Lace shawl

Last week I finished my second lace project from Victorian lace today: Large rectangle in leaf and trellis pattern with trellis border. Although on 43 stitches and 16 rows, the chart for the main panel was easy to memorized so, it was a fairly easy and enjoyable knit (it took something like 65 hours). I am very pleased with it!


Now, I should go back to sock knitting...

An angel with blue hair

The weather is becoming much colder here and we had snow during the night.

I spent Saturday at my friend Jenny to learn stained glass. I've finished the iris:
Having cut all the pieces last time, I wrapped copper foil around the edge of every pieces before soldering them with an alloy tin/lead (60/40). It is not that easy and needs a bit of practice. If you don't look too close, the result is not too bad for a first attempt.

Then, I had time to make another suncatcher: I decided on an angel and I thought blue hair would be perfect!

I am now ready for my next and more challenging project: a lamp. Jenny made it already so she gave me the pattern. I found someone (thanks to Sheila at knitting) doing stained glass evening classes (here) very close from where I live so I will do the lamp there I think (my friend lives 40 min away by bus). I should start in January...
I also would like to make a lantern and a mirror.

Christmas windows

Diane is posting a lot of details and great pictures about our wonderful weekend in Paris so I've decided to show you some movies of the Christmas windows :

More later...

A weekend in Paris

I spent a few days in Paris with Diane and Andrea. The aim of our trip was the "salon Marie Claire idées". We were very well prepared: our hotel was 10 minutes walk from the salon and we had prepaid our tickets online, but we didn't take into account the lack of organizations and the total inability of most French people to queue... So, although all our careful preparation, it took us 40 minutes to get inside. I also had to queue (be squeezed would be a more appropriate word) to get our tickets: One would think that with computers nowadays, it would be a piece of cake...well, they had no computers, only the listing of people who had prepaid tickets! Oh, and all that was done with the famous French kindness (for people not familiar with French kindness, you should then read: grumpiness). Although we planned to spend most of the day there, we gave up after an hour and a half and went to the center of Paris instead. The place was mobbed and it was very difficult to access anything. Overall, it was OK, but I was expecting something much better.
Before adding this post I did comment on the Marie Claire idées blog to let them know how disappointed I was (and I was not the only one who had complained!).

On Thursday evening we had a wee wandered on the "Grands Boulevards" and watched the Christmas windows of Galeries Lafayette and Le Printemps.


We also went inside the Galeries Lafayette to see the dome and the Christmas tree.

We ended up in the food part of Galeries Lafayette and it was amazing. I didn't take a lot of pictures there, I hope Diane took some and will post them soon...
More later...

Souvenirs

I don't know if you remember, GruikGruik showed you all the little piggies he brought back from Italy, but I didn't put any pictures of what we brought back. Well, I skip the food related souvenirs and go directly to the lasting ones.
Four A3 size piece of hand made Florentine paper:

A numbered print from Itaca art Studio by Venice artist Monica Martin:

A papier-maché mask from Atelier Marega: The shop was so fascinating that I forgot to take a picture of the woman painting masks!
The print and the mask are now on display in our bedroom.

Finally, some lace weight yarn from Beatrice yarn shop:

The chocolate colored yarn (70% wool 30% silk) is being turned into a scarf. The others just fatten my stash...

Florence

A quick post to show you some more pictures of Florence....

Bargain

This morning I went to a craft fayre. Stella, from our knitting group, had a stand there and was selling some of her books, yarn from her stash and handspun. I bought a book, 6 balls of Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud, 13 balls of Lanalpaca (merino/alpaca) and 2 balls of handspun merino/cashmere. All that for £29 !!!
So, the Inca Cloud should be turned into a shawl, the Lanalpaca into a jacket and the merino/cashmere (that one is dead soft) into a scarf.

Some of my friends complained that I wasn't knitting so much anymore. Well, I am just doing longer project so it takes time! Also, I have a full time job that keeps me away from my knitting needles!
This is what I am knitting at the moment: a stole from Victorian knit today. I have 2 more repeat of the pattern to do, then I will have to knit the border.

I am also knitting this scarf, from Victorian lace today again:

I really enjoy knitting lace so I invested in some books: heirloom knitting, the first book of modern lace knitting and the second book. some projects are already queuing...

Last weekend I made a quick project: a pair of cotton slippers for my friend Le Minh. They should be flying to Brussels soon...

Enough for now, I have to do some knitting ;o)