Got The Colours Now For Goodnesses Sake!

This colour choice has been a saga. I have smoky grey, pink, apricot and two yellows spare, all bought thinking they might fit in. Ha ha ha! Plus I have a number of excellent books on Fair Isle and the history of knitting. It's lovely but little bit sad history. From a good living to be made to nothing. Queen Elizabeth I refused a patent for a stocking knitting machine and delayed the demise of the hand-knitting industry for 200 years. Bloody Industrial Revolution! The Revolution has a lot to answer for. And no, I won't listen to how it helped.

I love this from 'The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales' (Yorkshire Dales), about how these knitters would re-knit a jumper just for a change and how delightful it was to behold:

A dalesman's daughters, whom we know, think nothing of frequently unravelling complicated Fair Isle patterned jumpers and knitting the wool up again in differnet styles. But 'things were made to wear then' and we think of Mr. William Gill as he sat on the edge of the sofa saying, 'What a change! What a change!'

The Painting I carried For 10 kilometres Through Paris

He's a bit of a gay boy huh? Or is it just the times, the court etc. It's not old old old, so it's a copy of a style, but I really like him and he's going in the bedroom when it's renovated. Why not now? Well, it needs a little restoring and I might bling it up a little. And I'll have to convince the One True, who doesn't like it.

The Bayeux Tapestry

I have to talk a bit about the Bayeux Tapestry, now that I have a moment. If you happen to get over there ever, you must go up to Bayeux in Normandy and see it. It's amazing! Any historian, art lover or embroiderer will find it so. Just the graphics and the storytelling expertise... the cartoon, is succinct and has incredible movement. The ebb and flow of the battle, for example, takes you along at an amazing pace. Some small images describe a lot with incidental details. I want to see it again.

Even thought I know it quite well, to see it in one continuous length, rather than on pages, makes a huge difference. Huge. Have a look here too, and explore.

You'll love the town as well.

I've just been Googling the tapestry to find out more, and have found a heap of other similar works, modern, done to depict the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prestonpans Tapestry)and there's the Quaker Tapestry. I thought I might have a go at our Family Dinner, which is always full of movement and activity!

La Drogerie, Paris, for Yarn, & Bayeux Too

We went to La Droguerie in Paris. They have their yarn samples hanging in hanks, and you choose by the number. Then the staff go out the back and wind off however much you've ordered. I bought these clear French blues, which shade subtly. The yarn is a bamboo/linen blend and looked lovely made up. I thought I'd do another Paperdolls, but without Fair Isle, just shading. Dunno yet. 4ply.

Main colour.

2nd shade.

Lightest shade.

Pretty other shade for something else. Too pretty not to buy.

I can't remember the price but it wasn't expensive. Unfortunately, there is no label to recount the colour or describe the yarn. It may have been on the reciept, in French (who knows?). I threw it out. Silly!

This was just interesting and I bought it for no good reason.

And these beauties are from Bayeux Broderie, a shop in Bayeux which sells kits of sections of the Bayeux Tapesrty. I wasnt to make my own design, ala Bayeux style. I started to plan one years ago and now am freshly inspired. The wools are grown in France, and dyed in the colours of the Tapestry. Very yummy!

I have posted all of my decent photo's over on Flickr in the Holiday set.

Home Again, Home Again, Lickety Spit

Versailles

Well, that flew by, as you know it will. But still my mind is filled with the experience! What fun, and what a lot of walking I did.

I didn't climb the Eiffel Tower/Notre Dame/The Arch of Triumph, however I did ride a bicycle around the whole of Versailles and picnic on the lakeside, walk the entirely of everywhere, go to the Louvre a couple of times, take the river boats a few times, walk, walk, haggle at markets (oh, excuse me, marche's), see the sunset (almost) at Sacre Coeur. Did find a million Place of Interest, dring coffee and eat crepes. And I went into Notre Dame and walked saround the other places I didn't climb. And OH! The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestry's! And all of the other tapestry's.

I saw the Bayeux Tapestry at Bayeux in Normandy (above). It happened to be June 6th too, D-Day, and soldiers from the 1st world war were walking (hobbling) around. The people there were lovely and so welcoming. It was the most beautiful town in the world as I know it. It was the first time I really had a sense of how horrendous the war must have been for France. Bayeux was not bombed but nearby Caen was, which I read about in a book I bought for Dad.

I went to see Mme Riviere and got so teary I had force myself to stop crying! Blubberer! She's so beautiful and the place is amazing. Of course. I couldn't believe where I was. But the wonder of it all and the 'coming down off cortosone' and the jet-lag and not having my One True Love there to share the joy overwhelmed me.
So much more to say but it's birthday time for Anna and I must away!
xxx

Yes, I'm In Paris