Bubble

Dearest readers,

 When Mickaël proposed to me nine and a half years ago just four months after we had first met there were many good reasons which urged me to beam and nod my acceptance.  Perhaps I would put in my top three reasons his blue eyes, dark curls and the simple fact he was born and bred in southern Brittany on the verge of the Guérande Peninsula with its windswept salt marshes and glittering quartz flecked rocky coastline. 

 

 On our last evening in Brittany this year we headed to the dunes and restless waves of the Pen Bron beach situated near La Turballe.  It is a magical place which leaves your feet sparkling with pale sand and powdered quartz and your hair tangled and sticky with brine.  As we made our way home along the twisting lanes through the flat marshes, where grey coarse salt and the more refined fleur de sel have been harvested since Roman times, even the youngest member of our family was unusually quiet as if under the spell of the landscape which surrounded us.

 

If I love Brittany it is also because its people are generally considered to be spirited, dynamic, and bold in the face of change.  And this, dear readers, truthfully, is the trait I most admire in my husband.  I am also aware that Angélique, our two year old, has inherited his determination and drive.  She is of course half Breton and I witnessed with joy how naturally she slipped into her coastline environment this summer.

A few weeks ago I fell hook, line, and sinker for this version of the French pattern Bulle.

Bulle means bubble and I simply knew I would have to knit this pattern in blue by the sea in Brittany for my blue-eyed Angélique.

I chose to knit it in Quince & Co. Lark in Delft blue which is a much deeper blue in reality.

 I loved every stitch of this pattern which can be purchased in French and English.  It is delightfully simple and fun too and also exists for grown-up girls and ladies too. Héloïse is hankering after one of her own.

I decided not to make the side pockets incorporated into the original design for I think the simpler line of this knitted tunic is more flattering for my slightly chubby two-year-old!

The white mother-of-pearl buttons,which remind me of the sea spray on that restless  sea, were found in my dear mother-in-law's rusty button tin.

My Ravelry notes are to be found here.

 

It's lovely to be back and now I am gleefully off to visit you all!

 

A bientôt,

 

Stephanie