Butterflies

If you’re anything like me, you haven’t touched your winter sweater pile since the end of moth season.

And so now, at the dawn of autumn, and the promise of a good, honest, cold breeze, you might be thinking about taking that entire pile and dumping it in cold water with a little hand-washing soap to freshen them all up.

I’m here to tell you to stay that hand, folks.

Today, I have been given a well-learnt lesson in taking my time with my hand knits.

Butterflies.

In my case, small tortoiseshells. These beautiful ladies like to flutter into our houses this time of year, you see, looking for a nice undisturbed spot to settle down and hibernate for the winter. And wouldn’t you know it, it appears my sweaters have become the local hot spot for sleepy tortoiseshells this season.

Five, in fact. All found snuggled into creases and folds of the first few jumpers of the top pile.

I didn’t take a photo of them in situ, I decided instead to get them outside on this nice warm, dry day so they can find somewhere better to bed down.

Ideally, I wouldn’t disturb them. I love knowing my home is filled with these little ladies, and the excitement that their reappearance causes in early winter when we turn the heating on and they all wake up thinking it’s spring is pretty life-affirming.

(Don’t worry. I catch them gently in my hands and pop them into a container where they can sleep the rest of the winter away in our very cold bathroom.)

It took this lot all of a minute to wake up in the sun’s rays and flutter off.

I hope they find a better spot to hibernate, and sure, if they end up fluttering back into my bedroom, at least now that my jumpers are all washed and drying on the line, they’ll have somewhere clean and fresh to slumber.