I have wanted to start a knitting blog for a while, and I think the time is now. Although I should probably introduce what I want to write about and a bit about who I am, I think that can wait for another day:)
I spent the past weekend in Paris and was very inspired by the Musée des Arts et Métiers. It is a museum of the development of various types of machinery, cameras, trains, scientific instruments, and – what I found most interesting – the section of the museum full of knitting machines and weaves.
While all the other tourists were waking up or already standing in line for the Louvre, I got to enjoy the museum without crowds or all the noise. I arrived at 10 in the morning, right after the museum had opened, so it was just me, a couple of pensioners, and some families with young children. As such, I got to enjoy everything in silence, with the occasional crouching down to explain to their children how a specific machine used to be used.
In the museum pamphlet and on the website, the section of the museum I ended up spending the most time in was titled “materials”, which does not really say much about what is there. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of space given to textile production. Especially the weaves and the transition from fully manual to more and more automatic weaves made me burst of joy. It is weird how weaves can get you that close to crying:) Somehow, there were no people in these rooms while I was there, so I got to enjoy it all to myself. The museum had so many places to sit, so when I got to these rooms, I was able to rest and enjoy just looking at the machinery from a distance before walking around to read about it all.
It was difficult to enjoy the rest of the museum after going through this section of the materials. After being so overwhelmed by all the textile machinery, I got so excited imagining what might be in the museum gift shop that I rushed through the sections on energy, construction, communication, and transport. Retrospectively, I wish I had just sat down for a bit and spent more time taking in all the joy’s of the museum, because the gift shop wasn’t as good as I had made it out to be in my head. It consisted mostly of postcards, merch and educational material for children. Like so many museums in Paris, the museum was free for everyone under 26. After enjoying the museum so much, it only felt right to buy a few postcards to send to my family.
That same day I went to the Lil Weasel, a crafts shop placed in a beautiful little passage between som buildings. They had multiple locations down the same little street, so I went to the one dedicated to knitting and wool. The selection was big for such a small shop, and I got stuck looking at all the colours of Cardiff Cashmere displayed in the window.
I always have a difficult time buying wool when I don’t have anything planned. Either I get instantly inspired and buy too much, or I am totally unable to buy anything. This time it was the latter. So, although I spent 10 minutes trying to pick a colour from the selection of Cardiff Cashmere Classic, I realised after a while that it would be silly to buy that expensive wool without a plan… Still, it was great to get a look at the wool and its colours in person, because I do know I want to knit with Cardiff cashmere sometime in the future. Most likely a little scarf just to get a feel of it, but I do not know yet:) When I do, I will probably order it online, as there are very few wool shops here in France where I am staying, and the shops that do sell wool have a rather limited selection of either brightly coloured acrylics or rather expensive artisanal wools. Not the wide selection of wool, alpacca, mohair, cashmere and so on that is easy to fine home in Norway.
Is there much more to write at this point? I already have many ideas what to write about past, present and possible future knitting and other craft proejcts, however I should not write it all at once:) I’ll keep it in mind so that I have something to pick from whenever I feel like writing. I do not know yet how personal or impersonal this blog will be, but at the moment, I only wish to get a feel of how it is to write, get the experience, so that I do not have an excuse to not do it in the future.
Thanks for stopping by!