I'm still trying to knit for Christmas presents for friends and Chanukah presents for family. And I am busier than ever substitute teaching which is the reason I can beg your pardon that I have not written in several days. I have finished making one of the silk eye pillows filled with rice and the lavender I grew in my garden this past summer. Now there is a never say never story for you. It would be way too cliche to write about a plant that I thought had died coming back to life, but the lavender plant is actually that story to a tee. (to a T?) Anyway, I will be making at least one more scented eye pillow and bequeathing them on some lucky person between the 21st and the 25th.
I started a cabled headband for another small project (see picture). It is a knitpicks free pattern
so I don't think anyone will mind me providing a link. And if you already have needles, it will only cost you $2.49 + shipping for the yarn (which is gorgeous) by the way. I chose a bright purple.
The month of December always makes me think about poetry. Here is a favorite poem of mine by A.E. Housman, who lived in Victorian England and suffered from great lonliness his whole life because he was a homosexual. His poems all had a similar rhyme scheme and lovely sentiments.
| WHEN I was one-and-twenty | |
| I heard a wise man say, | |
| ‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas | |
| But not your heart away; | |
| Give pearls away and rubies | 5 |
| But keep your fancy free.’ | |
| But I was one-and-twenty, | |
| No use to talk to me. | |
| When I was one-and-twenty | |
| I heard him say again, | 10 |
| ‘The heart out of the bosom | |
| Was never given in vain; | |
| ’Tis paid with sighs a plenty | |
| And sold for endless rue.’ | |
| And I am two-and-twenty, | 15 |
| And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true. |
For a good time, read more poems by Housman.
Cheers and happy knitting,
Carol
