A Paris day trip: Dior and fabric shopping

When I heard that the Christian Dior exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris was not to be missed and was ending in early January of 2018, I decided that I should go! Now! I can get to Paris in 3 1/2 hours so I decided a day-trip was in order. 

I arrived in Paris about two hours before my timed-ticket entry of noon. Originally I'd planned to walk from the train station and stop at a fabric store or two along the way but it was freezing cold outside, so I took the metro. I thought it was still too early to go to the museum so after a pastry and coffee I checked out a nearby ribbon shop called Mokuba. They have an incredible selection of ribbon but since I didn't have any need for any at the moment I just browsed. I also peeked in the window of Kaetsu , another fabric shop I'd read about, but it wasn't open until noon. It turns out it's not so much of a fabric shop as a boutique that makes bags and other accessories out of Japanese fabric. They may also sell some of the fabric, but I couldn't tell - it was a really tiny store too.

By now it was time to make my way over to the museum. It was about 11:30 am but I probably should have gone over there earlier because there was a huge line outside - and these were all people with 12:00 tickets. It was cold but fortunately not raining so I waited with everyone else and watched as more and more people arrived. As you might expect, the majority of the crowd were female and many were "fashionably French" but others were pushing my fashion envelope for sure. I didn't get any photos because I didn't want to be rude, but my favorite look was an older woman wearing a knee-length bright green fur coat, red tights and purple shoes - or maybe it was purple tights and red shoes, I can't remember but she definitely stood out.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

I finally made it inside around 15-20 minutes past twelve. I followed the crowd and headed straight for the exhibit, unfortunately forgetting to check my winter coat, and I wasn't alone in this as I saw most everyone else wearing their coats. As often happens in these large, popular exhibits, the early rooms were very congested while people tried to read and observe every little thing, afraid to move on and miss something. I was pushed by people more than once and bumped countless times and bulky coats certainly didn't help! In one very crowded room a museum worker periodically instructed people to keep moving.

I didn't really know much about Dior except for his infamous "New Look", the change in fashion that he initiated in the post-war 40's. The first room contained a lot of historical information and pictures but unfortunately it was so jammed with people I felt claustrophobic while trying reading anything so I moved on. I looked up information about Christian Dior afterwards and was surprised to learn that he died quite young, at 52, in 1957. Now I understand why so many of the clothes were labeled "Christian Dior" followed by "John Galliano" or "Yves Saint Laurent" or "Mark Bohan." These were some of the creative directors who took over the House of Dior after Christian's death. This exhibit represents the bulk of the Dior creations over many, many years and not just from Christian Dior himself. And what an exhibit it is!

I took lots of pictures with my phone and have put together an album of them, which you can view farther down in this post. My favorite exhibit was one that showcased groupings by color of Dior clothes - full size and in miniature (which I adored!), hats, shoes, jewelry, perfume and artwork.

Another favorite room was one that focused on the floral pieces. The ceiling was decorated with paper cutout flowers and leaves and it was just beautiful.

Another room showed the pieces in muslin (toile) form, filling the room vertically, which was an elegant way to showcase them. I would have loved to have been able to see the dresses closer up to see the design elements.

Towards the end of the exhibit was a room that looked like a grand ballroom and it fittingly contained ballgowns, including one worn by Princess Diana. So many lovely gowns!

I wish I could have spent my time admiring and studying each piece but that was impossible not just because it was crowded but because there was so much to see. I spent about two hours there and was exhausted afterwards.

Click in the middle to view in flickr or click the arrows to view here

After the exhibit and lunch, I took the metro to visit another fabric store I'd read about. Mahlia Kent is a weaving studio that supplies woven fabrics for designers and also sells yardage or sample pieces. They're located in a very cool space built under a railway bridge that has been re-purposed into studios and retail shops with a landscaped walkway above, known as the Coulée verte René-Dumont. 

I browsed a bit through the small sample pieces, which could be used for small bags or combined into larger pieces, but there were so many that it made my head spin. I was more attracted to the cones of yarn on their shelves that were also for sale - these are probably leftover yarns from their weaving. I bought four small cones of yarn to play with on my loom. Had I not been limited by what I could easily carry and not planning to shop more, I might have bought more!

My next stop was Anna Ka Bazaar, another fabric shop I'd read about but had never visited and located in a trendy looking area a short walk from the Coulée. It's a nice little shop but not really my aesthetic. At first glance it looked more like a "twee" craft shop with glass jars of color-coordinated ribbons and buttons, but then I saw that they also stock yarn, patterns and fabric. It looked like they'd just gotten a shipment of printed cotton knits, which I liked but not enough for the price they wanted. 

With two more hours until my train, I dashed to the metro in the rain and rode it to my usual fabric shopping mecca in Montmartre, home of Tissus Reine and Marché Saint-Pierre Dreyfus and many little "coupon" shops that sell pre-cut pieces of fabrics. I browsed and browsed as much as I could in the time I had left, but there wasn't any fabric that I felt I needed to buy. There was a small leather and animal skin shop with some nice pieces but I couldn't come up with a project to justify buying anything. Well, actually I could think of many projects but my list is long enough already.

It was a great day! Long and exhausting and it rained off and on, but still a really great day. 

Yves Saint Laurent Exhibit

As members of the de Young museum in San Francisco, we get a glossy publication in the mail that gives us notice about the upcoming exhibits. I was thrilled to see there will be an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition from Nov 2008 through March of 2009. The exhibit is currently at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts through the end of September and its only other showing will be at the de Young.

Another cool exhibit that's opening next weekend at the de Young, not fashion related but certainly fine art, is the Chihuly glass, which will be on exhibit until September. And while I'm there I'll have to check out the Turkmen Weaving exhibition to marvel at the fine weavings from Central Asia.

Stitches 2008, Part 2

So, Stitches is over and my stash is bigger and I know everything there is to know about short rows. Well, maybe not everything, but after three classes dealing with short rows, I was glad when Sunday rolled around and my last class was not about short rows.

The first class on Saturday was about using short rows to make pinwheel shapes. Candace Eisner Strick taught the class and she brought some really nice examples of how you can use color and the pinwheel shape to make fun hats, bags, round-bottom totes, etc. We used both the "yarn-over" and the "wrap" method of short rows. It wasn't quite the class I thought it was going to be, but I enjoyed learning about short rows in a new way. It was also fun to see how you can use short rows in a decorative way too. Here's my little sample:

Next I had a class called "Short Row Savvy" with Maureen Mason-Jamieson. In this class we knit a little sample using three methods: yarn-over, wrap, and Japanese.

So what are short rows? Well, I'd best point you to a better source for that answer since I don't have the knitting experience or artistic talent to draw your a diagram. And besides, I'm a lefty and my perception of it is backwards. So here's a link to a Vogue Knitting article about short rows. The article describes the "wrap method."

On Sunday I had one class, in the morning, on knitting a hounds tooth pattern. Jean Frost taught this one and it was a treat. She makes the most beautiful Chanel-inspired jackets. The class itself was rather easy. We spent the time knitting two color samples of various hounds tooth patterns using either fair isle or slip stitches. But the real treat was seeing her gorgeous jackets. I've put her book on my Amazon wishlist but I may not be able to wait for my birthday or Christmas and may just buy it instead.

Even though my weekend was chock full of classes, this did not deter me from the market floor. Oh no. I did the bulk of my shopping on Thursday night during the market preview, which was open only to registered students and vendors. But I had time during lunch on Friday and before the fashion show Friday night. Then again on Saturday during lunch and again Sunday afternoon. Just when I thought I'd seen everything, I'd run into a friend who had a lovely purchase of something I hadn't seen and had to go check out. So, without further ado, here's my Stitches 2008 haul:

Back row from left to right:

• Newtons Yarn Country: 8 skeins of 60/40 cashmere/merino wool, 320 yds per skein (could not pass up at $6/skein - yes, you read that right, for cashmere!)
• KnitWhits Sienna Hat kit: Fair Isle knit in some really pretty jewel tone colors
• Chameleon Colorworks: sampler pack of 1/2 ounce roving (camel, yak, merino/silk/angora, tussah silk, angora, optim, alpaca, cotton silver) - I'm going to need a spinning lesson to learn how to spin this!
• Chameleon Colorworks: 4 oz merino roving
• Verb for Keeping Warm: 10 oz Black Blue Faced Leicester, indigo dyed
• Creatively Dyed Yarns: 1 skein of merino sock yarn
• Just Your Yarns: 2 skeins of wool/camel - I bought this to weave with

Front row, left to right:

• Amazing Yarns: "Dancing Kit" - I saw this in the fashion show and really wanted it. It's a vest with the main body out of Mountain Colors mohair/wool and the shoulders out of the funkier looking hand dyed/spun wool
• Blue Moon Fibers: 3 skeins of "mill end" lightweight Socks That Rock and 1 skein of lightweight Socks that Rock in "Monsoon" colorway.
• Habu: 300 yards of silk/mohair and 300 yards of tassar silk boucle, intended to be knit together into a scarf. They're both a pale green color.
• Habu: 574 yards of lace-weight red bamboo
• Habu: 450 yards of orange silk (it's like a raw silk, plan to make a scarf or small shawl)
• Malabrigo: free mini-skein of lace weight in orange
• Belisa Cashmere: 500 yards of purple cashmere for scarf. As soon as I finish my orange Lara sweater I plan to cast on for a scarf using the ivory cashmere I bought from them last year!
• Bijou Basin Ranch: 125 yards of yak/silk - this was my splurge fiber this year
• Wild Fibers magazine: free mini skein of alpaca for subscribing for 1 year
• Fiber Fiend: 1 skein of merino tencel sock yarn
• Fiber Fiend: 1 skein of merino/bamboo/nylon sock yarn
• Fiber Fiend: 2 sock patterns
• Caroline Homespun: Denise Needles companion set and size 1 double point rosewood Colonial Needles

Whew!

Stitches 2008, part 1

I wrote this post Friday night but when I went to post it blogger appeared to be down. I've been so busy with Stitches since then, I haven't had the energy to repost it until now. So you're getting it a bit late!

I'm in the middle of a Stitches 2008 weekend (knitting convention extravaganza for those who don't knit) and I've loaded myself up with lots of classes and shopping. I even took a day off work this year so that I could take more classes. I must be nuts. But really, the classes are great, the shopping is great, the getting together with friends is great and I've been looking forward to this since I registered for it last September. Here's a quick recap and summary of what's to come:

I skipped out on work a little early on Thursday (shh, don't tell the boss!) so I could get to the Ravelry meetup. It was a great excuse to have a glass of wine and meet up with friends. After Ravelry I picked up my vendor badge - I'm helping out at the Fiber Fiend booth on Saturday after class - and this let me bypass the very long line of eager shoppers waiting for the doors to open. Woohoo! One of my first stops was Blue Moon Fiber for some "Socks That Rock" sock yarn and OH MY did that booth fill up with knitters in a hurry. It was packed! I spent the next three hours (!!!) wandering from booth to booth trying not to buy everything I saw and occasionally running into friends who always seemed to be headed where I just came from. So I did most of my shopping solo, which may have been a good thing. I love my friends but they can be terrible enablers, as I am to them of course. They don't even have to try. I see what they have purchased and ooh and aah over it and suddenly I want some too. I tried to stick to a plan to only buy yarn and fiber that are unique and not available at my LYS (that's local yarn store for you non-knitters), but Stitches is just overwhelming. There is so much yarn and fiber I'd love to own, but I know that I just don't have the time or space for all the projects. I still bought a lot. I was better behaved today and only made one purchase. I'll post a picture of my Stitches stash next week because even though I am mostly in class the rest of the weekend, there's still lunchtime and the last-minute Sunday afternoon, end of Stitches shopping. Yes, I still have lots of stuff from last year's Stitches, but it's not totally all stash - I'm almost done with the Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk cardigan and I've used the needles and spindle I bought. I'm almost done spinning all the fiber I bought from Stitches 2006, which is good because I bought more this year. Is it still stash if I spin the fiber but haven't knit it? Don't answer that.

This year I'm taking more classes than I've ever taken before, mostly because I actually took time off to go to them. Today I had a class with Sarah Peasley on making better sleeves by picking up the stitches along the armhole (the armscye to those of you who sew) and using short rows for shaping. It makes a really nice sleeve with no separate pieces and seaming. The second class was on cables, but beyond knitting basic cables and at first I thought I was in over my head. Eventually I got my bearings and was able to really benefit from the class, which was really just info and tips on how to make cables go where you want them too. I know the instructor (Fiona Ellis) had more to tell us than that but at the time I was still paralyzed with my inability to remember how to cable.

Tomorrow I have two classes on short rows. More short rows! Good grief! When I signed up for the classes last September, I had just finished a pretty intensive (for me) month or so of sewing and I guess fitting, which is one thing short rows do for you, was more on my mind. I'm taking one class on Sunday, which is on knitting a houndstooth pattern - again, I think I was influenced a bit by sewing and fabric for this one. But I do think all these classes will add a lot to my knitting skills.

In the meantime my Burda jacket sits and waits for me to make time to finish it.

I make things but I'm not a Maker

We didn't go to the Maker Faire. My husband was more interested in working in the garden and to tell you the truth I wasn't sure I wanted to go either. I love to make things, both artsy and mechanical and I've been doing it all my life, so you'd think the Maker Faire would be right up my alley. But something about this event didn't sit comfortably with me. Maybe it's that they call it a Faire. Maybe because it attracts some of the same people who go to Burning Man. Maybe it's that I liken it to a Star Trek convention - I enjoyed the original TV series and I work with satellites but that doesn't mean I speak Klingon or want to dress up as a crew member. Maybe it's that making stuff is now trendy and has become a sort of cult, especially when the stuff you're making involves recycling and will save the earth from global warming.

I never thought of it as recycling when I saved the cardboard from dress shirts for some future craft use or when I rescued the fine veneer that was wrapped around some of my dad's cigars to use as floors in my dollhouse. I grew up seeing potential out of stuff that was still usable but would normally be discarded. My mother once made a doorway curtain out of the plastic lids from margarine tubs (she cut out the centers to leave rings, painted them orange {I think} and strung them in vertical rows - it hung in the basement and was quite 70's mod). One Christmas mom turned tuna cans into little dioramas with a bit of felt, gold trim, and some tiny plastic reindeer and Santas. My dad was a marvel with wood and metal and also built radio-control planes with Barbie as the pilot. My sister dressed tiny plastic mice in Victorian outfits and sold them. My brother put together plastic car and truck models, but he customized them as a NASCAR car/transport combo. My sister and I shared a room and were told we couldn't have wall to wall carpeting until we stopped leaving so many snips of paper on the floor. We were always making stuff in our family.

So about the Faire...maybe I'm being cynical and we would have had a good time. I was intrigued by the life-size Mousetrap, especially since I still have and enjoy this board game. I would have been interested to see the ingenious contraptions people come up with. I wasn't, however, interested in the fiber crafts too much - the craft events I saw online seemed to appeal to someone 20 years younger and for those not skilled or interested in operating a sewing machine.

I think in the end, we didn't go because we wanted to make our garden.

Now that the vegetable planters are in and the plants are growing, we turned out attention to the pathways and other planting groups in the yard. We bought more plants, set up drip lines to everything (it won't rain again here until October), and my husband set bricks to line the edge of the pathway. I hope to snap some pictures tonight and post them when I get some time. We enjoyed a few ripe blueberries and strawberries and noticed new blossoms on the squash plants. Since we're a few weeks from harvesting anything substantial, we made a trip to our local farmers market to buy some fruits and vegetables.

I squeezed in a little time to work on my sewing Friday night. I traced off one of the Butterick tops and made full size pieces of the ones designed to be laid out on the fold. I'm going to take Gorgeous Thing's advice and cut the pattern out on a single layer of fabric. Since I'm working with a plaid for one of the tops and stripe for the other, this is almost a necessity but I probably would have cut them out folded had I not read her post. With the plaid, I'm thinking about placing either the top portion or the bottom on the bias and leave the other portion straight. And I'm toying with making the sleeves puffy. I might also do something interesting with the stripe. These were supposed to be quick summer tops but I don't do anything quick.

Random things

• I finished knitting one sock (Socks that Rock "Little Bunny Foo Foo" in the Monkey pattern from knitty.com).


• I (temporarily) cast the Bonita top aside until I figure out the mistake I made that caused one shoulder to be much wider than the other. It's an error in counting, for sure, but I just hope it doesn't involve ripping both shoulders.


• I washed and dried two 2-yard pieces of cotton fabric, one Madras plaid and the other striped. They're going to be made into some summer tops from this pattern:
  
  Butterick 4549
  

• Progress in the garden. Everything is growing! We've been eating salad nightly and just planted some more lettuce seeds to keep our supply going. I'm anxious for the tomatoes, squash and peppers. I took pictures but I haven't downloaded them yet.


• I went to a knitting machine class on Saturday and found that my Brother Electroknit 910 needs a sponge bar but is otherwise in pretty good shape and just needs a cleaning. Since the sponge bar was deader than dead (it's a foam-backed metal strip that compresses against the needles), I was advised not to operate the machine until I replace the bar. I got to try out the instructor's machine, which fortunately for me, was a later model Brother so is almost identical except for the electronics.


• I took advantage of the pattern sales at Hancocks (Butterick) and Joanns (Vogue and McCalls) to buy more:

Vogue 2971 - I like the top but don't think I can pull off the skirt.

Vogue 8400 - I will not be doing this in striped fabric. It reminds me of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Butterick 5047 - this is one of the new Connie Crawford patterns

• I bought a little bit of fabric this week. Well, ok, not a little bit. Gorgeous Things tempted me with a sale so I finally gave in and bought some fabric I'd been looking at. She's making it very hard to stay on the fabricaholic wagon. And my old standby, fabric.com, gets me all the time with their bargains. I bought a boat-load of fabric from them that I don't really need but I wanted it and couldn't resist. I couldn't say no to high quality (their words) Japanese shirt-weight cottons, wool suiting to try out some pants, rayon knit, cotton batiste in a paisley pattern, and some $1/yard novelty knits.
  
• I'm thinking about going to the Maker Faire this weekend. It looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Quilts

I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival last weekend and the quilts there just blew me away. The workmanship and the artistry were just amazing. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites:


(Click for larger picture)

Here's a closeup of some of the detail on this quilt --

In addition to the local competition, they had a display of quilts from Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Norway, Italy, Japan, Brazil, and South Africa. This one is from Britain:

This one from Japan was considered the "Best in the World":

It was an amazing selection of quilts and wearable art. I'd gone to this show about five years ago and it's now double in size. There were vendors of course. Oh yes, there were vendors. There was something for every type of quilter. I bought some fat quarters and some patterns. I actually spent two days at the show. I went on Saturday and shopped and attempted to see all of the quilts, but I didn't have all day because I first stopped by the grand opening of Purlscence Yarns in Sunnyvale. By the way at Purlescence I bought some lightweight Socks that Rock yarn in the Smoky Topaz colorway from Blue Moon Fiber Arts and some Merino wool from Malabrigo. Yummy yarns! I was exhausted by the end of the day but since my $12 entry fee on Saturday was good for Sunday too, I decided (with a little persuading from my husband) to return. This time I took the camera and leisurely enjoyed the quilts as if I were in a museum. And it really was like an art museum. Such talented quilters!