Which One's Your Favourite?

Let me begin by wishing my friends across The Pond a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving this week!

 I was overjoyed to read all your responses to my question "What colour is winter?" in my previous post.  I am now busy creating something which will incorporate ALL the answers you gave me and I cannot wait to show you during the next  Making Winter Week over at Silverpebble's starting December 5th.

Quality Street Chocolates.  
Which is your favourite?  If you are not familiar with them which colour appeals to you particularly?  It can be tricky to choose.

At this time of year I find myself becoming quite dizzy with the vast choice of knitting patterns and gift ideas I would like to make.  My imagination goes wild during the run-up to Christmas. There is however little time in the day and I have been told that nights are for sleeping. Choices have to be made.  Do you feel the same?  If so how do you juggle between desire and reality?

In these moments of giddiness I find SIMPLICITY is best for me.

Hannah Fettig's Sock Yarn Sweater is the perfect solution to calm my feverish thoughts.
This one is for Angélique but can be made for any age. 
Decisions are easy and pleasant now.  Long or short sleeves?  Which delicious yarn?  So many work here: sock yarn and DK are good.  This time I opted for Rowan's Felted Tweed DK.  I cannot get enough of this yarn. The colour in reality is much richer and plummier than seen here.

Details to be found on Ravelry

 November 22nd is the Feast Day of Saint Cecilia the patroness of music.

It also happens to be my birthday...

Carlo Saraceni Saint Cecilia and the Angel
c. 1610

... and so I would like to share two divine treats with you.

I make no secret about my passion for Baroque Music.  Every year around my birthday I reach out for Purcell's "Odes for Saint Cecilia's Day".  Dear readers this work is sublime. It holds joy, melancholy and overall profound beauty.  Few things arouse patriotism in me - I am half French and half English - but this is so quintessentially British in both harmony and text (by NIcholas Brady) it is guaranteed to bring me out in goose bumps.

"Hark! hark! each Tree its silence breaks,
The Box and Fir to talk begin!
This is the sprightly Violin
That in the Flute distinctly speaks!"

Isn't this beautiful?  The trees are finally able to sing once they have been lovingly crafted into violins or wooden flutes.

If anyone is interested this interpretation is breathtaking although there are others.

My second treat takes us swiftly to nineteenth-century Paris. I am currently totally absorbed by Emile Zola's The Ladies' Paradise - Au Bonheur des Dames  Here is the nineteenth-century version of "shop 'til you drop" and it is an absolute joy to read.  Written in 1883 it traces the beginnings of the department store and contains fascinating insight into the role of women in Parisian society and mouth-watering details about fashion and textiles.  The theory behind the department store was that it suppled a desire you didn't know you had until you set foot in the door and Zola's imagery createes a sub-text of desire to beat them all in this book. 

It is a page-turner with a happy ending.

I wish you much joy this week.

 See you soon!