‘Emily’ my February blanket: a humble homage to the Brontë sisters.

As you probably knew already,  last weekend, I went to my first STYLECRAFT’S BLOGSTARS  meeting.

It will take all week for the experience to sink in and  I am still in the process to write a blog entry about what I saw , who I met and millions of ideas and exciting new projects, but today I am going to give you an update on my plans for the February blanket.

Stylecraft’s HQ is in Yorkshire in the north east of England, a wonderful rugged landscape well worth a visit if you got the chance.

While I was there for the weekend, I  decided to stay an extra day and fulfil a wish  that I had  wanted for ages.

I went to Haworth to see the Brontë Parsonage.

As with all the things that you put up off for a long time, I had developed some sort of concern that there was a possibility of disappointment. And that  my experience wasn’t going to be what I expected. But I m very pleased to say that it was not  the case for this visit.

I wanted to see the house in winter, and also I wanted to see it when it wasn’t too crowded because in a very selfish way it was quite an important pilgrimage for me.

I was very fortunate, I arrived there at  twilight ,just before closing, beautifully quiet, as the museum had just reopened last week and many are not aware of it.

It was wonderful to be standing in solitude  in their very  front garden.

You are wondering why a 50 something year old  woman is so fascinated by the Brontë sisters?

Well I, have been fascinated by them for most of my life, since I read their novels and poems when I was a teenager, I  never  saw them as a  gloomy trio of unmarried women in a  isolated village in the Yorkshire’s moors  telling tales of love , despair and sometimes  happy endings.

I thought of them as witty , intelligent and also quite troubled women, well ahead of their time, raising topics that are still pertinent today , 200 years later. Drawing attention with their novels on subjects such as; choosing  your own path,  independence and being true to yourself .

The Brontë sisters have all an extraordinary ability to express their emotions so intensely about, not just love , loss, and  passion; but also about rage, madness, and domestic abuse, and  the reality of working just with the sole purpose to survive.

What also appeals to me a great deal is the fact that you can  be an extraordinary individual  without living a life full of  epic experiences.

So back to my visit…

I was standing at twilight in the front garden of the parsonage and looking at the colours, the light, the moss on the tombstones, the interiors  of the house with their soft dusty blues , greens and purples,  the books, paintings, clothes, kitchen utensils and objects of an ordinary life and I felt so content in being there.

To capture in a tangible way how I felt , I m going to dedicate my February blanket to my favourite Brontë sister, Emily, a blanket to remember my visit to Haworth on a beautiful winter afternoon.

I selected the yarn , a mix of tweeds and solid colours , some soft alpaca mix  for comfort against the gloomy weather, and a  general mood for the blanket.

the tomato looks more like an hot pink in this picture…which is not right but it give you an idea, hopefully in the next few days if it is not raining I will be able to take a better  picture.

The pattern is nearly there too; I am still tweaking with it.  It is going to be different from what I normally make but hopefully will work . more updates as the week progresses.

Love you all Lucia x