Shades of Autumn

Before we moved over here we weren’t sure the extent to which we’d experience a definite changing of the seasons. If we didn’t, it would definitely be the change from summer to autumn I would miss the most.

We needn’t have worried. Despite the high daytime temperatures, early mornings have a definite autumnal feel to them. The last couple of mornings there has been a heavy mist in the valley below us, so thick that the village on the hillside opposite us has looked like an island floating in the ether.

The Virginia creeper on the back of the barn is gradually displaying its autumn hues

And I’m waiting patiently for these to ripen.

These are Persimmon and I have a tree laden with them. If they do ripen I actually have no idea what I’ll do with them!

In keeping with the autumnal theme my WIP reflects the colours of autumn

This is the basic top down recipe from knittingfool.com with the lace pattern from Licorice Whip down the centre of the front. I knit Licorice Whip last year in the recommended Blue Sky Organic cotton and it is my favourite sweater. I’m hoping this slightly snugglier version will be just as wearable. The yarn is Malabrigo chunky merino, in unknown shade. The chunky yarn doesn’t have that buttery softness of the worsted but it’s still lovely and soft.

It’s good to be knitting again. When we first moved in things were just too hectic to even think about knitting, then it was too hot, and then I wanted to knit but hit a slight stumbling block. Now, I’m not one of those knitters who can pick up and put down their knitting at the drop of a hat, or knit while waiting for a bus / at the dentist / in the supermarket checkout queue etc etc. I like to SIT and KNIT, for a couple of hours at a stretch. In the past this has meant that 99% of my knitting was done in the evenings, while watching TV. When planning our move, we had a number of options regarding TV:

• Buy a new TV in France and watch French TV

• Take our UK TV and subscribe to one of the UK satellite TV packages for Brits

• Have no TV at all

• Take our TV and just watch the occasional DVD

We chose the last option. We really didn’t want to have UK TV programmes in our new life. Many English people here do, and that’s fine for them, and who knows by the time the middle of January is here we may be so bored of an evening we’re crying out for it, but I hope not. Watching French TV would be pointless on two counts: we don’t speak the language well enough, and French TV is crap.

However, we did think that on a cold winter’s evening when we’re snuggled up in front of the wood burner it might be nice to watch the occasional film. So for the last few months before the move I bought a DVD every week when I did the supermarket shop.

So far we haven’t turned the telly on once. We’ve sat outside, when the weather was warm enough, just chatting, we’ve read books, listened to music, occasionally surfed the net, but not once had the urge to watch TV. Ergo, no knitting.

I couldn’t let this continue, so last time I was in the UK I got a couple of audio books out of the library. Bliss! Now I can knit to my heart’s content, whilst being read a good yarn.

Problem solved.