Purple prose

"Inceptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter Adsuitur pannus."  Horace.   

Or for those of us whose Latin is rusty: "Frequently with serious works and ones of great import, some purple patch or other is stitched on, to show up far and wide."

The purple patch above is the Divine Lace Scarf from Louisa Harding's "Hats Gloves Scarves", made from almost two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze "Violetta", and finished last night having been cast on in mid-August. Here it is modelled by Harriet:

It is as light as a feather, very soft and wonderfully warm, so this is one (or a version of it) to repeat.

Here is some more 'mauvish' prose while we're on the theme of "Violetta" or the flower Viola. It's Shakespeare, of course: "Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it, Love-in-idleness."

These paintings by Fred Cuming incorporate my favourite purpley blues.

With the scarf blocking last night I began a little something in Alpaca Silk, so I've moved from a fine yarn to a weightier one and from purple to lime green -

More Horace to end with: "Difficile est proprie communia dicere." Or, "It's hard to utter common notions in an individual way"

and "Brevis esse laboro, Obscuris fio" which means "I strive to be brief, and I become obscure"

.....both of which sum up this post neatly.

Comments

[peg]

Beautiful purple haze! Wish I could wear that particular yarn! My winter pansies are still covered in snow! But they are hardy and will pop back once this white mess is gone. Wonder what Shakespeare would say about tired snow?
Purple and lime green seem popular this year. I knit knitty's Fetching fingerless for my granddaughters this year. One pair in purple and one pair in lime green. Hope they like them!
Haven't seen so much Latin since I took it in school! Thanks.

[Charity]

Beautiful purple scarf! I've longed to knit something out of Kidsilk Haze, it looks lovely.

I made a lace/cable scarf earlier this year in the Alpaca Silk in that colourway. It was wonderful to work with. :0)

[Helen]

Have you read jeanmiles.blogspot.com today? She's knitting and quoting the classics too.

[Nan]

What a treat for the eyes, both this post and the one with the paintings. They have me dreaming of purple iris which I won't see for months.
Nan

[Fiberjoy]

That's a scarf i would gladly wear with pride. I like everything about it.
It's late here and now you have my mind spinning with Latin, purple and poetic words & pictures. Stuff dreams are made of. (Well, not the Latin.)

[Kat with a K]

Beautiful!