This post contains spoilers for Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.

I’ve been listening to Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and I’ve really been enjoying it.  This is no surprise; I’ve read it before and Beth and I are avowed Maggie Stiefvater fan girls. One of the things that I really enjoy about rereading a book is that you get a chance to notice all the little things that the author sets up to sign post the direction of the narrative.  Noah is the smudgy boy, which at first I took to mean that he was like Pig Pen but now I’m starting to wonder if his smudge was more than that?  And, does the tension between the psychics mirror the tension that develops between the raven boys or foreshadow the covering and uncovering of secrets as the time goes on.  And, I didn’t notice the first read through that Blue is the page of cups (“So full of potential” they say.)  Coincidence that the one person that makes the leyline powerful is the one that is full of potential?  I think not. Oh, and there’s some nice, not-at-all subtext about Chain Saw and Ronan Lynch.  Anyway, today, I got to the part in Raven Boys where the death is.  And, it was heartbreaking again.  After that I thought for a minute about what kind of fan art I could make, if I wanted to, to honor this fallen soldier in the narrative. I’m a knitter and a tatter so my fan art would have to be something made with needles, shuttles and fiber.

This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about knitting something for a character.  If you’ve been with us for the full year you’ll know that Beth and I once had a…disagreement? moment of upset?  over a character’s death.  Back when the second Daughter of Smoke and Bone came out I fell in love with Akiva’s angel sibling Hazael.  And, while I read the book I sent a series of texts about my new book boyfriend to my sister who politely engaged my new obsession without a hint of what was to come.  She’s good about not ever spoiling anything, including your inevitable heartbreak. So, I was devastated when Hazael was slain at the end of the second book.  And, a little angry at my sister for not even a tiny hint that it was coming.  (I got her back for it, though.) After reading that I book I started my first fan art knitting project: a shawl I’m calling My Fallen Angel.

For the knitters in the room, I am using the dreambird pattern by ravelry user Nadita Swings.  It is completely shaped by short rows, so it looks complicated but is pretty easy (as long as you don’t lose your place in the pattern).

I am knitting it up in fingering weight palette yarn from knitpicks in the colors seraphim and hazelnut for the feathers and fairytale for the body.

Since I’ve been reading Raven Boys, in addition of thinking about what I could do for the dead, I’ve been musing about what a Blue Sargent sweater would look like.  I think it would need to have design features that look like rips and it would have to be made in bright colors.  In the meantime, if you’re as excited for the upcoming release of the fourth book as we are and you’re also a knitter you can try your hand at Alasdair Post-Quinn’s corvus pattern.

It is double knit, so that can be challenging at the beginning and at the edges.  But, It is a cool pattern that’ll up your chart reading fu.

Are you the kind of fan that makes fan art? What is your favorite fan made piece? Hit us back in the comments!