, Lumberjack in Love, and Sweet Magik, all by Penny Watson. These are the books that sparked my attraction to beards, and large, strapping men! Penny Watson and her books also deserve more time than I have here because I appear to be digressing from beards, but those books are where this whole mild obsession started.

Maybe because of my new interest in them, I've been noticing more beards around in everyday life. I can't really say if there were always this many bearded men about and I just didn't pay attention to them, or if there are actually more beards walking around than there were before. (Now I have the image of disembodied beards floating down the street. Weird.) What I have noticed is how much I prefer certain men with beards as opposed to without. I'm sticking to actors for this for a couple of reasons. One reason is because I'm rubbish at kinnearing and even if I could get snaps of the Bearded Man on the Street as it were, I wouldn't be able to show comparison photos of with beard and without. So, to illustrate my point I will use celebratory examples.

First is Tom Mison. Perhaps not a major celebrity yet, but I present the star of Sleepy Hollow:

With beard:

And without:

Still a handsome example but with the beard is better.

Next may I present my future husband Richard Armitage:

Bare faced*:

Handsome man, for sure. But then...

The knitter in me just wants to put a watch cap on his head then stare deeply into those eyes. But hold on to your panties ladies and gentleman because here's our Richard as Thorin Oakenshield:

*I have to admit that Mr Armitage is just as fine without his beard as with so maybe he's not the best example of my point but I'm not taking him out.

Robert Downey, Jr:

There was a dissenting opinion around our house about Mr. Downey bearded vs beardless, but this is my blog so I told them to go away.

George Clooney, bearded only:

So there you have it. But I can't close this post without a picture of Lucas Parker for Penny.

Bearded.

I'm Maggie and This Is My Blog

This blog, like me, is just starting out in the world of romance writing. I'll be reading, reviewing and eventually writing romantic fiction, as well as pondering things likes beards, boxers, briefs, and life, and hopefully not taking it all too seriously.