Jesse of Storied Yarns dyed and spun this yarn for me as part of her Poetry Pairs knit-a-long/spin-a-long ( I don't spin so she spun it for me). I asked her to surprise me with yarn inspired by either “Asleep! O sleep a little while, white pearl!” or " Keen, fitful gusts are whisp’ring here and there," both by John Keats. She choose "Keen, fitful...," the text of which follows: KEEN, fitful gusts are whisp’ring here and there Among the bushes half leafless, and dry; The stars look very cold about the sky, And I have many miles on foot to fare. Yet feel I little of the cool bleak air, Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily, Or of those silver lamps that burn on high, Or of the distance from home’s pleasant lair: For I am brimfull of the friendliness That in a little cottage I have found; Of fair-hair’d Milton’s eloquent distress, And all his love for gentle Lycid drown’d; Of lovely Laura in her light green dress, And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown’d. Jesse focused particularly on the couplet "The stars look very cold about the sky, /And I have many miles on foot to fare." You can see that her colors reflect the darkness and the coldness of a night winter sky. I love this poem and I suspect that Robert Frost did, too, for he certainly echoes Keats in the conclusion of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" : The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Since I am using this project in both my usual monthly Craft-a-Poem Challenge, as well as in Jesse's Poerty Pairs KAL/SAL, I wanted to choose a project that would reflect the poem's mood and meaning, and not just knit something out of Jesse's yarn and have that be the only connection to the poem. The Blue Faced Leicester fiber yielded 58 yards of bulky-super bulky yarn so I didn't have a lot of yardage. I thought that once the speaker arrives at the cottage, he would probably enjoy a steaming hot cup of tea, so I decided to make a tea cozy. I thought the moon and stars button represented the lines "The stars look very cold about the sky," and "those silver lamps that burn on high." I made a matching trivet with the leftovers and some handspun samples Jesse included in the package.

image above: The Bedminster factory Tobacco Cooling Room The great family-run tobacco firm of Wills had moved from Castle Street in 1791 to a triple gabled, ramshackle building in Redcliffe Street. The firm puffed along at an unremarkable rate producing snuff and pipe tobacco until 1861, when with the introduction of a steam engine, business expanded so rapidly that by the end of the decade new premises were needed again. It was in the 1870s that smoking cigarettes became popular and in the next few years Wills was to become a household name not only in Britain but throughout the empire. The introduction of the cigarette allowed women to sample tobacco with somewhat less stigma being attached to what had previously been considered an unfeminine habit. In 1890 H. H. Wills contentiously announced that smoking is a matter that every English woman must settle in her own conscience, and if she is married she must settle it between herself and her husband.