Yesterday I finished the first of my purple socks – here it is: Retro Rib Sock in Forest from the Green Mountain Spinnery. I love it – even though it does seem a little mad knitting woolly socks when the temperature outside is so high. I guess that’s addiction for you…..sigh….

I have a thing about purple. I love the slight eccentricity, the not conforming of purple. I love that it can never be considered really smart and it’s always on the verge of being just a tiny bit alternative. My favourite winter colour. (In summer I trend towards turquoise!)

Jenny Joseph‘s poem has always made me smile…

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired

And gobble up samples in shops

And press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprized

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

My mother on the other hand, has a pathological aversion to purple. It makes her physically ill just to look at it. So it certainly isn’t something I’ve inherited!

Helen

This entry was posted on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 9:53 am and is filed under Knitting, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.