Dreaming of Paris

I am off to Paris on Tuesday! I can't quite put into words how happy and excited this makes me. It's truly one of my favourite cities to visit, for so many reasons.

I will be glad of a little change of scenery, time away from work and some precious quality time with my other half - it will be the first time I've actually been there with a romantic partner, and he has never visited the city before so I'm looking forward to showing him the sights.

If you've never been, I heartily recommend it - it's a place I would describe as having an almost magical quality about it. I recently watched the Tour de France's final foray up the Champs-Élysées... enough to send me off into a little daydream! As a child I visited the famous avenue and will always remember it because the trees which line the street were beautifully lit for Christmas.

It helps that I speak fairly good French, I suppose - well... at least I do when I'm not rusty! I am tempted to watch Amelie again (one of my favourite films of all time so I hardly need an excuse to watch it) to get my "French brain" in gear.

I have a sketchbook and some photographs from previous trips (including the ones featured in this blog post - they are from 2001 and shot on 35mm film so I had to *scan* my prints!) that I really love and treasure, so here's hoping I come back with a few new memories to cherish.

I'm only going for a handful of days but you can be sure I'll be aiming to make the most of it! Things I am looking forward to include: visiting a proper boulangerie, eating fresh crepes and lovely croque madame/monsieur(s), buying macarons, browsing the Parisian markets, checking out foodie treats "dans le supermarche," going for a wander along the river Seine and seeing the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling at night. I also dearly love the Musee d'Orsay and will be thrilled if I manage to return to the Orangerie to immerse myself in Monet.

I also hope to visit a couple of crafty/woolly shops while I'm there - 

so if you have any good recommendations for me, 

I'd love to hear them!

3KCBWWC - Perfect Day

Day Seven: Craft your perfect day

Today I chose to go for the 'wildcard' (3KCBWWC) topic: "Plan your fantasy day with your craft, It might just take up one hour of your day or be the entire focus of the day, but tell your readers where you'd love to craft, whether you'd craft alone or with friends, knitting or crocheting something simple or spending a day learning new skills."



I think my perfect knitting-filled day would have to start with poring over my library of knitting books and magazines for inspiration. I've collected rather a lot of them over the years! (the image below shows just a small selection of some titles I own...) This may be followed by having a peek at some knitting blogs and of course, the wonderful Ravelry.

Fibrespates Scrumptious DK from my stash

After that, I would head off into town (Edinburgh, that is) and one of my favourite local yarn havens, k1 yarns, a cosy, bright little shop on the West Bow, just at the curve at the bottom of Victoria Street in the heart of the city's old town. They specialise in Scottish yarns such as Orkney Angora, Jamieson's of Shetland and Harris Tweed, and have a lovely selection of hand-dyed yarns too. It's quite likely that this visit would result in a yarn splurge, but that's part of the fun, right?! Plus I could get another stamp on my loyalty card ;)

Orkney Angora St. Magnus 4ply from my stash

Once I've satisfied my yarny needs, I'd meet up with friends at an alternative bar I'm quite fond of, the Auld Hoose, for some of their tasty food and a spot of pub knitting. The perfect way to round off a knit-tastic day, n'est-ce pas?

I do hope you've enjoyed reading these posts. It's been fun taking part in Knitting & Crochet Blog Week for the third year in a row, not just as a participant but reading other knitty blogs too. To view my other posts for the week, see here. Thanks once again to Eskimimi for organising it!

February Fun

I'm not long back from a little trip up north to Stonehaven, partly to get away from it all, to catch up with a friend and also for its proximity to Aberdeen :)

On one particularly dreich day (no joke, it was raining cats & dogs!) I spent a happy half hour in a lovely craft shoppe in Stonehaven. Having seen some rather nice yarn in the window, my boyfriend knew it was inevitable that I would want to go in! I couldn't leave without having a good rummage and left with this little lot:



Additions to the ever-mounting stash, yay! :) The yarn is sooo soft and Rico Baby is a brand I haven't come across before - with some yummy colours in the aptly-named 'Lollipop' range. Just wish I'd had time to find at least one of the independent purveyors of yarn in the Granite City. Mind you, it's probably just as well since I have a bit of a problem walking out of such shops empty-handed!

For those of you who might fancy getting your mitts on some WildCat Designs handmade goodies, there's still time to enter my Prize Draw - plus, I've decided to extend the deadline to midnight (GMT) on Tuesday, 10th February 2009. What are you waiting for?!?