You won't be surprised to read, I'm sure, that I'd always rather knit than garden. Yarn beats earth under the finger nails every time. But would I rather knit than be in the garden? Well, no. Luckily the two can often be combined. To sit in the garden, any garden, and knit the afternoon away is bliss. Throw in a little light reading, a cuppa or two and a slice of cake ... I'll be in paradise!*
Stuck indoors with my knitting on a rainy afternoon I read about gardens. Gardens, not gardening. Garden history and the histories of particular gardens, gardeners' memoirs and the biographies of gardeners. Perennial favourites are read again and again. Four Hedges
by Claire Leighton, The Morville Hours
by Katherine Swift, and Derek Jarman's Garden
... the reason so many of my knitting projects are photographed atop a book is simple, if the one is to hand then so is the other. And looking at the yarn I've bought for my second bash at Color Affection I guess my reading matter can subliminally affect my colour choices!I'm knitting the same shallower shawl I was bested by before, but with a thicker yarn for a denser fabric, DROPS Alpaca ... I adore this yarn!
We really don't have much of a garden here. A paved courtyard with a few pebbled bits, a scattering of mature shrubs at the margins - mostly jasmines and ivies - and terracotta pots and iron-work hanging baskets planted with herbs and flowers - basil, mint and marjoram, lavender, violas and violently orange geums - that's us. But it's south facing, a proper sun trap, quite lovely in summer. And it's shaggy, because as Derek Jarman says, "If a garden isn't shaggy, forget it". Of course our little plot isn't a patch on Jarman's Dungeness shingle spectacular, that's all driftwood and beachcombed metal marvels, sea kale and santolina, poppies, vipers bugloss and valerian, and it speaks to something deep within my soul.
When you dream of the perfect garden what do you see? Red brick garden walls or an open aspect? Tangled or tidy? And how about your own garden?** Large or small, town or country, neat or not? I'd love to know.
Just a quick note about the Bryn Tanat Knitter's and Crocheter's Retreat next March. I'll be emailing everyone who expressed an interest more details very soon, but the good news, if you missed this the first time around, is that there may still be a place or two available. I have far more people saying 'maybe' than we could accommodate, but not quite enough folk who know for sure that they're free to come. Just follow the link for more information, or email me.
* Paradise, from the ancient Persian, 'a green place' or garden!
** Did you see Emma of Silver Pebble fame's garden in the July edition of Country Living? What a riotous joy! I already coveted her workshop and now I kinda want her garden too!
Your colour choice is sublime. I have just finished up my linen shawl and am now deliberating colours for Stripe Study. I love to knit in the garden and find I am much more of a summer, al fresco knitter than a winter one.
ReplyDeleteHaving just come in from the pottering round the garden, I can easily imagine al-fresco knitting! (I f I could knit that is...)
ReplyDeleteEmma's garden is very pretty isn't it? Mine's a tiny paved, walled courtyard garden with ever increasing borders (I keep removing paving slabs to create more garden potential)
Hello Annie:
ReplyDeleteYou will not be at all surprised to learn that, as we may well have said previously, given a choice we should prefer gardening over knitting being quite incapable of threading a needle let alone mastering the art of 'casting off' if that is the correct term.
For over twenty-five years we slaved over our 2 acre Herefordshire garden [poor deluded fools that we are] and so now enjoy the luxury of not being responsible, either here in Budapest or in Brighton, for any outside space.
But of course we love to read, and to read about gardens, but have no wish any more to own one. Always though we come down on the side of the very formal with, whenever possible, an absence of 'colour' apart from green and a little white!
Oh your yarn Annie, I'm in love!! :)
ReplyDeleteI'll check out the link but I think I'm well beyond SABLE now. ;)
My garden is on the edge of a town, average size I suppose, a bit messy in places neat in others but it's mine and I love it!! :)
Vivienne x
P.S. We've got sunshine today, yay!!
Dear Annie
ReplyDeleteMy garden is a small, longish town garden which is crammed to the gunnels with a riotous mixture of hardy geraniums, roses, clematis and pots of all kinds of things. If I was being polite, I would describe it as organised chaos, but truthfully there isn't that much organisation involved. I love being out there and also love reading too - one of my favourite books is The Morville Hours and I have got Four Hedges waiting for me. I dream about half an acre or so of traditional cottage garden, a few fruit trees, raspberries and a raised bed veg plot, perhaps with formal hard landscaping but with that riot of planting that I love... Well, you did ask!
Best wishes
Ellie
Lovely to know a little more about your garden. I am a fair weather gardener and only want to put the hours in when the sun comes out. Ours is small and square (rather like our boring three bed semi) but is redeemed by an apple tree and a dry stone wall.
ReplyDeleteMy ideal garden would be the one in Charleston, the Bloomsbury spot of paradise (love the etymology there!) in East Sussex. Or anything that says English country garden. That garden, and house, as you so beautifully put it "speaks to something deep within my soul"
Annie, A girl after my own heart. I love reading about gardens, and those who garden. I have ordered both Four Hedges and The Morville hours, good old Amazon. Our garden is long and fairly narrow, VERY green with hedges, trees and shrubs. The area is semi rural, once a pretty backwater, but getting more urbanised by the day. The village is surrounded by farm land and as such we have a fair percentage of elderly farming folk living here. We have some glorious gardens around and about,where the farmers display their growing skills. We also have no shortage of inspiration, with no less than eight garden centres within a two mile radius of us. I love trees and abundant planting. However I like looking at the garden more than working in it, as someone famous once said 'There's the rub'
ReplyDeleteI love the bold lime green :)
ReplyDeleteI am certainly a tangled not tidy kind of a garden owner - I say owner because much like a dog owner, I have trained it but it usually does what it wants to anyway!
Gorgeous photographs Annie!
ReplyDeletevictoria xx
Your colours remind me of my Ravilious blanket which is languishing in a bag somewhere in my wardrobe. Must. Get. On. With .It.
ReplyDeleteI love a 'shaggy' garden and think i said as much recently. I love this tumbling, ebullient look when flowers can pop up in the most unexpected places but it also reflects the fact that I am, at heart a bit lazy about keeping things tidy! I have a fantasy in my head that involves a Mr McGreggor type vegetable patch but I don't put enough time and effort in to really pull it off! Ho hum...
ReplyDeleteYour first paragraph there sound like my idea of Heaven, too! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love the photos in this post - what amazing colour combinations!!!
I love all sorts of gardens. I like cottagey, flowery ones. But I also like ultra-modern ones. I think which kind I dream of sitting in depends on my mood at the time. We just have a little garden, with a bit of grass, a wooden deck, and some herbs and salad leaves planted around. We also have a terrace on the top floor of our house, though, and that's where we spend most of our time when the sun's out.
Carly
x
Annie, as you WELL know I am a great lover of garden (history) books. My shelves are groaning with them. This post has indeed been a little corner of paradise for me on this rainy (again?!) afternoon. Thank you kindred spirit for making me even happier:-)
ReplyDeleteStephanie
ps Had I had more time to write my post yesterday I would have explained that what appeals to me in French gardens is their 'mise-en-scène' more than their aesthetic qualities. All gardens are outside theatre spaces; French ones with their linear construction and open spaces are, to my mind, perfect for outdoor plays both real (everyday life) and imaginary.
ReplyDeleteI hope we get some good knitting in the garden weather soon! I love courtyard gardens - I think the scale is less overwhelming for me. We have a long garden that I never quite get to grips with as I'm more likely to be knitting too! Your retreat idea sounds wonderful, though too far away for me to commit to I shall follow the plans with interest.
ReplyDeleteIf you saw the pictures in my last post, you see I am definitely on the untidy side , I love a cottage garden with volunteers reseed willy nilly. My husband keeps the vegetable plot in pretty straight lines, but we do stick in some odd flowers here and there. Yesterday I sat out and read and knitted in the shade till it got too warm even ther. Hoping for a big storm to cool things down.
ReplyDeleteWe at last got some sun today so I did garden a wee bit. My all time favourite would be a smallish courtyard garden where everything is in pots or troughs, no digging. And lots of fragrant climbing things. What we have is definitely shaggy.
ReplyDeleteThe wool colours are awesome. But I am a Winter knitter. But a leeeetle bit tempted now!
My garden is smallish and scruffyish, but with some judicious pruning we just gained an extra 6 feet on 3 of the four sides so I'm very excited with new plans. I think the books you read sound very interesting - will have to check them out.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Emma's garden is not only beautiful but usually filled with the happy chatter of small voices which makes it a delightful place to spend time!
I adore your colour choices for the colour affection shawl. I've just ordered my own colours for this very shawl and it's a good job I didn't see your choices first, I may just have had to copy your style! I can't wait to see how yours progresses though, surely it will be stunning.
ReplyDeleteMy perfect garden would probably be a walled, cottage garden affair, with a little shaggy as I wouldn't want it too perfect. My actual garden is a part successful, part unsuccessful attempt to capture that feel in the garden of ex-council semi! Probably because I'd also always choose yarny pursuits over floral ones, it's not everything I'd like it to be. But there are little pockets that do delight me.
S x
A little reading a bit of crochet for me as although I can knit a bit a square is as good as it gets. But I am there with you Annie! There is something wonderful about being in your own garden.
ReplyDeleteOur garden is quite long but a chunk at the back is for parking. I have a low wall around my lawn which is handy for growing things in pots. Two little raised veg beds and I am growing things in any little nook I can. Without taking too much lawn for my girls to play on. Can be hard at time though as garden mania takes over! lol. Have to say I do love to potter in the garden. I would say a bit wild and shaggy with a bit of order about our garden. My dream garden would big big with lots of different areas to enjoy different things in. Certainly a lovely area for an outdoor camp fire! That would go down well with the girls and the Mr in our house!
P x
My garden is beyond shaggy, Annie, unless a green wilderness can be considered shaggy. the recent rain means everything is growing at super speed, including the weeds. Love the new yarn - good luck with the second attempt.
ReplyDeleteHello, Annie! Just found your cute blog via Helen Philipps. I absolutely agree with your idea of paradise :o) You could see my small balcony garden in my few last posts, if you like :o) Love your pictures.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Please, came to enter into my giveaway ;o)
kisses from Russia
Natasha
Beautiful colours!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a beautiful garden but I hate gardening so we moved to a bigger house with a smaller garden last time. It was well stocked and tended by former owners so we have lots of roses and other things which pop up and bring joy, but as for the weeding..... I have a lovely lady who comes to take care of that, but not often enough in this wet weather so at the moment it's a little like a rosefilled ungle out there
Jungle!!!! (stupid iPad!)
DeleteI currently have no garden to speak of, only a wilderness combined with a building site for the forseeable future, paradise is something I can only dream of. I do have a considerable stash though but may well be tempted to add to it thanks to your link, not that you'll be surprised.... ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love the Derek Jarman garden - really amazing place!
ReplyDeleteThe English country garden is my favorite, but I have yet to succeed in pulling one together in my 61 years thus far. We are testing a new spot for raised beds in our yard by putting out 4 wooden tubs for tomatoes and herbs. By the front door we have several rose bushes, some lobelia, creeping thyme and lavender. I love to admire garden books and have looked into the whole permaculture approach this spring. Knitting in the garden sounds so lovely. The closest I have come to that was knitting at Dodge Park on the Sandy River near Portland OR last summer. Joy to you...from Gracie <3
ReplyDeleteI have vegetable in my window boxes and on the veranda but the garden is mostly a tangle of shrubs and trees with a patch of grass for the boys trampoline. My ideal garden would be an arboretum - I love trees and shrubs. I like flowers too but mostly on my trees and bushes. Its the middle of winter here so no knitting outside. Inside with a cup of tea and a warm room (heater/fire/whatever)would be my ideal just at present.
ReplyDeleteAnd a piece of choc cake for that extra little bit of pleasure:)
viv in nz
My garden has gone to the chickens over the last two months altho I wondered down with a torch to the veges to satisfy a craving for basil at 1 pm last night. How interesting that you love the Derek Jarman book so dearly. I found it in London years ago and finally tracked it down a couple of years back here. It is one of my comfort books. On a grey and drizzly day here, you have inspired me to pull it out and indulge in its stark beauty again. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat is best than being in a garden at that moment of the year? I never considered knitting the Color Affection with Drops Alpaca, but now I just may copy you! I love your color combo Annie!
ReplyDeleteHi Annie, I did laugh at your Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy - I may well pinch that to mention in my next post! (with credits of course!)
ReplyDeleteWe have an average sized cottage garden - looking VERY shaggy with all this rain. I would love a white-washed courtyard garden, with mosaic shrines in the walls and lots of tiered pots....though why I can't incorporate these features in our present garden is any bodies guess. Confusingly, I would also like a garden large enough to keep free-range hens......some people are never satisfied!
I love the idea of knitting in my garden, but I inevitably end up weeding / preventing Next Door's Cat from indulging in her favourite pastime of wool snorgling / being involved in conversations with neighbours over the wall. Far too distracting...
ReplyDelete(I have even been known to take my spinning wheel out there, but unspun fleece is even more attractive to cats with a wool fetish. It's lovely in theory. Would you like a cat?)
Beautiful colours. Gardens should definitely be shaggy,though it does seem far too easy to go from shaggy to out of control. Actually that seems to apply to life in general.
ReplyDeleteHi Annie - another gorgeous, inspiring post! I envy you your outdoor space, however limited and have pangs of nostalgia for my shaggy English garden that backed onto a bird-filled little wood. In time, I'll have my Spanish garden, filled with tomatoes, peppers and herbs - maybe not shaggy in the rainy-climed sense but hopefully overgrown with my favourite things. Right now, it's too hot to knit here in Spain and I'm glad you've given me a reason to keep my small stash small - I absolutely intend to outlive!!
ReplyDeleteDerek Jarman's garden is one of my top ten books. I bought it before I had a garden of my own and have daydreamed with it ever since.
ReplyDeleteI love the yarn colours you've chosen for your shawl.
ReplyDeleteI usually find that once I start gardening I enjoy it, so long as I have a decent stretch of time to get something worthwhile done. I do like having a nice garden. I don't mind weeds too much, better that there are just plenty of plants.
Thank you for contacting me about the knit/crochet retreat. From being a "maybe" I'll definitely say no. It would have been lovely but it's just too far and too pricey for my current time & money budgets. I hope all who do manage to attend have a wonderful time.
That yarn looks so gorgeous - the colours of the sea.
ReplyDeleteFor me it would have to be walled, cottage - front and back - with a Summer house and patch (rather large) for veggies and fruit 'oh' and an orchard looking out, beyond onto fields. Not much really.
Nina xxx
I do wonder what Derek Jarman would have made of our garden, it is shaggy beyond belief. My ideal would be both. I beautiful walled affai complete with herb garden leading on to a meadow filled with poppies, other wild flowers and plenty of butterflies to boot. Oh and a gardener!
ReplyDeleteYour new yarn colours are stunning Annie, I shall look forward to seeing the finished article.
Kate x
That shawl is very popular among my blogging friends right now. :)
ReplyDelete"Basil, mint and majoram, lavender, violas" ... what a lovely string of words that is. We have almost no garden to speak of (alas) - just a few small beds next to the steps and a tiny patch carved out of the side lawn (currently holding lettuce and destined for green beans later in the season). I would love a large veggie and herb garden. And my dream garden? A brick wall sounds nice (there's something so romantic about the idea of a hortus conclusus), but I'd like lots of open space too, with a shaggy riot of flowers, a bit of lawn, and mature shady trees to sit under. And plenty of cuppas and cake!
We visited Derek Jarman's garden on our recent trip to Dungeness and it blew me away - quite literally as it happens! I would like to go back and see it in summer when the sea kale and poppies are out - and that light - that wonderful light.
ReplyDeleteI love my garden as it is, but its essentially a walled garden. In an ideal world I would love a walled garden, room for a Summer House PLUS a wildflower meadow and a small orchard. It would be nice to have views as well!
Our garden is fairly small and quite formal in its lines, although I love cottage garden planting. It has flower beds with lots of hebes (love them), perennials and bulbs, and raised beds for veg, herbs and annuals. Pea-shingle takes the place of grass! I have lots of lavender, santolina and rosemary which thrives in the south-west facing aspect. Jasmine, clematis and honeysuckle clamber over hazel hurdles separating us from the neighbouring cottage (a holiday home and used only a few times a year!), a shed with ambitions to become a very small garden room, a straight brick path and most importantly a shady patio area outside the kitchen to enjoy meals al fresco! Weather permitting!
Jeanne
x
Our garden is a beautiful mess, a wreck and tangle of tall grass, unexpected flowers, chickens, rusted metal wire sculptures, vegetable beds, and at the moment a parade of my little ponies on the grill! I have big garden dreams, but I don't have big garden time, so it tends to ramble and confangle (my made up word for the day). I don't knit, so would I rather garden or any other made with my hands type activity? It all depends on the day.
ReplyDeleteYour photos and that color way are stunning! Happy week to you.
Oh I so loved reading Four Hedges, and felt very lucky to find it in my marvelous library.
ReplyDeleteYour garden knitting looks quite beautiful! There is something rather swell about enjoying more than one of our senses at a time. If knitting in a garden, with some sort of refreshments at hand, I think that you'd have all the senses happy at once.
xo
Hey Annie, when I look at my garden what do I see? In amongst the shrubs are weeds, the grass needs a good mow, the trees pruning and the vegie garden....tidying up. What would I like to see? A gardener and a helper or two.
ReplyDeleteI was a gardener until my little sewing bent, surfaced. Now I am a very sporadic gardener. I love garden books written by Marion Cran or Beverley Nicholls ( not solely on gardening but descriptions of a bygone era have me craving a simpler life !)
SABLE what a hoot.......for a sewer if must be FABLE..... fabric acquisition beyond life expectancy!!
Love your pics, gorgeous yarn colours.....enjoy your week.
Claire :}
Annie, this is a lovely post. Got me daydreaming and set my mind wandering. I am only just starting to get our garden into shape and I don't have much space to work with but my ideal garden is big, shaggy and slightly overgrown with beds full of cutting flowers and herbs. I'd have a patio in full sunshine with wicker furniture and a fire pit, a patio area under the shade of a tree or pergola for reading and relaxing and a big day bed piled with vintage eiderdowns and cushions in a shady corner in the summer. If I had a big lawn I'd erect an enormous yurt at the beginning of the summer, bedeck it with fairy lights and furniture and use it as an extra room for the duration. Ah.... love a good daydream!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week. xxx
Nicki
PS can you read and knit at the same time? I have yet to master the art of doing anything else whilst I crochet or sew! Am impressed :)
Love the colours that you're working in now Annie - they will make a beautiful shawl. I completely agree with the title of your post - knitting in the garden is paradise. My own little patch is well-loved but a bit small. I think if I could have any garden in the world it would have a big old table with benches under a pergola, espalier apple trees growing against a crumbly brick wall, a large area of raised beds with veggies covered in cloches, a formal knot-type herb garden and a view out of the garden over the ha-ha towards distant wooded hills. Can you tell that I quite often daydream about the perfect garden?!
ReplyDeleteHi Annie
ReplyDeleteI just love the shades of wool you are currently working with and your little post about gardens. My garden (much like me) has two looks - the groomed and together look (which I am happiest with to be honest as I look out of my kitchen window and think ahhhh, thats a place i'd like to be) and the just got out of bed look!
After my recent shed chic post and the pictures I posted showing it looking just how I like it, it has since run a little wild and is in need of some serious tlc. Hmmm - I see a link here. Is our garden a window to our soul?
Thanks for the reminder about the Drops sale - I nabbed some of the fabulous (and cheap!) alpaca in olive, probably for Veera Välimäki's Sweet Vanilla Tunic.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky enough to have an allotment, but no garden at home, unfortunately. I still grow flowers there, for practice and pleasure. I think it would be hard for me to decide on plants for a purely decorative garden, because I love pale subtle shades for spring, but also riotous colour for summer, and bright, delicate Asian foliage for fall. So I would have to plan the timing very carefully. But maybe some day it can be done...
We visited Dungeness when my son was small to see DJ's garden, and there he was gardening amid the crambe and poppies. Tempted to interrupt, we decided against - after all why would anyone garden in such a hostile space unless they wanted privacy? But it had a profound effect on my son, and thereafter he collected all sorts to adorn our allotment garden a la Jarman. Alas, that allotment is now buried beneath the Olympic site, but we do have our other plots. In London, any garden is perfect if you are lucky enough to have some space!
ReplyDeletemy garden is very shaggy indeed, if I get the gist of what you mean by this. I think you would enjoy it. My favourite place to knit or crochet or stitch in the summer is on the weathered old garden bench, under the magnolia tree where the most beautiful green is stretched out above me and the scents of peony, wild rose, phlox, sweet pea..... fill the air.
ReplyDeleteWe have a relatively large lot around the house, which is an old farmhouse with an orchard (apple trees, pear trees, cherries and prunes). Our neighbour has his kettle on our ground so we don't have to cut the grass. The vegetable garden lays to the east and is small. and has lots all kind of really nasty weed in it. Now that it's my third year of gardening here, it's getting better. Let's not talk about the weather. Actually right now there isn't growing anything.
ReplyDeleteLiving in a newly developed area, my garden is still a bit sparse. I would do anything for shaggy! Love the yarn, I once knit a lace scarf with DROPS Alpaca in a beautiful heathered green, it is still one of my favourites :)
ReplyDelete(I hope this works, blogger has developed an appetite for my comments and has been eating them all recently)
My garden is a bit of jungle... a bit of colourful... a bit of veggie... and a lot of messy! xx
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colours for your shawl Annie...I haven't used the DROPS alpaca but the price is very reasonable, isn't it? I must give it a try...I do love all things alpaca...
ReplyDeleteI love my garden too! It's average size and south facing with lots of greenery and pots of colour but nothing too organised.
Hope you are having a good week,
Susan x
Hi, just catching up on posts, your idea of 'paradise' is similar to mine! I love being out in the garden and knitting. Your courtyard sounds very pretty, I have always loved the idea of a courtyard, all those lovely brick walls to decorate with climbers rather than boring falling down fences!! I am definitely going for the country cottage style garden but only got half of our plot started on this plan at the moment the other half is our 'wildflower' area ( a polite name for the overgrown part!!)
ReplyDeleteHope you get out sometime this week on your garden chair in the sun. (It's not raining here in Cheshire today HURRAY!!
Fleur xx
Am loving that shade you've chosen for the shawl - gorgeous. I have been known to do my pottery in my very shaggy garden, though not this year yet, unfortunately! xCathy
ReplyDeleteyour photos just get better and better Annie (and they were good to start with!)
ReplyDeleteOur garden is quite big - long, and is struggling with an identity crisis. Part of it wants to be the best football pitch ever for a ton of boys and part of it is much happier becoming the shaggy cottage garden I've always dreamed off. I'm trying not to fight the urge to shout 'mind my flowers' becasue I'm quite sure I'll miss the play when they've all flown the nest.
BUT.. the beautiful rambling rose is about to flower on the arbour
(/goal post) and I struggle to watch when the ball sends petals flying!
fee x
Lovely choice of colours. I've been forbidden from buying any more yarn or heavy craft books until after we have had some building works done on our house. My other half says he has more than enough to shift around in order for work to be done that he doesn't need any more adding to the huge pile. I have to agree. Maybe a yarn diet for a couple of months won't hurt me too badly?
ReplyDeleteOh and our garden is very shaggy, and we love it like that. We have several mature fruit trees round the garden edges and the neighbours have some other mature trees, so our patch of lawn and overgrown borders feel a bit like a woodland clearing. It feels like suburbia has moved to the countryside.