“Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
and marigolds all in a row?”

– “Mistress Mary” as printed in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The lace in this cowl is reminiscent of the shape of the cockleshell flower. Growing up, I read The Secret Garden so often my copy fell apart. Near the beginning of the book, “Mistress Mary” is used as a taunt against the main character, but by the end Mary is more of a free spirit and tends to the garden in the book’s title. This cowl is an intermediate knit. It is long enough to be pulled up and cover the face against chilly autumn winds, yet is also light and can be stuffed away in a bag if the day warms up – as adaptable as the plants in The Secret Garden.