Au Revoir Paris

 

Choice of patisserie at Angelina’s

Batignolles Organic Market

Sunday at a cafe in the 6th arrondissement near Blvd St Germain

Our Parisian life has been folded up and squeezed into the suitcases, the lids closed (only just) and the destination labels attached. It really is time to say a final goodbye to Paris. We’ll miss every elegant inch of her charm, the way she unfurls her springtime greenery and the unbeatable social buzz of life “en-terrasse.”

Amongst the magnificent monuments and art, the fashion and the fabulousness that Paris offers it is the ordinary life and the people in it that matter most. We are so glad that we fitted in to an ordinary life, that we belonged. Like an ordinary Parisian I queued up for our daily baguette (une tradition pas trop cuit s’il vous plait), responded adequately en francais to the butcher’s interrogation about my intention for cooking the meat he was preparing for me, grumbled with fellow passengers about the stoppages on the metro and even argued successfully with the man behind the counter at La Poste.

For the last few weeks we’ve been saying our farewells to friends, workmates and whanau. We’re terribly sad to say goodbye, but at the same time it reminds us of how special these people have become in our lives and how cherished are the friendships: our language teacher Martine, my knitting friends at Montreuil and my knitting “pupils” at l’OIE – I’ll miss you, and I promise to keep up the French language practice.

I am so grateful to my knitting buddies, les tricopines, at L’Oisivethé who made me part of their tribe. Although I am going to miss the Wednesday night tricot soirée sessions immensely, I have a special project to assuage the yearning to be there: The Tangible Memory blanket.  These knitters started a memory blanket project as a farewell gift back in February, each of them knitting a few squares from their left over and stash yarns before passing it on to the next knitter and the next and the next to join in. They even knitted almost under my nose at knit nights, it was taken to Edinburgh then London and back to Paris, where it was presented to me to take home to New Zealand and finish. Is there a better gift for a knitter – I think not. Merci mille fois mes chѐres amies.

Tangible Memory Blanket in situ on my knitting chair

For now, it’s farewell to you my regular readers too. Thank you so much for following keirybeesparis, for commenting and helping me belong in the blogging world. Along with Barbara, my dear friend and Stitching up Paris co-author, I will be writing about the Paris stitching scene from time to time over at www.stitchingupparisblog.wordpress.com, and you can find me, @keiryberry on Instagram.

Ka kite ano…………….Keiry

New knitters, new skills, new friends.

A couple of months ago one of my DB’s work colleagues contacted me to ask if I would consider teaching her to knit. It was an easy decision, of course I said yes. We had already met a few times at work functions so I knew we had plenty in common as fellow antipodeans and the idea of being able to pass on the knitting spirit along with some skills to young knitters delighted me. In a flurry of emails we finalised arrangements and by the time we met for our first lunchtime get-together our party of knitters had already grown to four. The following week another new recruit, then another and another, and now we are regularly 6 or 7: a New Zealander, an Australian (of Italian descent), 3 (or more) French and 2 Venezuelans. Knitting is a globally transmissible addiction!

It’s been quite illuminating for me to think about how I knit and explain that. At our second meeting I proposed that I would try and explain as much as I could in French and the knitting pupils, all fabulously multi-lingual, enthusiastically assisted with the language; a fair exchange, a win-win and a lot of fun. Some had no knitting experience, even holding the knitting needles felt uncomfortable at first, others had tried before, two are left-handed – oooh challenging for right-handed me – and now they are all knitters.

The transition from careful d-e-l-i-b-e-r-a-t-e movements w-r-a-p-p-i-n-g the yarn r-o-u-n-d behind the needle, p-u-l-l-i-n-g the stitch t-h-r-o-u-g-h the loop and o-f-f the needle to the rhythmic click clack of needles in nimble hands is a lovely reward for all of us. These debutantes have mastered cast on and off, knit and purl and conversations are peppered with discussions of point mousse (garter stitch), point jersey (stocking stitch), point de riz and point de blé (seed or moss stitch and double moss) , dimunitions and augmentations (increases and decreases).

New skills are added week by week, the first projects have been finished and new, more challenging WIPs are on the needles. I am so proud of them.

I’ve reflected on my knitting year with a sense of satisfaction that in addition to the knitting projects completed and the new skills gained through those, I’ve been able to pass on the baton – or should I say the needles – to a new group of knitters to enjoy knitting as a social activity, a means for mental stretching and an effective antidote for stress in busy lives. Here are some of my knitting projects from 2015 that haven’t already made it into a blog post.

 

 

How not to knit a chicken, and other language laughs

I knitted a jersey

From the other end of the table a sweet little voice said “Ah, I wondered why you were knitting a chicken” and with that the knitters around the table erupted into friendly giggles.

Let me explain: It was knit night at L’ OisiveThé, the café full of knitting friends was abuzz with chatter in French and English. My fellow knitters know I like to practice my language skills and encourage conversation en français. Someone asked me what was I knitting. “Un pull” I replied, or more correctly I intended to reply. A jersey is un pull, a word I know well and use with ease. But clearly, with too much ease and not enough attention to correct pronunciation, because what I actually said was une poule -a chicken – I am knitting a chicken!

Around the table amid chuckles Anglophones practised and Francophones coached the different sounds: pull sounds (more or less) like “pewl” and poule sounds like pool. The words and their sounds are etched in my mind thanks to the impromptu and thoroughly amusing lesson.

It’s not only the French-English traps that generate laughter. English alone has provided plenty of entertainment when accents play a part. During the discussion of summer holiday plans I mentioned to an American friend that some of our knitting colleagues were heading to the Shetlands on a knitting trip. I could tell immediately by the look on her face that we had a translation problem. With my New Zealand accent and her American ears, what do you think she heard? Yep, it sounded like our friends were heading somewhere for a really crap holiday. Quickly clarifying I meant the Shetland Islands north-east of mainland Scotland solved the problem. The Shetlands then made perfect sense for a knitter’s holiday destination.

My Shetland Island Fair Isle inspired vest. A project from early 2013

Amusing, inspiring, enlightening and cultural; knit night enriches my Parisian life week after week.

Summer knitting in review

Crikey, I need to be quick. I want to tell you about my recent knitting achievements before the memory of summer is too distant. Thoughts of lingering balmy evenings have been blown away with the autumn leaves; it’s cold and high time for sock knitting already.

Only a few weeks ago sitting in the warm sunshine on our seaside balcony, I cast off the final stitches of my first ever all-over lace shawl, Bien Aimee designed by one of my Paris knitting friends Hiro. I knew I would need peace and quiet to concentrate and knit carefully on the pattern with its gathered stitches and intricate manoeuvrings of knits, purls, yarn-overs and decreases. Leucate seaside turned out to be the right spot. To the background of gentle beach sounds I worked my way through the chart repeats and onto the lace border without any great difficulty. Even the seashore seemed in tune with my project as everywhere I looked there were tiny shells with mauve tones perfectly matched to my shawl. As soon as we were home I blocked Bien Aimee and with the temperatures tumbling from their summer highs I’ve worn it many times already. I love it.

Before the holiday I started another pretty shawl, Southern, by New Zealand designer Libby Jonson. Several people knit this design as part of Libby’s Trulymyrtle knit-a-long and after seeing one gorgeous example finished with beads I decided to add beads to mine too. I couldn’t get the right beads until I got back from holiday so my Southern has only just been finished. While knitting the lacey section, inserting the clear glass beads as I went, I had my doubts if they were a good idea after all. But after blocking the shawl and seeing them sparkle like icy droplets in the sunshine, I’m delighted.

That’s two of my knitting goals for the year accomplished; all over lace and beads. I’m happy, these are both wonderful designs and I’ve got gorgeous accessories to dress up for a stroll around Paris on a crisp Autumn day.

Now I’ve picked up where I left off on an interesting shaped jacket, Lost and Found by Stephen West (just finished) and I have socks on the needles which will be another goal-achieving project as this is my first pair with after-thought heels.

There’s nothing like a bit of a challenge to add interest, even if it’s a small challenge. I’m all for that and I’ve got a few projects lined up that are definitely exciting.

It’s hotting up in Paris

Happy half-marathoners

It’s hot, so hot the weather is the news.  In the last five days in Paris we’ve been sweltering in temperatures ferociously close to 40 degrees C (104F) as a result of hot air blowing in from the Sahara baking Europe.  The first week of July is early for our first official heat wave of the summer – that means high temperatures are recorded for 3 consecutive days – and the public health authorities were very prompt in launching “heat wave safety” alerts.  The temporary beaches alongside the Seine are not set up yet and Paris hasn’t yet emptied out for the summer holidays; that won’t happen until August when many small businesses close up for a few weeks.  The summer sales are in full swing so the shops are busy, but thankfully air-conditioned.  Shopping is definitely a cool thing to do.

Right now we are fondly reminiscing on our recent weekend in Hamburg to cheer on the runners in the Hamburg half marathon.  Not only were our dear Kiwi Hamburger and her boyfriend competing, but the weather was a comfortable 20-ish degrees with sunshine and puffy white clouds.  The parental cheer leading squad stationed themselves on the looped section of the run so we cheered them through 4km and then 9km before jumping on the U-bahn to head out to the finish and wave and cheer them through the last kilometre.  A happy posse of proud parents and tired but happy competitors were reunited after the finish line.

Ready at the 9km mark

The NGB going strong at 9km

Still smiling, one km to go!

As for knitting in this weather, I’ve had to temporarily abandon one knitting project, Penguono a colourful kimono-styled jacket, for a lighter project that won’t cause me to self combust.  My new Rattan shawl project is a treat for me in several ways; I’m knitting with Zealana Air yarn from New Zealand, the pattern designer is from NZ and I’m knitting as part of a virtual KAL, a knit-a-long, led by Libby the designer, so I’m feeling the kiwi vibes with this one.  However even with this gorgeous light-as-a-feather yarn I couldn’t knit on the hottest days, my sweaty hands just could not manipulate the sticks and thread at all.

Thankfully the hottest days have passed and we have some respite before the next blast from the Sahara.  A little knitting is on the agenda again and hopefully the stores will replenish their stock of fans.

Stay cool.

Moving along at the speed of time

Time flies at the same rate it always does, 24 hours a day.  So quite what I’ve done with all those 24-hour aliquots since I last posted is a bit of a mystery, but I know it was all fun.  For a start there has been plenty of knitting; I’ve made one of the loveliest knits ever; Belmont cardigan by Gudrun Johnson.  After finally selecting and sewing on the buttons, Belmont made its debut this week in welcome spring sunshine.

Belmont cardigan from Shetland Trader Book 2

I’ve also finished a big manly project.  It was a big project in the sense that I started with a photograph of what we wanted; a shawl collared man’s sweater, and adapted those style elements from my pattern files to the yarn and stitch design we wanted.  There was a lot of maths and swatching to start, the theory was good.  The finished project looks good, the final test – and the photo shoot – is still to come.

Then there is the zany colourful Westknits design Enchanted Mesa.  Several times I thought “how is this going to work?”  In the end it does, very clever and fun to see it emerge off the needles.

Enchanted Mesa – Westknits design

On my needles right now is Bien Aimee; a pretty lace shawl.  It’s my first foray into all over lace – one of my knitting goals for this year – and it’s a light and portable project that means I can keep knitting while we pack up and move!

Yes we are on the move to another part of Paris.  In fact just over the peripherique and out of the official Paris postal code.  The apartment we have been living in for almost 3 years is being sold and we’ve found an apartment to rent that is also walking distance to DB’s workplace and will be another new experience for us.  The contents of my yarn cupboard are packed and ready to go and with 3 years experience of living in France we think we’ve got all the pre-move arrangements covered.  When we arrived it took us 9 frustrating weeks to get our internet connection in place, this time with much improved French I was able to make the arrangements for re-direction of our existing service without breaking into a sweat.  It remains to be seen if the actual de-and-re-connection occurs as hoped, my fingers are crossed.  DB has even organised a very official Autorisation pour un demenagement; a permit to “guarantee” us parking space outside our current and future addresses for loading and unloading on the day of the move.  Despite that fact that we have accumulated more stuff than we thought, thankfully this is not an entire household move since we are shifting from one furnished apartment to another.  Moving in Paris is a challenge and often involves something like this…….

Moving house the Parisian way

If all goes according to plan I’ll tell you about our new neighbourhood in a couple of weeks.

Wool War One on parade – L’ Adieu aux Armes

On parade at  La Piscine, Museum of Art and Industry, Roubaix

As military parades go this one is rather small in stature and quiet; so quiet you can almost hear a stitch drop.  No guns, no drums, no machines of war, this is a peaceful parade of 700 hand-knitted soldiers from every corner of the earth.

These soldiers, resplendent in authentic uniform detail, are the work of 500 knitters from 5 continents who responded to the call for help from Madame Delit Maille (Anna), knitting artist in chief of the Wool War One installation at La Piscine, Museum of Art and Industry at Roubaix in northern France.

Back in May 2014, my NZ friend Barbara and I were two of those 500 knitters; we knitted miniature uniforms to help dress the British and Commonwealth soldier dolls.  Through the summer and autumn knitters mobilised to join Delit Maille’s working bees around France and the knitted army came together ready for exhibition in December 2014.

The result is spectacular in its simple symbolism.  Seven hundred soldiers in distinctive uniform; French cornflower-blue jackets, red pompomed Belgians, caped Spahis and helmeted Germans all stand out.  Each figure seems to have his own personality.  Some peep from behind the man in front, others are stooped – weary looking – row upon row of fragile little figures representing all nations despatched to the Great War stand together in this parade.

The British & Commonwealth soldiers

Red pompomed Belgians

The French (les Poilus)

Caped Spahis

The Ottomans

The Russians

The Scots

Inspecting the parade

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to contribute my knitting to this project.  The exhibition, L’Adieu aux Armes, is a fitting memorial – well done Delit Maille, a clever and meaningful interpretation, thoroughly enjoyable to visit and to have participated in.

The Wool War One exhibition runs until 12^th April 2015.  Eleven different artists whose exhibitions have been commissioned to commemorate the centenary of World War I run one after the other from September 2014 through to May 2018 at the museum in Roubaix.  The museum has a wonderful permanent collection of art and industrial archives – particularly relating to the textile industry from the region.  More about the wonderful art and industry museum at Roubaix coming up soon.

Playing around with colour

The human yarn bomb, photo by L’Oisivethe

The weather was grey and gloomy all this week, but for a couple of days we had the pleasure of seeing an extravaganza of knitted colour – a human yarn bomb – making his way around a few knitting stores in Paris brightening things up a bit.  Can you guess who?

Right.  Stephen West was in Paris to give classes at L’ Oisivethe on Thursday and Friday.  From Wednesday evening pictures started appearing on my social media feeds from a few of the sites I follow as Stephen visited yarn stores around the city.  Every picture showed a larger-than-life character, colourfully attired in his signature accessories.  I had registered for his Color Play class on Thursday evening and was really looking forward to meeting Mr Westknits himself.

In real life he is quite a presence; he is TALL.  He is also down to earth and a very nice person indeed.  The class was a treat; a charming group of participants translating for each other as necessary (it was conducted in English), tasty refreshments and yarns galore.  We had been instructed to bring balls of yarn from our stash (no problem) and Stephen supplied additional samples of unusual textures and neon colours to mix it up even more.  We started with paper and scissors to cut a random shape and then knitted that shape in colour; stripes, slipped stitches, short rows, new colours and a change of direction…….away from familiar territory.  But when you are a little bit challenged, you learn, and I did.

Modelling the gorgeous Penguono design

Wrapped in Dotted Rays

Stephen and Aimee conducting the lucky draw. I won the bag Stephen is holding.

The evening went by in a buzz of chatter, knitting, questions and fun.  We tried on Stephen’s trunk load of knitted creations and each fell in love with half a dozen different designs.  I’d seen them in pictures and liked what I had seen, but in real life they were even more impressive.  With clever use of simple knitting techniques and not being constrained by conventions for colour or yarn combinations his designs are distinctly inventive.  What’s more, the garments looked really good on everyone who tried them.

To finish off there was a lucky draw for prizes; my luck was in, I won a Stephen West signature project bag.  Any knitting in that bag will be blessed with colourful inspiration, all the better for the Westknits designs I have put straight onto my project list.

 

Just knttin’ in the rain – photo by L’ Oisivethe

It’s beginning to look like Christmas

Happy Birthday Katherine

Yep, Christmas is coming; the street corner sellers have stacks of Christmas trees bound up in their netting covers waiting to be taken home, the florists have faux-snow covered mini trees, big elegant trees, fragrant pine wreaths to embellish at home and bucket loads of shiny holly.  The days darken early but the streets are lit and the store windows sparkle with decoration; the buzz of the season is all about.

I don’t truly focus on Christmas until we get past December 7^th – our lovely daughter’s birthday.  This year it was a very special occasion, her 30^th birthday!  How can that be?  It seems no time ago we were transporting seven 7-year olds to the Fairy shop on Ponsonby Road for a party complete with fairy lemonade, or playing pass-the-parcel in our living room and following party themed clues to hunt treasure in the park over the road.

Being the very capable grown up that she is, – and we are so proud of – she organised her own party this time.  Family and friends congregated in Hamburg to celebrate; the weather came to the party and turned on a cool clear day with a beautiful late afternoon sunset.  It was perfect for a walk beside the Alster to soak up the festive atmosphere before a wonderful evening at restaurant Rexrodt on Papenhuder Strasse; great company and delicious food.

The Alster, Hamburg

Beside the Alster

Hotel Alsterblik

Beside the Alster

Birthday party at Rexrodt

The occasion doubled as the family get together as some of us will soon head down under for Christmas dinner from the barbecue in Kaiapoi, others will be roasting turkey in London and the German side of Katherine’s family will enjoy their present-opening on 24^th December.  Thanks Kath, we had a great time and are looking forward to the next get together.

Knitting fiesta

My cherubs indulged me by posing for a team photo complete with Mum-knitted uniforms of snowflake jersies and just-off-the-needles Hawick cowls knitted for the occasion.

It’s now time to focus on Christmas; there is a lot to fit in over the next couple of weeks, it’s all exciting and all go.  We’ll talk soon.

Know how, can do, have fun

Well patronised exhibitor stands at CSF

There are two major craft fairs held each year in Paris; Aiguille-en-Fete (AeF, the international exhibition of needle and thread creative arts) in February and Creations Savoir Faire.  The CSF is sponsored by Marie Claire Idées Magazine and is held in November at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Centre.

They are both wonderful; each is slightly different.  While AeF  is dedicated to the textile, needle and thread arts in the widest sense, the CSF includes creative cuisine; from cake decoration to artful sushi making, supplies for creating themed birthday parties, textile painting, nail art, do-it-yourself woodwork, furniture art – decorative paint effects and that sort of thing, scrapbooking, origami, beading, and so many more.

There are of course embroidery, sewing and knitting related stands, and books for designs, patterns and instructions on every craft you can think of.  Every level of craft skill is catered for from beginners to accomplished artisans.

Beginner knitting kits from Woolkiss

Rouge du Rhin embroidery designs

Beautiful embroidery Rouge du Rhin http://www.rougedurhin.com

DIY fabric art demos

The exhibitors invest months and weeks of time preparing for these grand salons.  Often new designs and patterns are released in conjunction with new yarns, threads, textiles or other materials, kits are put together with patterns and yarn/fabric/thread, hopefully enough to meet the frenzied demand.  Finally there is the big job of set up and presentation of the stand.  It is always a treat to see the diverse creative displays the exhibitors come up with to present their wares.

I went along with my friend Barbara (of Stitching up Paris) who introduced me to a favourite of hers; a sewing exhibitor C’est Dimanche and their sewing patterns for women and children.  Their stand was a hit; the delightful little Miss Dimanche dolls adorned the stand, and everyone seemed to admire the samples of the retro-chic designs.  I resisted a purchase at CSF, but after researching on-line I’ve succumbed to the appeal of the cute little doll and ordered my kit for Mademoiselle Dimanche along with the pattern book for her 17 outfits.

C’est Dimanche is the creation of Soeur Alma; she is the pattern designer and creative mind behind the collection.  She is a member of an order of nuns, The Contemplative Sisters of St John, based at Notre Dame de Cana in the department of L’Oise in the Picardie region in northern France.

Naturally I checked out the knitting and yarn exhibitors.  Aimee and friends from L’Oisivethe had been knitting up beautiful new shawl designs in new yarns ready to unveil at CSF.  The verdict: magnificent!

Aimee’s Dotted Rays

Aimee never stops, while at the show she had knitting underway for the next exciting event at L’Oisivethe – more about that in due course, a colour work class with the inventive Stephen West and I’m all signed up.

My yarn stash cupboard received a little boost from my visit to CSF.  Enough yarn in Glazed Pecan colourway to knit the Belmont cardigan from Gudrun Johnson’s Shetland Trader Book 2, and a couple of balls of mohair/silk yarn from Liliana who is a mohair producer and sells her yarns under the Farms of France label.  Those are for quick one-ball mini shawl projects.

 

I had fun seeing all that creative stuff, and came away filled with ideas about things I could do in addition to knitting and crocheting the yarn that waits patiently in my cupboard.  I’m knitting as fast as I can, in between other projects.  I need to prepare space for the next Aiguille en-Fete.  It’s in my diary already for 12th-15^th February at Porte de Versailles, 250 exhibitors, the exhibition will have an Eastern theme.