holmes_minor | The Poetry Page: On The Bummel with Mrs. Hudson

The weather is becoming a little chillier, and so this month I thought we wouldn’t go further than my parlour.

We shall light a small fire (hopefully in the grate but who can say in this household), make ourselves cosy, and do some…

Knitting!

Yes! It’s very popular at the moment of course, due to our dear queen’s enthusiasm for the pastime. And I have gathered together here some patterns that might inspire you—both with regards to knitting and for producing poetry.

Firstly, Mr. Holmes has started quite a trend with his ‘ear-flapped travelling-cap’ and I thought we could get started on Christmas presents for all the Scotland Yarders. The pattern dates from the 1850s but a good knitted cap never goes out of fashion!

Gentleman’s Travelling-Cap

Secondly, some lady’s fancy mittens—if you fancy that! (Sorry.)

Fancy Mittens

And finally, this intriguing article, which not only directs the reader to some information about the queen’s interest in knitting but also has photographs of knitted items that you might like to try producing yourself. I believe Gent's Knickerbocker Hose in Blantyre Plaid and a Beaded Purse are amongst those mentioned.

Knitting in the Contemporary Style

Before we all make our choices and get started though, I will offer you this quotation from Dr. Watson’s story ‘The Beryl Coronet’ as additional inspiration for your poems:

"Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire."

Here are the usual suggestions for poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so, everyone—let us cast on!