MaggieBKnits

Yes, unprecedented. Shocking. Two posts in one day. This is the yarn I purchased from Isager, in Arhus. OK, so it's really a bag. The yarn is _in_ the bag. Here's the yarn, and the book opened to the page of the sweater I decided to knit. I need to say, here, that the young woman who was trying to help me at Isager was remarkably patient with a goofball who couldn't decide what she wanted to knit, she wanted to knit 48 different things at once, and who insisted she didn't need an English translation for one of the patterns that is in one of Marianne's other books (only in Danish). Because I am so clever, of course. Har de har har. I was informed, however, that they are translating and publishing, in English, several of her other books. (I saw the Danish versions, and yes, I am going to buy them. Pronto) Actually, the real problem is that I love many many of her designs, but I do not necessarily want to knit them all. And some of the yarn was hollering lace...

Somehow I don't think you want to hear about the utter fiasco involved in our train trip from Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport, for our flight to Denmark. You really don't. Luckily, the boulangerie where we'd intended to eat breakfast was not open on time, so we got off to an earlier start than we'd planned. Believe me, we needed the time. Suffice it to say, our plans were fine. It was what the RER did to its passengers that morning that was a bit challenging ;) We flew into Copenhagen, then into Arhus. I apologize, the A in Arhus should have a little circle over it but I can't seem to achieve that here. This is a fresco of St Clement, the patron saint of Arhus, as it is a seagoing city. I am not sure how old this fresco is, as I speak zero Danish, and my English translation of the cathedral info was not helping me. But the cathedral in Arhus was fascinating (and a wonderful escape from the deluge that came out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere, on a lovely s...

I have a million and one ideas for my blog. What I don't have is the time I'd like, to post. Today I am just showing you a few more pictures from Paris and tomorrow moving on to a new country... Me in front of Sacre Coeur. I post this only to show I really did wear my shawls around Paris! Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, taken from the Place de la Concorde. Jardin des Tuileries and my sweetie. Oh and the Louvre in the background. One of the things I love about Paris-- the architectural details on the buildings. View from one of the bridges over the Seine. More architectural thrills. All for now. Tomorrow, or maybe even later today, though I doubt it-- the next place we went. Where there was actually some knitting store activity, and shopping.

Here is a view of the Ile de la Cite, from the east, as the invading Norsemen would have seen it way back when. Sort of. I don't think the architecture was quite the same then... In all honesty, I found the Seine seductively alluring, a wonderful river. Obviously, when in Paris a trip to the Louvre is in order. Here, a shot of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the things I really wanted to see on this visit. Apparently, so did all of Paris, that day-- at least, the ones that were not mobbing Mona Lisa seemed to all be jammed into this area of the Louvre. A young friend of ours, upon seeing this sculpture and its many missing parts, commented that it looked more like a winged defeat but I was glad to see it and get a halfway decent photo. It was virtually impossible to get a photo from in front of it, any closer (I was up a staircase and across the way for this photo.) Truly, there were incredible numbers of people in the Louvre. Admittedly, it was a rainy morning, not...

I have been travelling. This was our first trip alone together (me and dh) since our oldest child was born. (He will be 14 in a couple of months) Not sure why we waited so long, it was so wonderful! Here's a challenging clue to the first place we went. This is a place we went to on our first day in this city. OK, I know, that isn't the easiest clue, unless one has been to that particular place and definitely to that city. Here's a much easier one: Got it yet? Dead give away ahead: Yup. Paris. It was totally wonderful, the only bad being that we only had 4 days there and on the first we were madly jetlagged. That first picture was from the first place we went (after some pleasurable wandering on the Ile de la Cite and environs, and a delicious lunch at a cafe) (including some very necessary and stunningly yummy cafe noir, AKA espresso.). I got side tracked again, do you find me as confusing as I find me? As I was saying, that first photo is from Marmottan , a muse...

Janin made a comment on my last post, which got me remembering old discussions and I wanted to address it at some length. Stand by for few pictures and lots of words... If you hate that, feel free to exercise your right to navigate elsewhere! :) At Camp last year, I had a long conversation with various lace knitting gurus, including Meg Swansen and Bridget Rorem, about Shetland lace, and square shawls. At the time I was concerned (I forget just why at this point) that the shawl I was thinking about knitting be "authentic." What does that really mean, authentic Shetland lace? To me it means, knit by Shetlanders of Shetland wool in Shetland, truly. More to the point, then, is not "What is authentic?" but, "what do I want to produce in my own 'honor-those-brilliant-Shetland-knitters' rendition of a square shawl?" The Shetland knitters were (are) realists and brilliant make-it-happen knitters. They had a few basic tools and their wonderful minds and sk...

We've been out of town, in a rather Luddite-like scenario, so I have been unable to post. My poor husband has been in desperate need of a vacation, so the break was nice...even though he ended up working some percentage of 3 of the days. Looking mighty relaxed, eh? Great news for me was finishing the center square and moving on to the borders on my Shetland Shawl. I did get a bunch of knitting time! Here is my planning-the-borders mess: ... Which I worked on during our vacation. I have found more of the yarn, thru another knitter on Ravelry, so I should be able to finish this thing soon! Here's the idea. I knit the center square: This is unblocked so it's not as open as it will be once blocked, but it shows some of the center square. Here's a bit more detail: With the large center square done, I picked up stitches all the way around the square (stitches ready and waiting on two sides: the edge where I finished the last row, and the start with its provisional c...