Looking For Mud

It’s good to be out of quarantine at last.

The Tyrannical Twinnage and I have been bimbling around south Oxfordshire’s various towns running errands today. One of those errands involved yarn, so I can’t complain. More on that, later. We took the winding back roads through thatched, rose*-covered villages, and over ancient stone hump-backed bridges that bounced the twinnage in their carseats and made them giggle. Those bridges criss-crossed the Thames, the river narrow and enthusiastic in its early reaches, nothing like the fat sluggish beast that snakes through London later on. Years ago, some friends and I walked the entire 184-mile length of the Thames from damp field in Wiltshire to the Thames Barrier at Greenwich in London, so these bridges bring back memories; happy, sore-footed memories.

Now, it’s late summer. You’d know it was late summer just from the colours: everything is beginning to fade. The vibrant new greens of spring have long ago dulled, and the fields are dry dusty-yellow. Even the sky looks tired. Autumn can’t be far away. These muted colours might work well if it was hot and hazy, but frankly, it’s barely warm. We haven’t really had a proper summer. I ought to go and live somewhere where there are real seasons.

I thought I’d do a floral rainbow montage because I haven’t done one in ages (maybe a year?) And I decided to make one just using photos of local wild flowers. This was a challenge because other than bright yellows and lots of whites, late summer wild flowers are as washed-out as the rest of the landscape. I had to cheat on the reds and use an under-ripe blackberry. Here’s the result:-

But the yarn. Yes yes, this is (yet another) instalment of the big-secret-house-crochety-thingy project. Having finished the house section (it has sides and a back, too, but I haven’t shown you those yet), I’ve gone back to finish work on the garden. I crocheted the lawn and knitted the pond, but I was wondering how to begin the surrounding flowerbeds (which will later be filled with flowers and veg). In the end, I decided to use the easy, cheaty approach, ie to crochet a whole big square of earth, onto which I can sew the lawn, pond, etc. But that meant I needed lots of mud-coloured yarn. Hence the trip to a yarn shop today.

You wouldn’t believe how many vaguely brownish aran-weight yarns there are available. I held them each up to the light and frowned, hoping that none of the sales assistants would come and offer help because I really didn’t want to have to reply, “I’m looking for something that resembles mud.” Just when the twinnage grew weary of playing with the toy-box at the back of the shop, I picked some mud-brown acrylic-alpaca (‘Aztec’ by James C Brett). It’s surprisingly soft. Progress so far, thus:-

I hope that the orderly rows of the flowerbed contrast nicely with the supposed-to-look-random muddle of the grass.

Meanwhile, don’t forget that there are still just a few final days in which to enter the Burrow and Soar yarn giveaway! Details here.

* Blimmin’ roses. 🙁