I was just looking around on Ravelry at groups and spotted one for WOT (for those not in “the know”, WOT refers to the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan), I was intrigued so went to have a look and found a post telling me that Robert Jordan had died….I was shocked and went racing off to Google to check.

It’s true, James O Rigney who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan passed away on 16th September in Charleston SC. I felt so sad….I had never met this man, never spoken to him or corresponded with him but his passing has touched me because his writing touched me.

The Wheel of Time is a series of fantasy books with a huge worldwide following (just go Google it and you’ll see)…now I know fantasy books do seem to attract big cult followings but these books justified it. The world which Robert Jordan created and the people who inhabited it were incredibly real (even if they were full of magic and Ogiers and the One Power) and the story that unfolded was one which held the reader and swept them along.

I was given the first WOT book, The Eye of the World, as a Christmas present in 1993 by my then boyfriend. We spent that Christmas with his parents and family at their home in Essex, it was the first time I’d spent any time with his family and I spent almost the entire time reading the book finishing it by the end of Boxing Day. I went out the week after Christmas and bought the next two books in the series - I think at that time there were 5 published and I read them all over the first few months in 2004. I then had to wait for the 6th book to come out and my boyfriend bought that for me the next Christmas.

The next books came out at 2 or 3 year intervals and the wait each time was interminable. The final book, Knife of Dreams, was published at the end of 2005 and my husband bought it for me for Christmas. As it had been nearly 2 years since the previous book and 12 years since I’d read the first I decided to re-read the entire series before reading book 11 which I did over several months in 2006.

Whilst talking with a colleague at work about books I mentioned them to him, he’s a David Eddings fan (as am I) but had never heard of WOT so I lent him Book 1. He was hooked, went out and bought the whole series and read them in a few weeks. We’ve talked about them a lot and speculated on how the 12th, and final, book would end.

Robert Jordan has been ill for a long time and was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, amyloidosis, in 2006. WIth that knowledge he had commited most of the final book to word processor or audio tape and disclosed the story to his wife and his cousin. They plan to publish the book as per his wishes.

From a knitters viewpoint the books provide some inspiration, the most powerful society in the WOT world are the Aes Sedai - an order of women who weild the “One Power”. When a woman is made a full member of the Aes Sedai she is said to “attain the shawl” these shawls are worn on formal occasions and have a coloured fringe indicating which of the 7 sects, or Ajahs, she belongs to. I think each shawl is different - whether the Aes Sedai make or buy them is not clear…or whether they are woven, knit, crocheted….I always imagined a light, silky shawl with a very long fringe….I may have to design something…..

Also, women who have not “attained the shawl” for some reason are cast out and forbidden from weilding the One Power, others run away and go into hiding. These women form a secret society known as the Kin the leading council of the Kin is called the Knitting Circle.

So I think in tribute to Robert Jordan I’m off to design my very first knitting pattern - a lace shawl for an Aes Sedai…..may have to re-read again for ideas.

With regards to his family and friends, he will be missed by us all even those, like me, who never met him.

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Tags: WOT, wheel of time, robert jordan,

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