Time Flies When You're Speaking French, Even If You Aren't Knitting

I am lucky enough to have been able to have taken my niece to France for 2 weeks at the end of October for vacation. I don't really mind the long flight as it's really great knitting time. Unfortunately, a few days before I left, I started having problems with my left thumb and didn't have time to get to the orthopedist who has treated all my knitting injuries. So although I packed 3 knitting projects, ( 2 of my own PurlQueen Patterns works in progress and 1 other project I was using to learn some new construction skills) it didn't look too good for getting much knitting done. Good thing France had plenty of things to distract me from knitting withdrawal. I don't know about you, but not knitting usually makes me a bit grumpy. What did I learn on the trip? Eating crepes and galettes, drinking wine, and visiting some of the world's most beautiful and inspiring spots can help even a knitting addict like me get through a no-knit/low-knit patch.

Especially armed with a camera and sketch pad for when inspiration struck. I was the crazy person photographing carpets and wallpapers and details on light poles while everyone else was taking pictures of buildings and the hall of mirrors. And to give me a bit of vicarious knitting thrill, teaching my niece asking me to teach her how to knit (after she told me adamently told me before we left that she had no interest in knitting) was just what the doctor ordered!

We spent the first week in Paris. Paris is my favorite city and since it was my niece's first trip to Paris, I let her set the agenda with one requirement -- we set aside time for me to visit some yarn shops for a travel blog on Planet Purl. Little did I know that stepping into the first yarn shop would get her interested in knitting. Ah, the Knitting Godess works in mysterious ways! After she walked around touching, touching, touching the yarn (is your own heart beating a little faster here?), picked up a ball of Plassard superbulky yarn in shades of purples and pinks and asked "How hard would it be to make a scarf out of this?" And just like that, a new knitter was born. So we started knitting classes at the end of our sightseeing every day. And I have to say she ran me off my feet during the day so after knitting lessons, I fell into bed, not even feeling the usual grumpies from not knitting myself.

So do you want to see what we were doing in Paris? Other than knitting and yarn shopping?

Elisa and I rented an apartment for the week on Rue St. Honore, just a few blocks from the Louvre. This was the view from our balcony. To my eyes, Paris is all pink and grey. The light in the evenings is pink, the beautiful grey slate roofs are everywhere, and in certain light, the buildings almost glow with a soft pink light. The colors have inspired the palette for a ridged long coat design for Purl Queen Patterns that I'll be working on as soon as Deep South Knitting is in the can. If I can control myself, that is.

Last summer I was in Paris with my son, who had been there before, and it was a trip where we skipped all the tourist "musts" and spent our time wandering the street markets and going into neighborhoods I'd never ventured into before. It was great! Elisa had never been before, so we did all the tourist stuff, but that has it's own charm -- to experience it almost as if the first time through the excitement of someone who's never been. I don't know how, but I took a deep breath and worked through my fear of heights to accompany her to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which I hadn't done in 30 years. Yep, it's still high.

What I love about the Eiffel Tower is the geometry of the iron work. I sketched a trapeze jacket with crossing cables reminiscent of the shape of the tower and the ironwork designs. To knit after I finish Deep South Knitting. If I can control myself.

No matter how many times I visit Paris, I always, always, always spend at least 1 day in the Louvre. I read somewhere that you could spend 10 seconds in front of each work in the Louvre and it would take over 30 days to see everything. I think that's a conservative estimate. I suggested to Elisa that we get the museum map, pick out maybe 3 or 4 rooms and not try to see everything. Other than the big draws like Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, the Venus. We went on the one rainy day we had on the whole trip, spent most of it lost in the museum, trying to find our way back to the central staircases. But what great place to be lost. Oddly, the thing I found myself sketching and photographing was 17th and 18th century footwear. For a whole collection of fabulous Christmas stockings. Which I'll knit after I finish Deep South Knitting. If I can control myself.

Right next to the Louvre is the fabulous fashion museum, which is only open during exhibition periods. Luck me -- they had a huge and glorious exhibition of the designs of Madeline Vionnet, one of Paris' famous couturiers during the 20's and 30's. No photos were allowed, and my rudimentary sketches were clearly not up to the task, but there were three designs that caught my imagination for how they could be interpreted in hand knitting. So I bought the giant coffee table book of the exhibition. And then I bought yarn for one of my design ideas, inspired by a black velvet eevning cloak adorned with velvet roses. That accounts for the big bag of Bergere de France chenille I brought back. I can't wait to knit it up for PurlQueen Patterns. After Deep South Knitting, of course. If I can control myself.

Elisa loves the Impressionists and there's one spectacular museum that was built to house the 8 enormous panels of Monet's Water Lillies. Well, the panels were designed for the museum and vice versa. Elisa and I headed over to L'Orangerie to walk around the 2 oval shaped rooms that house the panels. This is Elisa in front of her favorite panel. My favorite panel is going to be an intarsia wrap that I'll knit up after I finish Deep South Knitting. If I can control myself.

So I need to stop typing and get back to work on Deep South Knitting. My thumb has healed from the painful steroid shot and it seems to have done the trick. I thought maybe I should stop traveling for awhile because at this point, I don't need to distract myself with even more inspiration. But then I realized that inspiration for knitters can be anything, even the weirdly beautiful colors your forgotten leftovers turn in the refrigerator. Or the tile pattern on the floor of the grocery store. Or the sparkle in your holiday gift wrap. If you're paying attention, inspiration is all around us. So I'd like to know, what inspires you?