Just over seventeen years ago I took a trip to Paris with my then boyfriend and another couple. Faced with my first trans-Atlantic flight I picked out the thickest book I could find in the airport bookstore, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I wasn't expecting much but I fell in love with it. I read it over the Atlantic, in cafes, sitting on the edge of the reflecting pool in front of the Louvre, sitting along the Sienne on a glorious spring day.
On our first night in Paris the four of us went on a jet lag fueled walk at two a.m. on what happened to be recycling night. We were staying in St. Germaine des Pres, surrounded by design houses. Out on every curb in front of every shop was barrel after barrel of beautiful fabric samples. I gathered up as many as I could, making my companions scoop them up with me. It was like Christmas, in the spring, in Paris!
That first book became a series now on it's eighth volume. Over the years these books have stayed with me, the characters like a secret family. My mom has also come to love them. I have laughed, cried, been bored, been worried, and happy over these books for almost two decades.
This vest is my tribute to book number eight, Written In My Own Hearts Blood.
This time the story ends with a family happily reunited in the home they have made in a place called Fraser's Ridge. Happy, teary, joyful ending.
The yarn is yarn I had bought on a whim, on sale. It is brown with green tones throughout. The fabric is the last of that long ago Parisian hoard. Serendipity.
For even more serendipitous, I began making cropped, appliqued vests inspired by the work of a woman named Flora Kennedy, who sells her designs under the name Innerwild. She is also the person who created the knitwear worn by the main character in the upcoming series of, you guessed it, Outlander.
The show airs this summer, I can't wait. In the meantime I will keep on knitting,
Some mitts and maybe a cowl to match my vest.
Oh, and for some more serendipity, that top that goes so well with the vest, thrifted for three dollars while I was at the local charity shop hoping to find a replacement for my long lost copy of that very first book.
No luck with the book but you can't have everything.
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