10 November 2016

Lazy summer days are now just a memory

Old Vicarage Grantchester, photo by Tim Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
We were in Cambridge a couple of months ago. It was one of those lazy summer days when the most energetic thing we wanted to do was walk down from the restaurant through the Grantchester Meadows to the river below.

The sun was shining and the punts were meandering slowly along the river, picnickers were feeding the ducks, or just sitting with their feet dabbling in the slowly‐moving stream.
Grantchester Meadows, photo by Tim Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
Ah, if only one could bottle days like that... The gentle breeze rhythmically blowing the tops of the grasses into waves of movement, the buzzing insects busily visiting the nodding purple heads of clover. 

Pink Floyd wrote a song about this very place:
See the splashing of the kingfisher flashing to the water.
And a river of green is sliding unseen beneath the trees,
Laughing as it passes through the endless summer
making for the sea.
Picture
and before them, Rupert Brooke wrote his poem, The Old Vicarage, Grantchester in nostalgic mood from his sick bed in Berlin. It ends:
Yet stands the clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?
Autumn colour, photo by Tim Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
But, no. Summer has gone and a chill east wind has been bringing down the last of the autumn leaves. The snow that has been in the north this week hasn't arrived in Grantchester yet, but it certainly looks as though it might arrive soon.
Grantchester Scarf by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
About this time last year, I was knitting a stitch pattern from our Reversible Knitting Stitches book and made what proved to be a super‐cozy scarf. As soon as I put it on, I felt warmer and my mind immediately went to the cold, swirling winds of Cambridgeshire that I wrote about in a previous blogpost here. So I named it the Grantchester Scarf.

The stitch pattern is called Ribbon Basket Pattern and I love the way the rib and garter patterning forms into deep rugged folds. If you would like to see more details about the Grantchester Scarf, then please click here. The pattern is available for immediate download from the site.

This is the latest knitting idea in my "Winter Knits" blogpost series. Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at lots of ideas for items you can make either for yourself or as a gift for some lucky recipientIf you would like to read the introduction to the series, then please click here

Many thanks once again to my husband Tim for his photos. I wouldn't get half as much knitting done without being able to sit and knit while he is taking his great photos! If you'd like to see some more of his work, then please have a look at his Flickr site.

Until next time – Happy Autumn Knitting!

Moira
Reversible Knitting Stitches by Moira Ravenscroft & Anna Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs

Last Blogpost: Vera calling
Winter Knits Introduction: What time is it?
​Next Up: Keep them warm this winter

​​Our book: Reversible Knitting Stitches
My Website: www.wyndlestrawdesigns.com
Keywords: Series/Winter Knits, Patterns/Mens Patterns,
winter knitting, reversible stitches, reversible knitting, knitting stitches, reversible knitting stitches, scarf, scarves, texture, reversible scarf, Cambridge, UK, poem, poetry, Grantchester Meadows,

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