Even though I brought four projects to knit and two samples to write up patterns for while we traveled, I really only worked on Mariam and Rich's Manly Rainbow Socks. And the socks I only worked on briefly on the metro on the way to church one week. Our church has a parish in the ghetto in Paris, so we navigated our way there, and stepped around various bodily fluids and other such things on our way to liturgy. It was less than four blocks from the border of Paris, and obviously in a neighborhood in need of the services of a church. It was glorious worshiping with them there. Unfortunately, because of the evening events Rich and I were committed to, we had to race off after the service so we could go back to the hotel to change for the reception and dinner that evening.

After almost a year of rather minimal yarn purchases, I got to do some pretty great yarn shopping.


Here is the Passage du Grand Cerf where one of the six yarn shops I visited was. There is so much that is beautiful in Paris, but the ugliness is also there. It's like two different cities occupying the same physical space. Just around the corner, just around the corner from this lovely piece of architecture and beauty was a s3x shop. It was like that all over the city. Gorgeous museums, art, music, art, architecture, food, shopping, all surrounded by graffiti, bodily fluids (and their accompanying smells), people relieving themselves, pickpockets and crime, p0rn0gr@phy and other similar exploitative industries, poverty and homelessness, more so than I see in Los Angeles, Seattle, the Bay Area, San Antonio, even Geneva. It was so much cleaner and safer in Geneva. I will say that Paris has their metro system dialed in, and it was a breeze to navigate, which I did in French. I did almost all of my ordering, shopping, navigating, and so on in French, which was a success for me.


Here is all the yarn I bought for myself. 21 skeins of it. Some of it is already earmarked for projects, some I bought because it was beautiful and I will find a way to use it later.


I also spent some time in the fabric district in Montmartre. It was quite near our hotel, and we have dear friends who sew, who I knew would appreciate a little something from Paris. I really wanted to buy a dress length of the silk satin, but I couldn't justify it, even at this good price. Especially since I would have had to pay someone to make up the dress for me here if I wanted it in any reasonable time frame. Because otherwise, I would have to learn to sew proficiently first.

I brought four books with me, but the only one I cracked was my Stitching Up Paris book, which came in quite handy as I looked for knitting and fabric shops.

Oh! And we picked up an Hermès scarf for me that was just perfect.


Look at the knit print on it! It has a little bit of a Christmas theme to it, but all rolled or folded up, you can't tell. I am a little bit in love with this scarf. Rich insisted that I get it, which was sweet of him.

Labels: Books, Design, Family, Fashionista, Homemaking, Knitting, Yarn Along