Really Into Lavendar Right Now

Ever since I started reading, THE WILDWATER WALKING CLUB by Claire Cook, author of Must Love Dogs, I have been fixated on Lavendar - both the color and the plant. This novel is about a 40-something senior executive woman who has taken a Voluntary Buyout from a tennis shoe company and feels at a turning point in her life. Her boyfriend has dumped her. She feels frumpy and depressed. With a ton of newfound time on her hands, she is creating a new life for herself. She meets two new friends who join her on a plan to walk 10,000 steps per day. They all wear pedometers and begin taking walks together every morning - in the beginning the goal is to get in shape, but as the main characters says (I'm paraphrasing here): "I started walking for vanity's sake, but ended up walking for sanity's sake."

The reason for the lavendar obsession is that one of the friends owns a lavendar farm and they all begin making lavendar sachets, dream pillows, lavendar and mint in their gardens, as well as cooking with it. I have been having a serious desire to go out and buy some lavendar to make my own Dream Pillow and maybe some Lavendar Essential Oil - to make who knows what concoction. The book is full of recipes that sound really fun to try.


I also started making a shawl for myself, the Aoelian shawl from Knitty, that I think will be beautiful in a lavendar-grey color called "New York." I have some lavendar beads to go with it. It's a beaded shawl and is my first attempt at ever making a shawl out of cobweb like lace. My extremely patient friend Kay helped me get it started. Though I LOVE making shawls, I hate starting them, so she got me on my way through the provisional cast on and the first few rows that were the most frustrating. I think I have 27 stitches on the needles now and am on like maybe the 8th row of the setup section of the chart.

Now I'm getting ready to dive into a bath of Lavendar and Chamomile.