How Does Your Mansfield Garden Party Grow?

One look at this book and I was smitten.

I fell for the undeniable charms of the pattern "Cinnamon Girl" and the yarn "Rosebud" from Juno.  I simply had to have these treasures to love and to cherish. Loop Knitting delivered the goods swiftly.  Cheerily I skipped off to Ravelry and organised a knit along of "Cinnamon Girl" with a fellow knitter starting today.

And then my pink bubble burst.  

Experienced knitters feel free to cackle and hoot at my naivety.  I saw the complexity of the pattern and I grew fearful.  I know little of provisional cast-ons and the rest of the mumbo jumbo which ensues.

Am I ready for this?  Or is this a case of 'marry in haste, repent at leisure'? 

Is there a benevolent soul out there willing to hold my hand through this daunting ordeal, please? 

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Today is my youngest's second birthday.  I love this special date of hers.  She had the good grace of arriving a few days earlier than expected.  MInutes after she was born the midwife cheerily asked me which name we had chosen for our baby.  "Angélique", I blearily replied.  "How wonderful", she exclaimed with a broad smile: "today is Saint Angélique's name day!"  How wonderful indeed I thought.  You chose your day wisely, dear child.

(If the sight of variagated yarns make you come out in a rash this is the time to avert your gaze.)

There is no doubt that January 27th falls in winter and for those who are beginning to know me you will understand that this fact delights me. The end of January however is on the cusp of change.  If you remain still you may hear spring quietly urging you to be patient for just a little while longer.  We celebrate Angélique's birthday with one foot firmly planted in winter's domain and in the knowledge that spring will soon tune up the dawn chorus, lay down a mossy welcome mat, and unlatch her ornate green doors.  And if our gardens are mostly barren (not so much the case this year, I hear you say) I am determined to celebrate this important day by bringing flowers into this simple home of ours.

So today I fill my youngest daughter's arms with cut hyacinths to herald the glorious months to follow.

Please forgive the blurred picture; it must be the heightened emotions getting in the way!

And if a wreath of hydrangeas seems a strange gift for such a little girl I should add with a big beaming grin that it is a lasting treasure to celebrate a charming soul who has become my very own garden muse.

Some of you may recall the Madelinetosh Fairy generously delivering some Mansfield Garden Party yarn in the cabbage patch last summer.  Knitting up a Tiny Tea Leaves for my birthday girl was the perfect occasion to use this yarn.  Let me just remind you of the description in Katherine Mansfield's short story The Garden Party which inspired the creation of this colourway:

"And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, moving the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine. As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels."

To be honest when I look at this cardigan I see snowdrops, muddy earth, pink and blue hyacinths.  I must confess that I like the fact this variagated yarn makes my cardigan look rather homespun... or should that be gardenspun?  Angélique certainly loves it in a hopping, skipping kind of way and it suits her beautifully.  Tiny Tea Leaves will be taking second position in my Ravelry 12 Sweaters in 2012 project and you can see it on my Ravelry profile.

So in answer to the question: 'How does you Mansfield Garden Party Grow?'  My answer is 'quite splendidly, thank you'.

Happy Birthday my dear child.  You have made us all very joyful these past two years.  Be mindful however for you are still, I believe, under guarantee!

I am deeply grateful to Lori for this adorable rabbit she gifted us as part of her giveaway.  Angélique sleeps, eats, and reads with her each and every day.  She has been named... "Eek" by her owner Angélieek!  Please pop over and visit Lori's pretty blog which is bursting with creative talent.  I am certain you will be impressed! 

Wishing you a peaceful, joyful weekend.


Stephanie