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I've so been slacking on blogging my knitted objects. Time for a little catch up!
So back in March, I went on a little get away weekend with the OCK and some other friends to the Pleasanton Scrapbook Expo. We stayed in a hotel up in Livermore and had some girl time together, which gave us time to finish the Loopy Ewe Woolpets kit that I bought for us to make together as part of the OCK's Christmas present. So we needlefelted our little Loopys together and man, did they turn out cute. Here's mine:
I also have been knitting Cookie's Hedera socks toe-up, though these got first put on hold for my mom's Brighton bag after I finished the first one.
I love the lace pattern on these:
I'm knitting these using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Devon colorway. It is so beautiful, I really love it and it thankfully isn't doing any of the wicked pooling my Lorna's usually does.
Now that I have finished knitting Brighton, the second sock is on hold while I knit my Froot Loop socks.
The yarn is Zen String Loopy Legends in the Michelle's Pretty Pink Cactus colorway. I thought it was very froot loopy and I still think so, though it also is a very watermelony colorway. The yarn is nice to knit though, and the colors are beauuuutiful. These will be an awesome pair of socks to wear I think.
I'm kind of proud of myself for knitting the pattern as written. Ordinarily I would have flipped the sock and done them toe up with a short row heel, but I actually have knit them top down and with the heel flap:
I don't mind the pooling that much, it did make kind of an interesting stripe around the leg. And I just think they are beautiful socks.
I can hardly wait to finish the second sock! I'll cast on for the second sock when I wake up later this morning! (I napped a bit, so I'm up rather... late.)I haven't quite finished the Brighton bag, though I did find some perfect fabric for the lining. I have to see if my sewing machine is in working order. The bobbin was behaving badly the last time the machine was used, and I've been dragging my feet with looking at it to see what is up with it.
That's all that I have photos of at the moment! Happy knitting.
So I have finally downloaded my photos from my visit to La Droguerie in Paris. Dude do I love this shop.
So when you first come in the door, their yarns are hanging from poles:
You get to see all the colors in that line as well as some swatches of the yarn knit up.
As you get into the store a little more, there start to be the boards above the yarns with projects knit out of their yarns.
I love the snails on the pants and jacket pockets on the display above.
Plus they have samples of kits they sell:
The cute kid patterns are just endless in this place:
After walking in the store a ways, there is a door that leads you to the second store front room that makes up their shop. That's where awesome overload goes into full overdrive.
There are embellishments like patches and other decorations:
And ribbons. Oh the ribbons:
On the left side of the wall across from the ribbons are flowers (below more awesomely cute kid patterns):
The flowers are directly in front of a little counter that seems to have been for sorting out button and bead purchases:
And then there is the bead supply (with samples of their jewelry projects from their jewelry book they are publishing):
Buttons of every color and style:
I think I mentioned this before, but how you shop in this store is you go to the main counter in the back with the pattern you want to make and you tell them what size/color/yarn you want to make your project and they go downstairs, gather your yarn and come back up with your balls of yarn. They sell their patterns individually as well as in their awesome pattern books they publish themselves. (I think all the adult clothes are sold individually, the books contain baby/children's clothing and they have a book of jewelry patterns.)
I was really, really in love with one of their pattern books before I went to Paris but when I asked for the book that had the pattern I wanted, I was shocked with the news that they have now published one of their books in English! I so totally bought it:
What pattern did I love so much? Why the Ah La Fraise pattern:
In the shop I also saw a cute cat pattern that is also in the book:
Let's be honest though, there is nothing in this book that isn't ridonkulously cute!I only made two purchases in La Droguerie, the second being one of their project kits:
So cute! I totally need to make this one, it's so adorable. They do a lot of kit sales, they had some sweater kits from La Droguerie when I was in Le Bon Marche. Sorry for some blurry shots, I wanted to take photos of every inch of the store but I didn't want to look like some kind of freak with my camera flash going off repeatedly so I Kinneared my photos and took them with my iPhone. Some worked, some didn't but they definitely captured the magic that was La Droguerie.
Yeah, I know. I KNOW. I've been home from Paris nearly a month now. Sorry dudes, life majorly got in the way. But now, I have finally downloaded all the pics from my camera (though there are a few on my camera that I need to grab too) and they are in my Paris album on Flickr now. All 259 of them from my camera (plus the 4 I emailed from my phone). Man did that take a while to upload!
So I really need to give highlights of my trip, I'd be here for hours typing if I went into much detail!
So we landed in Paris on April 16th. We went to our hotel, I showered and changed, and we proceeded to walk to the Arc de Triomphe from our hotel.
(I think it was day 3 before my mil dared to brave the Metro. Ugh.) We didn't do a whole lot, we were crazy tired from the trip and basically we ate lunch and dinner and walked a lot and went to bed.
Day two was back to the Arc de Triomphe (this time we took the bus, woo)
and the Champs Elysee, then to the Eiffel Tower (yes, we walked),
then onto the Batobus boat tour down the Seine (thank god, no walking),
then to Notre Dame (beautiful but walking involved)
and back onto the Batobus before a taxi ride back to our hotel for dinner.
Day three was the Louvre. Wow. The Louvre.
I don't have nearly enough photos of this place. My stupid self didn't think to check and make sure my battery was actually charged before going there so I didn't take as many pictures of the museum as I wanted to. Thank goodness I was able to take a picture of this statue:
This one I want to remember always. This is Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. It took my breath away. I love everything about it, and normally I'm not a huge sculpture fan. Not anymore. This was simply amazing. (I wish I had snapped some photos in the Louvre of the Napoleon III Apartments, these were beyond ostentatious to say the least.) I got a pic of the Lacemaker painting and Madonna of the Rocks (yes, I got all Da Vinci code geeky).
Of course, I saw the Mona Lisa (as I said to my mil, you don't go to the Louvre and NOT see the Mona Lisa):
I was in the Louvre the entire day (most of it by myself, hooray), and I loved every walking minute of it. I would give anything to go again!Day four was a bus tour aboard the Open Tour line(I think that was the name of it, I'm lazy and don't want to look this up atm, and I didn't take a picture of it but I took plenty aboard it) and Sacre Coeur:
Day 5 (Sunday) started off with the Rodin museum (this was about the only time we had to break out our umbrellas, we really lucked out with the weather):
(I look annoyed here because I was amazed at the lack of knowledge by my mil that cameras can be turned sideways to include tall objects in a photo. And that shoes are not a requirement to be included in all photos.)
It was interesting, but I'm not an art aficionado by any means and it wasn't as moving for me as the Louvre was. Interesting, but not as breath taking for me.
We also saw Musee de Cluny, the medieval art museum:
(This was outside the entrance to the museum. There wasn't really an easy way to take a photo of the front of the museum that would have been recognizable.)
I don't recall why I took this picture of Jesus on a donkey. It amused us at the time. It's sort of campy compared to how he's represented most of the time. I was probably delirious from the 5th day of thousands of miles walked in Paris. Who knows. Anyways, the most interesting artwork for me in the museum was the tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn. Beautiful art and very amazing for all 6 tapestries to still be together (the 6th is not in that photo as it is on a wall behind the curved one.
Day 6 was our final day in Paris and I spent it alone shopping. (woot!) I hit up some street merchants and got some fabric for the OCK as a birthday present as well as some trinkets for the people at work in my department. I hit up Le Bon Marche's craft department on the third floor (yes! crafts! in a department store! I was so amused. It was fantastic, though I did not have the nerve to Kinnear any photos. Ah well. It was a lovely selection of beads and buttons and fabric and yarn and stitchery kits and quilting supplies oh my!)
And I made my way to La Droguerie. Dude. I died and went to heaven here. I have only the front of the store to show right now as the rest of my photos are on my phone. I'll have to upload them and tell you more about La Droguerie.
Besides having the cutest store front, it is an AMAZING store inside. I totally Kinneared the interior photos. And it shows. But I have photographic evidence of the cutest and most wonderful yarn store. And that is good.
I had such a great time in Paris. What an amazing city. Around every corner there was something amazing, whether it was a lamp post:
a bridge:
a garden:
a fountain:
There was so much beauty to be had. I had a fantastic time and I sincerely hope I can go again some day. Preferably sooner rather than later.Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that my Paris socks I knit for my mil actually made it to Paris. I took this photo as we sat in the garden that is behind Notre Dame:
Sorry for the image heavy post! I hope you enjoy a peek into my trip. More photos are here on Flickr. As I have time, I'll edit them to have descriptions.
ME! Woot. My April financials are done. I'm consolidated through to December but I have a technical issue that I am waiting to hear from our consultants before I can go forward. But technically, I am done. (This weekend until this morning has been sheer hell. But I made it.)Yay, I get to knit again! I get to sleep again! Hooray!Who knows, maybe I will even get to upload my Paris pictures...
Still going strong on my project. I'm winding down now, I have to consolidate my company's financial results in our new accounting system through December 2007 and I'm now working on October 2007. (When I started pounding all of this in, I was in July 2006.) I am HOPING I can both finish this tomorrow AND make it to Bobaknit tomorrow night AND do my April 2008 close (well, at least a good majority of it) before I hop on a plane to visit Kristi on Saturday. I've considered rescheduling my trip to Denver but it won't really work for either of our schedules for, like, forever, so I am going to suck it up and try to slog this stuff out ASAP. My deadline to produce April 2008 financials is Monday, and I REALLY don't want to have to sit at Kristi's house and finish my financials. So on I grind. Ugh.Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go...
I wanted to take this opportunity to wish my dear friend the OCK a very very happy birthday. I am thankful to have a friend that makes me laugh as much as you do, gets me into as many creative things as you do and loves me for who I am. My world is definitely a better place because you're in it!Happy birthday!P.S. Happy birthday to my monsters too! Xi Xi and Saylor also came into this world on May 2nd last year. Yay for May 2nd birthdays!!
