For those of you who are not yarn literate 'Worsted' is the knitter's version of creamy rice pudding and apple crumble; instant gratification and comfort knitting. In the constant toing and froing of everyday life, with a half-term journey to England with my two youngest children thrown in, I turned my back for a short while on lace-knitting and opted for a delightfully simple and quick pattern by Tin Can Knits, inspired by the mossy rocks and dripping rocks of the Pacific Northwest forests, named Old Growth. Ever since knitting my Rosewater hat in early spring, also by Tin Can Knits, I've been following her latest patterns with interest. I like the fact that this cardigan may be knitted for all sizes from newborn to fully grown woman and it looks perfectly lovely on little boys too.
And the yarn? Oh, the yarn! Julie Asselin made a batch of speckled yarns, which were sold by Paris's most enchanting tearoom/yarn shop, L'Oisive Thé, and flew off the shelves like hot cakes. This colourway, 'It's My Party' though predominantly green has many spots of gentle colour which are as beautiful as the Northern Lights. Once soaked it becomes soft and squishy and Angélique has not taken it off since. She particularly likes the fat 1970s pale green buttons. My Ravelry notes for this cardigan (which I have named Oak Tree With Fairy Lights) are here.
Since our return from England a few days ago there have been brilliant blue skies setting off the yellow vines which, now stripped of grapes, bask in the sunlight. This is the colour which surrounds us from all sides. There is red too. Bushes turning from sienna to scarlet and a few brave red roses enjoying the afternoon warmth like the few remaining butterflies swooping overhead and disappearing against a backdrop of golden leaves. I think it's important to fill my children's lives with colour when the evenings draw in and Angélique, instinctively, clamours to pick flowers and so we bring confetti-colored zinnias and Brown-Eyed Susans into our home and make small wild flowers posies to grace our often cluttered table.
I am hoping to write more frequently here over the next weeks. Before I leave you I would like to share:
This scrumptious recipe which tastes of Autumn. The children absolutely love it!
The most sublime Parisian perfume shop which recreates 1920s scents. If you read the descriptions you will understand how much poetry there is in each glass bottle. Imagine a perfum which conveys the atmosphere of a seventeenth-century abbey or Louis XV's Versailles gardens? Beware! They have an online shop.
Finally, this new (to me) garden writer "Only a freehold will do, because when you plant a tree you want to think of its roots stretching down and down for ever, and its branches reaching up and up for all time, till in the end the blossom mingles with the stars." Beverley Nichols' charming prose about the love and toil he poured into his ramshackle, eighteenth-century house and gardens will see me through the autumn evenings.
I wish you all a wonderful week full of simple pleasures and a little magic.
Stephanie
