We’ve mentioned this in a tweet before, but Madame Defarge seems to be having a moment. Actually, Dickens as a whole seems to be having a moment, but perhaps it’s only with the Princess, who loves all stories involving orphans, thieves, and MUH-DUH. And how much more perfect is this description of the Madame, which could so equally be applied to Princess Animal Her Royal Bad Self?:
“…imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and inveterate hatred of class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she ever had any virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her.”
However, in the Princess’ case, it developed Her into a royally frightening monkey-like creature (to see the details of the Princess’ mysterious birth, please see earlier post about the Origin Story).
But to return to the details of the case: Madame Defarge. Thoughts swirled and eddied first when the World Series was won last year. The shop, for those not in the know—and for shame! You should be very much in the know—is right next to a sports-ish bar. Not fully sports, we’ll call it more…sporty. After the Giants’ win, the streets surged with rabble and mob. Working alone in the shop, I seriously thought the windows were going to be busted in. “This must be what the French Revolution was like,” me thought.
Then, the riots in London. Any Royal trembles at the word “riot.” Then, THEN, gentle reader, I spent several nights watching “Bleak House,” while knitting the Grand Palais shawl from the fall issue of KnitScene. And then, of course, I thought, “This seems something like Madame DeFarge might wear…”
And of course, Halloween is coming up.
Then, THEN, THEN…I know the nerdish suspense is killing you, dear reader!—the book “What Would Madame DeFarge Wear?” came out, which I’ll shortly be getting into the store.
So now I’m reading “A Tale of Two Cities,” which somehow never made it to the list. And loving it. Though you can clearly see that Dickens was paid by the word. Talk about verbose!
Which of course leads to our August Movie/Craft-In Spectacularanza: Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part 1, featuring the fabulous Cloris Leachman as Madame DeFarge. The deets:
August 25th
7ish
At RetroFit (910 Valencia Street)
Bring any craft, bring friends
RSVP to Kathy@princessanimal.com

So, let’s open up the convo in the comments. What are your favorite movies/books to craft to? I’m also putting La Vie En Rose out there, cause knitting took center stage.