Pagina's

zaterdag 18 januari 2014

Norwegian sweaters



Oh winter! ruler of the inverted year,
Thy scatter'd hair with sleet like ashes fill'd,
Thy breath congeal'd upon thy lips, thy cheeks
Fringed with a beard made white with other snows
Than those of age; thy forehead wrapt in clouds,
A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne
A sliding car indebted to no wheels,
And urged by storms along its slippery way;
I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,
And dreaded as thou art.  Thou hold'st the sun
A prisoner in the yet undawning East,
Shortening his journey between morn and noon,
And hurrying him impatient of his stay
Down to the rosy West.  But kindly still
Compensating his loss with added hours
Of social converse and instructive ease,
And gathering at short notice in one group
The family dispersed by daylight and its cares.
I crown thee king of intimate delights,
Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,
And all the comforts that the lowly roof
Of undisturb'd retirement, and the hours
Of long uninterrupted evening know.

John Cowper (1731-1800), Task, Book IV, vv. 120 ff.


After having tried out the new winter collection by Essie (in this case, Shearling Darling) and a few days of wearing only one colour on my nails, I found myself wanting to spice things up. Since it's still winter time - although one can hardly call our Dutch weather 'winter' at the moment, it's more like 'dark spring' - I thought why not make a simple design based on the beautiful patterns of the Norwegian sweater!  Which is also a coincidence because in a few weeks, I will be off to Norway for a (presumably fantastic) boat trip.

The result was this:


 

So I used a white nail art pen to simply create some patterns that look like knitting. I do not knit myself, but that does not mean that there aren't  some knitted things that I personally would not buy but do look amazing, like these:



They are so cute!
So, if you want to get creative with your nail art pen, just try out some patterns and get back that cosy winter feeling, that the poem describes!