A Knitter in Paris - Day 1

I am back from my Paris trip. So many stories to tell and photos to share! It was an incredible trip to a romantic, historic, fashionable city. I'd been there before, but the last time was 26 years ago. My memories (and my French) were fading, but I wanted to show my husband a bit of this wonderful city. We both love history, and we mapped out an itinerary that demanded 1 or 2 museum visits per day, plus all the major monuments. We packed it all in, and by the end of the week, I managed to meet my personal agenda as well - a meet up with anglophone knitters, a visit to a Paris yarn shop, and a dinner with a dear old friend.

We stayed at a lovely tourist class hotel near the Eiffel tower called Hotel Tour Eiffel Rive Gauche. If you are a Rick Steves type of traveller, and prefer smaller hotels with personal service at a reasonable price, this is a great place.

Being so near the tower, it was our first tourist stop. Also near the hotel, was the Musee du quai Branly--Paris' newest museum, with highlights of third world cultures--lots of great textile artifacts to interest knitters and fiber enthusiasts. The highlight of our first day, was my meetup with Kai, Ellen, Kate, and Lindsay. All American knitters working in Paris in various professional jobs. They meet Wednesday evenings at Le Depart, a cafe just a short walk from Notre Dame on le boulevard St. Michel. It was great fun, and so easy to find them. I have tried to meet up with other knitters in my past travels, but except for knitaways, knitting camp, and visits to yarn shops (which are, of course, capitalist knitting enterprises) this was the first time that I managed to meet up and knit with locals.

Les tricoteuse (and un tricoteur, since Kai is a guy) are a friendly, youthful bunch. They are hardworking professionals, but they are also devoted to their knitting and the camaraderie they found in their group. Je vous les recommendez!

I have many stories to tell from Paris--both knitting and non-knitting. Watch for future posts. A bientot! (Excusez moi, Francophones, I don't know how to type all those accent symbols. You will just have to use your imagination on the spelling.)

WWII Veteran's Story

This is not a knitting story, but a story of a closeknit bond that I have to my dear Uncle Bob. This last week, I invited my 82 year old uncle to come to my school to be interviewed for an oral history project. Uncle has many interesting WWII stories to tell.

First there was the story of how he asked for a deferrment of his draft date so that he could finish High School. Not only did Uncle Bob receive the deferrment, but the draft board also deferred the enlistment date for his twin brother, my dad, (who had dropped out of high school to work and didn't deserve an educational deferrment)Their deferrment meant that they would not have to report to duty until June 20th, 1944. If they had been inducted on their 18th birthday in January, they would have completed their basic training with perfect timing to be shipped off to Europe for D-Day. That gives a whole new meaning to the value of education.

My father entered the Navy and was in the battle for Okinawa. Uncle Bob went into the Army, arriving in Europe in September of 1944 as a replacement troop. Although he arrived late in the war, he saw plenty of action, earning two battle ribbons and the bronze star.

Telling his stories after 64 years, Uncle was still able to graphically describe in great detail, the battles he was in, and his strategy for survival.
My favorite story though, was not a battle story, but a human one. It was the spring of 1945, at the end of the War in Europe. Uncle Bob was assigned to string telephone communication wires in a German town that the Allies had occupied. He was going from house to house in and out of apartments so he could string the telephone wire. In one apartment, he came upon a heavyset, middle aged german man in a room filled with money. Gold coin and german bills were heaped on a table. Who is to know how the man acquired the money, Uncle didn't ask, but he assumed it was not honestly, or the man wouldn't have been hiding it in his apartment. Uncle lashed out in anger, calling the man a *!@!* Nazi. He scooped up an armful of money and threw it out the window. Then he filled his rucksack with more of the money . . .

Listening to this story that I had never heard before, I was worried about where it was going. I needn't have been.

"I took that money, and went to the outskirts of town, where there was a D.P. (displaced persons) camp. I gave them people all that money. They were so grateful. They didn't have a thing. They didn't even have proper clothes or shoes and nothing to eat. I suppose I could have set myself up good if I had kept some of it. . . but, oh, they were so grateful."

Charming Chat

I had a lovely discussion today with Isabella, age 5. Isabella knows how to fingerknit. She makes scarves. Did you know that if you fingerknit with thin yarn, it will have holes, but if you use big yarn you will have holes but they won't be so big? And if you use big yarn, you can make it so it doesn't curl?

I do not know any of these things. I only know how to knit with sticks. Isabella is going to teach me if I will teach her how to knit jewelry. I think it's a fair deal. I've signed up for fingerknitting 101.

A Public Apology

This is a public apology to Nola. When I saw her on Monday, I realized she really did want to throw her coffee at me on Saturday. (You will have to read Saturday's post to know what transpired) I did not mean to cause offense, and thought I was teasing a good friend. But alas,I realize I too would be discouraged/disappointed/sad/angry if someone pointed out flaws in my knitting. She has done me a favor in pointing out my personality flaw. -A little too anal and talking without thinking! I shall work on it. If only I could frog back words, I would. I'm sorry.

Scoop de Loop

I finally got my butt over to Loop, a not quite new yarn shop that moved their location to be closer to me. First,however, I stopped in at the Alterra Coffee next door for the Saturday Stitch N Bitch that I had also been hearing about but never got to. Both were pleasant surprises. Nola from Monday night knitting was at Alterra with a couple of senior knitting ladies and their spouses. One of the elderly gentlemen was a crocheter, the other was a non-knitting spouse, but they blew me away. I thought my husband was supportive of my addiction, but these guys take enabling to a new level. I joked with them about what tightly knit couples they were, and the conversation unraveled from then on.

Nola was wearing the beautiful and difficult aran turtleneck that I saw her making last year, but never saw modeled before. I promptly (but politely with some apologies) pointed out that she had crossed a cable the wrong way smack dab in the middle of the front. A true friend, she did not throw her cup of coffee at me, and just explained to the senior ladies that I suffer from anal retentiveness ad-nauseum.

Moving on to Loop, I discussed the possibility of their carrying Knitter's Journey Jewelry Kits with the owner. With a potential sale on the horizon,of course I spent my potential profits before walking out the door. Anyway, my scoop on Loop: I was pleased to see a nice amount of traffic in the store, and mostly young knitters at that. The store is a nice size with very high ceilings and filled with light. It is not the biggest yarn selection I've ever seen, but she carries some high quality unique stuff along with a good selection of standards like Cascade 220, Noro,and Cotton classic. The young owner was very friendly, and I will definitely return.

Paris, Je t'aime

It is cold and snow covered here in the Midwest, and I am dreaming about my upcoming vacation. We are going to Paris for a week in March, and I am starting to research and plan my daily itinerary. I know I will be able to find a yarn shop--my sister was just there, and she said she visited one in the Latin Quarter, and I recently spotted one in the film, "Paris, Je t'aime," so I know it is not mission impossible.

A pilgrimage to a droguerie/magasin du laine/tricoterie or whatever they call it, will be an homage to my knitting roots. I was first inspired to knit when I was a poor college student, backpacking around France in the summer of 1980. It seemed that every time I got on a train, I would spy a french woman knitting something tres chic out of gorgeous designer yarns. I fell in love with the possibilities of color and texture, and I begged my mother to teach me to knit when I returned home. My very first project was a wool cap for the french boyfriend (the reason why I was backpacking around France in the first place.) Malheureusement, the boyfriend hat was as cursed as the dreaded boyfriend sweater. We parted ways and moved on with our lives.

It is funny how things work. If I had never dated the french guy, I don't think I would have ever learned to knit. Knitting has been my mainstay in my adult years. It has helped me to de-stress and be creative at times when I was unfulfilled in my work. It has given me lasting friendships, (Monday night knitters - 8 yrs and counting)and a heightened sense of self-esteem (state fair blue ribbons). So to Paris and to my friend Hugues ---Merci.

Building a Knitting Community

I have been trying to get my co-workers to join my Stitch N Bitch group or to found one of our own. There are plenty of knitters around here. But it's like trying to knit a Fair Isle sweater for an extra large man--a slow,somewhat difficult, but colorful process. It's hard to get more than 2 people together at one time. We are a work hard/work long hours team of dedicated educators and support staff. Lunch hours don't work for a meeting time --teachers feed students at lunch table and administrative staff tend to eat in 10 minutes and go back to their desks. After school is often scheduled with meetings, tutoring or catching up.

It was Faculty In-service day today, and I was able to carve out 1 hour of knitting time by offering a team building, feel good Knitting Workshop. Unfortunately, far too many workshops were offered, and we were only 3, but I was happy to hook them in. (Knit them together???) I extoled upon the virtues of knitting in community, and we had a wonderful time. None of the participants wanted to be photographed, but here is the lovely shawl-in-progress of one of my newest knitting buddies. I will keep prosthelitzing. Eventually, it will happen. Perhaps I need to go to the students instead of the teachers. A knitting club is in my future.