Colourful and Classic

Waterfall Jacket by Debbie Bliss

in Debbie Bliss Andes Mulberry Silk and Baby Alpaca

For Fidelma

This is essentially a shawl worked in broken rib with garter stitch border and I thought it might suit Fidelma, who herself is a series of harmonious contradictions of classic style and colourful statement. She’s also a bright, eternally youthful spirit with the very rare gift of acceptance without judgment...  She spots potential in places most people wouldn't even look, yet anyone thinking to cross Fidelma would also be very wise to think again.  That's how she is in general.

Here’s the type of friend she is.

Coming into the summer of 2001 a craze developed for miniature retro refrigerators which plugged into your car. In some super cool design stores you could get them to heat as well as chill.  And I yearned for one notionally, but never would have seriously contemplated buying - combinations of utility and frivolity hold a serious draw for me and I must have said so to Fidelma before immediately forgetting all about it.

Many months later -  the following year, in fact - I turned forty at a time when not a lot of things were going so well for me.  And on the morning of my birthday I awoke to black skies, heavy rain and answered a knock on the door to find Fidelma. She was diverting from her very long, crack-of-dawn cross-city trip to work to present me with this fridge in order to boost my spirit.

That's the kind of friend she is.

In am an ghátair, aithnítear fíorchara.