I chose the colors as a Valentine’s day gift for my daughter
and as I worked on the scarf, I found myself remembering my wedding,
twenty-five years ago this month.
Like the colors in the scarf, my bridesmaids wore deep burgundy satin
gowns and carried bouquets of fuchsia, dusky pink and bing cherry colored
roses, set off by creamy old lace and trailing ivy. The wedding was themed around my dress, a Victorian fancy
popular back then. I wouldn’t have
that theme now, and honestly, I only had it then because the dress was just the
right sale price for our broken shoestring budget. Sadly, due to my severe affliction of calendar
dyslexia–symptoms of which include a non-existent ability to use calendars,
reversing dates and crying a lot when stuck in airports due to having booked
the wrong week on travel reservations–my lovely rose and cream colored wedding,
perfect for Valentine weekend, occurred on…February 4th, not February 14th. Sigh. Never mind, it was all about the
honeymoon anyway…a gift of unparalled and deeply appreciated generosity from my
new in-laws, a week on the romantic isle of Bora Bora in the South Pacific.
Zoe in "Diva" Scarf and Mitts - Scarf adapted from Lion Brand Blossom Scarf Pattern (I used one strand of worsted weight wool, H/8 Hook and crocheted 24 roses.)
I used some of the yarn left over from the scarf to knit a pair of fuchsia and cherry colored fingerless mitts, added a crochet trim that matched the petals on the scarf and a little crocheted drawstring tied in a bow to pull the edging tighter and make it “rufflier”–is that a word, rufflier? It should be, because that word even looks ruffley, with those two “f’s” in the middle.
So on this ruffley, lacey, candle lit and chocolate cream day, why not send yourself two dozen roses? Real ones will do just fine or if you’re feeling the creative urge, pick up four or five skeins of yarn in luscious colors that bewitch and enchant all of your senses and crochet yourself a garden. If you find yourself wondering who the love of your life will be as you’re smelling your roses or running your beautiful yarn between thumb and forefinger, follow gypsy lore and go to sleep tonight with a bay leaf beneath your pillow – the Romany say if you really believe, you’ll soon be seeing the countenance of your true love in your dreams!
To finish off with a flourish, I’ll say that for us romantics, (and I think that’s all of us) there’s nothing else that can set hearts on this gorgeous green and blue planet to spinning like Pablo Neruda. I’ll end here with a few lines from his Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets):
XXVII
Naked, you are simple as one of your hands,
Smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round:
You have moon-lines, apple-pathways:
naked, you are slender as a naked grain of wheat.
Naked, you are blue as a night in Cuba,
You have vines and stars in your hair;
Naked, you are spacious and yellow
As summer in a golden church.
Naked, you are tiny as one of your nails-
Curved, subtle, rosy, till the day is born
And you withdraw to the underground world.
As if down a long tunnel of clothing and chores:
Your clear light dims, gets dressed-drops its leaves
And becomes a naked hand again.
© Pablo Neruda, 1959 - translated by Stephen Tapscott
© 1986 by the University of Texas Press
Happy Valentine’s Day!



