Paris Journal: Gobelins par Nature, Eloge de la Verdure - Lurcat and friends

It is now August and Paris shuts down for summer vacation. Since the amazing exhibit at the Gobelins gallery is shuttered this month for the "vacance", I am posting a few photos here to whet appetites to see the show when it reopens September 2. 

The show runs until January 19, 2014, so there is still plenty of time to catch a flight to Paris before it closes. This is truly one of the most extensive and impressive exhibits of tapestries in the Mobilier National (French national collection). I was so fortunate to have happened upon it on our trip to Paris in May/June. The gallery is free on the last Sunday of every month.

The show includes works evoking the theme of "verdure", a word which originates from Old French and is defined as "greenness". The exhibit is broken up into six "variations" on this theme: "Feuillage de verdure", "Fleurs", "Saisons", "Constance", "Mille Flore" and "Jardins".

Apologies in advance for the photo quality. The gallery allowed photos, but without flash and the lighting in some areas of the large space was iffy. But photos are photos, so enjoy!

It's hard to get more green than the tapestries designed by Jean Lurcat. His spring, summer and winter seasons tapestries woven between 1941 and 1946 are featured in the show. Lurcat and his contemporaries Jean Picart-Le Doux and Pierre Pothier designed specifically for tapestry, limiting their color palettes and forgoing perspective. Sometimes considered quite mannered, these works stand alone in their vivid and fantastical imagery.

The gallery was staged like a park with vine and flower garlands and park chairs.

Tenture des Saisons: L'Ete, Jean Lurcat, Aubusson tapestry, 1941, wool, H: 3.35 m x  L: 4.85 m.

Tenture des Saisons: L'Ete, detail.

Tenture des Saisons: L'Ete, detail.

Tenture des Saisons: L'hiver, Jean Lurcat, Aubusson tapestry, 1941, wool, H: 3.25 m x  L: 4.85 m.

Tenture des Saisons: L'hiver, detail.

Tenture des Saisons: Le Printemps, Jean Lurcat, Aubusson tapestry, 1941, wool, H: 3.52 m x  L: 4.78 m.

Second floor gallery with Jean Picart Le Doux's Nature morte a la fontaine, wool,  H: 2.54 m x  L: 3.90 m, background and Les Saisons au Jardin, a wool Savonnerie carpet by Jacques Despierre , 4.05 m x 6.05 m foreground.

Nature morte a la fontaine, detail.

Nature morte a la fontaine, detail.

Nature morte a la fontaine, detail.

The large gallery space showed the vast size of the tapestries to their advantage. Some tapestries were hung between columns and used as room dividers. This gave the opportunity to see the backside of the tapestries. A treat (or horror "oh, those floats!") for many weavers.

Nature morte a la fontaine, back of tapestry detail.

La grande veneuse,  Pierre Pothier, Gobelins tapestry, wool, H: 2.58 m x L: 2.98 m

La grande veneuse, detail.

Rabbit border, La grande veneuse, detail.

More rabbit border from La grande veneuse.

Nice background with lettering from La grande veneuse.

Every inch of this tapestry  is filled with something...lettering, millefleurs, fantastic characters,
La grande veneuse has it all in a unique and striking grayed colorway with the deepest burgundy and ecru.

Garlanded, gilt ram banister leading up to the second floor gallery.

Paris Journal: Animals in the city

Paris is a lovely city with creative store window displays. Here are a few sheep sightings in the city.

I think this is one of the sheep you're expected to be counting while trying to get to sleep

on the mattresses they sell in this store just north of the Marche St. Pierre in Montmartre.

I don't even remember looking at what they're trying to sell here. I just saw the dear lamb. Near the Jardin des Plantes.

The Animalerie or pet shops along the Seine river approaching Chatelet are a regular sight while riding our favorite bus number 67. I don't know who is going to purchase these life-sized animals, but whoever they are, they do have a wide range of choices.

How can you not love the sheep on the ladder?

Maybe you could get a deal on both the fiber-producing animals?

A panda without ties to the Chinese government. Bamboo included!

The place to go to fill that empty aquarium!

Necessary Indulgence, Handknit socks: what NOT to do

So, we've established that I like to knit socks, especially when I travel. I was excited to knit my sock on our trip to Paris since it had been sitting idle since February. I never really knit the same sock pattern, so as I knit and the lovely pattern reveals itself on the sock, I am enthralled and wonder how stretchy it is with all those fancy stitches between the ribs. Feet are funny in that they have a heel and, as such, comfortable socks need to stretch over that heel. So, with all that work put into knitting those little stitches, sometimes I am eager to see if /how the sock fits. So eager that I try said sock-in-progress on with knitting needles still attached. 

Do you know what? US Size 1 wooden double-pointed knitting needles aren't as bendy as you'd think! 

Do you hear the sound of my heart breaking?

Also, they are difficult to fix with tape or glue...

This doesn't work as well as you'd think/hope/want.

Had I been at home, I would have gone to my stash of needles and just taken the fifth needle (yes, they sometimes throw in a fifth needle for larger-diameter knitting and for cases just like this!) from the set out and knitted on my merry way. BUT, as I was in Paris, I sort of was stuck. I knitted with a glued needle for about four rows before it snapped again. (Can't really tell you how amazed I was  that I was even able to do this for that long, but I was inordinately excited.)

Most yarn stores in Paris do not stock knitting needles as a matter of course. Since sock knitting is not as popular there, small size dpns (double-pointed needles) are very difficult to find. Many years ago, I did  find some dpns for sale in an odds and ends jar of a now-shuttered Anny Blatt store in the Marais area of Paris. They are the best dpns I own with the perfect tip and finish. They are metal and strong and somewhat bendy. They were not the needles I was I was knitting these socks with. I was knitting with the colorful wooden Knitpicks needles (they sort of match the yarn, I'll use those! yeah!). I moped for what seemed like an age, actually looked in our kitchen for a suitable bamboo skewer to no avail and then had the bright idea of looking in my weaving storage drawers.....

voila!

This photo is more exciting than it looks.

By the way, this is how you're supposed to try on socks-in-progress: 

1. put the live stitches on waste yarn
2. set working needles aside 
3. pull on! 

Simple and painless...trust me.

Diagonal Rib Socks designed by Ann Budd from Interweave Knits webKnits in Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett color #4256, yarn purchased at Le Bon Marche, Paris, ca 2005.

FLASHBACK: Penland weaving concentration: Blanket weaving and the smell of burning peat...

My "scaled up" tartan blanket used both llama and wool yarns alternating in the weft for the background. Using two shuttles in the weft can be a bit fiddly and slows down the weaving rhythm quite a bit, but I felt that it was worth it in this case since my warp also alternated the two yarns. For the blue weft stripes, I also alternated yarns, using a two shades of turquoise singles wool to add interest to the narrow stripes.

Since the finished blanket would be fulled and washed to fluff up the yarns and create a thicker, more cohesive fabric, I had to be careful not to beat the weft in too tightly. That really slowed down my weaving, since I tend to pack the warp in pretty well.

Boat shuttle with wool on left, end-feed shuttle with llama on right, 

Measuring tape set below the temple to check width of weaving.

Once the weaving begins, the warp width invariably draws in a bit. For weaving of this width (47.75"), it is important to make sure the warp width does not "draw-in" or get too much narrower as the weaving progresses.

A temple placed near the fell line of the weaving helps to prevent as much draw-in as possible. The temple consists of two metal bars with sharp teeth a the ends to keep the weaving at the desired width. You can see the temple here; it is red.

Just off the loom and onto the floor...I can see my threading and treadling mistakes, finally!

I braided the warp ends into fringe on my blanket to secure the weft. Our tartan blankets were treated to a traditional "waulking" during Marjorie Logie Warren's visit. Waulking is a traditional Scottish group activity used to finish woven woolen fabrics. 

We gently pre-washed our blankets and basted them together into a large loop. Marjorie brought the peat burner which set the atmosphere and led us in singing Scottish songs as we beat the dampened blankets against the table. 

My blanket, waulked and ready to dress up...

my plain bunk in Dorm 54!

Paris Journal: Now showing at the Galerie Gobelins

We happened upon the beautifully-executed exhibit Gobelins par Nature at the Galerie Gobelins in Paris. The show runs until January 19, 2014. The Gobelins is the French National tapestry studio. They weave tapestries for the French government.

The last Sunday of the month, the gallery at the Gobelins is free. But if you're visiting this summer, remember that they close for holiday in late July through August.

The exhibit was staged like a park with park chairs and flowering trees and garlands. It was just lovely. I went back twice. 

More photos of the tapestries with details to come...

Paris Journal: Will knit for Barbie?

When you're in Paris you expect the odd accordion or saxophone player playing "Strangers in the Night" in the metro, but this one was new to me. As I walked to the Boulangerie Landemain on the rue des Martyrs for my mid-day baguette, this woman was sitting on the sidewalk, knitting. On the ground in front of her were a coffee can holding scissors and a handknit-dressed Barbie seated on a box. The piece she was working on looked more like a fun fur scarf than anything that Barbie might wear, but Barbie does always need evening wear, doesn't she? 

Was she offering to knit Barbie clothing for passersby for a small fee? Or were we to applaud her on her industriousness with a few Euro coins? I'm still not sure.

Only my second sighting in over 10 years of visiting Paris of anyone knitting in public  (other than me).

I am always knitting in public (KIP) here in Paris since there is always idle time on the bus or metro. People are always fascinated when I pull out my sock-in-progress and knit away. If they ask me what I'm knitting, I usually tell them "chausette" (sock), then they give me a surprised look like "no way, why bother!", then they go back to looking at their phones. The lines for the butcher, fishmonger, boulangerie, patisserie and Vuitton can be really long, stretching around the block. Whenever I see a long line here, I think "these people could be knitting!" Think of all the socks and Barbie dresses that could have been...

Look closer, she's not only KIPing, she's set up shop as couture knitter to Barbie!

FLASHBACK: Penland Weaving Concentration: Kudzu, indigo and all things Scottish!

Beth organized some wonderful visiting artists during our concentration at Penland last spring.

Junco Sato Pollack revealed to us the wonders of kudzu fiber. Her elegant manner is reflected in the restrained and beautiful table mats she weaves out of silk and kudzu. Junco will be teaching at Penland this summer. 

Lynn Pollard brought stories, video and fabrics from her textile travels in Asia. We also had a chance to admire her amazing handwoven garments and weaving art. Lynn also shared her latest creative experiment, indigo "paintings" on paper.

Marjorie Logie Warren shared her knowledge of Scottish history and traditons. Her discussion of tartans, Harris tweed and estate checks was timed perfectly since each of us in the class had just woven our own tartan blankets. 

My blanket warp color order on the chalkboard. Guide string is in green with warp threads ready to be wound.

For this project, I used llama yarn that I had brought from home with a brown heather and three different colors of wool that had been donated to the class. My blanket was woven in twill with an oversize plaid design. The taupe llama yarn alternated with the brown heather for the background.

Scottish-inspired blanket requires a Scottish warping technique....

I still marvel at the wonders of winding a warp this way...

...it looks like a lot, but it took me only minutes per inch of warp.

Nothing is prettier than a full warping board!

Blanket warp, sectioned and ready to wind on. Boo-yeah!