Terry Pratchett receives a ‘pratchgan’

I’m just going to go ahead and blame an international move and return to full time grad school for distracting me enough to overlook this one: a group of concerned crafters, wanting to show British fantasy author Terry Pratchett the depth of their concern for him. As a group, starting in January, they created a ‘pratchgan’ – a patchwork afghan composed of small blocks referring to various aspects of Pratchett’s Discworld. The completed work was presented to Pratchett at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 16 August; he seemed quite impressed. Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease almost a year ago. He publicly stated in May of this year that the disease is now affecting his work – spelling is becoming more difficult and his typing has slowed down. Pratchett is determined to keep writing for as long as possible rather than take an early retirement. Different fans find various ways to show their support, and you can see more about the pratchgan on the blog of the organizer, here, including pictures of Pratchett accepting the gift along with a batch of letters from fans. Personally, I have to love the Librarian square, with his brown orangutan face surrounded by fluffy orange fringe. I think I also spotted the Death of Rats in there somewhere, have a look yourself! What character or concept from the Disc would you most like to see rendered in yarn?

—Lara Killian