I've been busy ... knitting tea cosies and having a baby. The tea cosy was hard work ... ;-)

oui je t'aime la droguerie

Poor neglected blog ... prechristmas busy-ness and work demands have meant the blog has been ignored. There's some Paris photos waiting in the wings ... but until I get a little more than 15 minutes to sort them out they won't be moving. I have however managed to upload pictures of Parisian alpaca yarn transformed into a hat for my beloved. Finished last night at knit group.

The Parisian source was La droguerie, the most delicious lolly shop of yarns and haberdashery. I spent the first 15 minutes there with my mouth hanging open with shear delight and joy. I can't tell you how beautiful it was ... thought I'd died and gone to heaven. They have all the yarns in skeins hanging in their fibre content/ply sections on poles in a sort of industrial modern meets ye-olde wooden shelved hardware store. (I found a blog with photos of another La droguerie here). Once you have decided on the yarn(s) you want, an assistant then retrieves it for you from out the back of the shop in the weight that you require. All neatly wound into a ball.

As soon as I was off the Eurostar ... it was dpns out and a cable hat was created. I made up the cables as I went along ... generally enjoying the feel of the alpaca and the look of it winding into cables.

I'm planning my return to the shop already! Is it too extravagant to go to Paris just to visit one store?

its been a while ... almost a month. things are pretty busy around these parts ... there's been snow, falling leaves and much a do about markets, new contracts and new stores (more stores, more markets). all good. oh, and another market this weekend ...

Saturday 22nd November - Chiswick NCT Christmas Fair

10.30am - 4pm

St. Michael and All Angels Church, Bath Road, London W4 1TT

sketching bunnies

Perhaps I was inspired by Delphine Doreau at Non dairy Diary who's been drawing hens ... perhaps it was the kozyndan prints we have on our wall (this one and this one) ... perhaps it was that I had an idea to embroider some bunnies onto a quilt I'm working on ... anyway I now have a collection of bunny sketches, that don't really work, scale wise, on my quilt ... but I'm sure I can find a use for them somewhere. hmmm?

wellington wall

This pic was taken a wee while ago, in Wellington. I think its quite beautiful. I love the way a pattern can be unconsciously created.

First the bricklayer placed each brick systematically in its position, then the painter sealed the bricks with some white paint. But it seems that things did not stop there, more layers were attached and the wall performed its intended task of protecting its inhabitants from the elements.

Then the demolition team and perhaps the weather (it is Wellington after all), pulled away at the extra layers ... revealing a beautiful texture.

why i knit

I could let the picture do the talking. But I won't as I'm too thrilled at the wearer's appreciation of the scarf I knit her.

Nell is 5 years old ... just off to School. A few weeks before her 5th birthday Aunty Sarah looked through her yarn stash and collected up the most colourful yarns and made a simple scarf. After a couple of weeks the scarf was long enough to cast off. It had to be long enough to be 'grown up' and short enough not to drag in the mud.

A few days later Nell received the parcel in New Zealand.

Much to my delight Nell absolutely loved the scarf ...
"its 10 metres long Aunty Sarah!" she exclaimed over the phone
"10 metres long Nell ... are you sure?" her ever sensible Aunty replied
"oh silly me, perhaps I'll have to count again"
Her mum reported that a metre for Nell is one of her feet ... she had placed the scarf down on the ground and walked next to it to measure it. How cute.

So now Nell wears the scarf TO and FROM school ... not at school as she thinks it may get lost and she wouldn't like that. And each time Aunty Sarah calls she tells me that she's wearing the scarf. Brilliant.

How cute are these illustrations. They're from a children's book, 'Iggy Peck, Architect' (ISBN 13: 978-0-8109-1106-2) and the illustrations are by David Roberts.

I want to make clothes like the ones in his illustrations ... with all their stripes and patterns and colours.
I quite like this cushion also ... hmmm?