Hoffmann And A Good Yarn

Dearest readers,

I promise to share with you the colours and natural beauty of our winter holiday very soon but today I feel compelled to link up with Ginny's Yarn Along over at Small Things. In this space she shares her love of knitting and reading and invites others to reveal which books and patterns are tickling their current fancy.

My knitting needs little introduction:

I hope to join the tail end of the current 1705 Madelinetosh Tea Leaves Cardigans over at Ravelry by the end of this week. I am nothing if not original! This pattern was carefully chosen with my eldest daughter Héloïse for her post Christmas gift and is - please listen out for the shrill blast of trumpets - my first adult-sized pullover project to date after two years of knitting.  Héloïse was unshakable in her choice of Malabrigo Worsted despite my various attempts at seducing her to choose Madelinetosh.  Her choice of colour - Black Forest - was perfect for our holiday destination.... More on that soon.

My book, Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King, was chosen initially for its obvious Christmas season overtones.  I wanted to get away from the sugary simplicity of the ballet's libretto (which I love really) and turn to the original fairy tale with its darker, more violent atmosphere. Aside from being a wonderful piece of escapism for these long wintery nights its central message has struck a chord with me and is, I believe, important to all of us.

In his introduction to this tale Jack Zipes explains that E.T.A. Hoffmann was never able to discard his middle-class social conditioning to become a free-spirited artist.  When he wrote Nutcracker and Mouse King in 1816 Hoffmann had observed how the children of bourgeois families were overly regulated.  Zipes writes "they were drilled to behave according to moral and ethical principles that were to curb their imagination".  The question that Hoffmann asks in Nutcracker and Mouse King is how to free the children's imaginations so that they may fulfill their desires.  It is no coincidence that the parents of the two children, Marie and Fritz, bear the surname Stahlbaum, or "Steel Tree".  They are indeed inflexible and made nervous by the threatening figure of the godfather Drosselmeier with his creative mind and eerie stories.

 If Marie's family believes she talks nonsense Drosselmeier is struck by the manner in which she marries her visions and dreams with the everyday world which surrounds her.  As the tale draws to an end Hoffmann wrote " Marie suposedly is still queen of a land where you can see sparkling Christmas Forests everywhere as well as translucent Marzipan Castles -- in short, the most splendid and most wondrous things, if you only have the right eyes to see them with." (My italics.)

And so I dedicate this post to my seven-year old Tristan whose creative energy is a force to be reckoned with (REALLY) although his baroque guitar playing and detailed explanations concerning the composition of the pieces he plays help ease my knotted neck muscles at the end of a day.

I shall leave you with Hoffmann's following description of the Marzipan Castle:

"A rose red brightly shimmering castle with a hundred airy turrets... the dark, burning colors simply dazzled as they heightened the rosy tint against the white ground.  The vast dome of the central building as well as the pyramid-shaped roofs of the turrets were strewn with a thousand gold and silver twinkling stars."

And Tristan's own version of this enchanted palace which is big enough to cover our entire dining table:

I wish you all a peaceful and imaginative new year.  I know I will be endeavouring in 2012 to see the everyday world with Marie's imaginative eyes... most of the time ;-)

I'll return soon.

A bientôt,

from Tristan and Stephanie

Magic And Frozen Gardens

"Many a winter's night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they look like flowers."

Since writing about Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen here two weeks ago 

her icy presence has been felt in our home.

 

 "The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a young lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little flakes like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of ice, of dazzling, sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes gazed fixedly, like two stars; but there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She nodded towards the window, and beckoned with her hand."

 As part of my treasured birthday gifts I received this book

and this one too.

 Both have inspired me in many ways. The ball of "Silver Fox" Madelinetosh Sock Yarn in the first picture and the ivory silk left from Angélique's christening in the second are being crafted into two surprises which I will reveal soon, very soon...

There is no denying that the magic of winter is seductive. Thank goodness for I must confess I have been feeling bereft recently. I have lost my voice a little on this blog and the reason for this, I believe, is simply because gardens are frozen or - as the text on the page below implies - suspended in time and place. I must look for my inspiration elsewhere.

"Kay and Gerda's parents had large wooden boxes, in which vegetables for the kitchen were planted, and little rose-trees besides: there was a rose in each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing the boxes across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window to the other, and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils of the peas hung down over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long branches, twined round the windows, and then bent towards each other: it was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knew that they must not creep over them; so they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other, and to sit on their little stools among the roses, where they could play delight fully."

If you would like to discover more about this illustrator you can see more of her work here and here.  Let me know if you like her art, won't you please?  I have a good reason for asking ;-)

The Lady Who Understood Magic In Her Flower Garden

Whilst it is normal to yield to the charms of reds and gold with the approaching festive season I still hanker after pinks and greens.

 Inspired by the remaining trailing roses (in December?) which I peek at over lofty garden walls in our glorious village and Amanda Soule's hasty knitting up of these delights

I decided to follow in her footsteps.

 Here is my Dried Rose Petals cardigan.

The pattern is Kelly's "In Threes" 

The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted Merino in "Dusty Pink".

To quote Amanda it's a beautiful breeze of a pattern. 

And what of magic?

A few weeks ago (too many to mention, I'm afraid) I won my FiRsT giveaway from Robin's adorable blog. 

 This keychain has brought me so much luck! A few days later I won AnOtHeR gift this time from Emma's blog Mimi and Tilly which arrived on my birthday!

 Pink paper and purple ribbon...

 And inside.... Just look at those magical topaz earrings!

I couldn't be happier with these two gifts.  Pop over and visit these lovely ladies, won't you, please? Emma is doing a feature on Coco Rose right now!

This is really beginning to sound like a fairytale for BoTh these presents have doubled my luck because THIS week on the same DAY I won a fabulous giveaway at Annie's aNd at Sue's!

Can you believe my luck?  I promise to show you the two splendidly generous books when I receive them. 

Annie has added the final cherry on my GoOd FoRtUnE cake by bestowing a Versatile Blogger Award to Millefeuilles which (and this is really getting embarrassing) has followed one awarded by sweet Trish. I am so LUCKY!

There are wintery, frosty creatures being stitched up right now amonst other treasures and I will reveal all on the week of the 12th December for Making Winter Week at Silverpebble.

Ha!  Somebody cannot wait to get her hands on that soft cardigan!

A bientôt!