I have a torrid knitting secret to admit. I live in Paris. And before moving here I knew rien about Phildar. After moving to Paris I found the knit bloggers community and wow have my eyes been opened into my hobby this year!
So I went to what has become my LYS- the Bon Marche. And this is where I started on the happy, yet broke path to becoming a Rowanette. It's not like my home LYS but it works, it has a La Drougerie (which home LYS obviously does not) and the Rowan lady is REALLY nice. Right before I left on the advice of one of my favorite blogs I tried a yarn substitution, a Phildar yarn: Licorne.
Licorne was used to make Foxy, I say that like its in the past... I need to get one more ball to finish the knitting. Does it count as a UFO if it is in a storage suitcase in Italy?? Anyways I did not have a fun experience with Licorne. There wasnt really any problems with the yarn per se- there werent really any problems, except it pilled while I was knitting it. And when I say it pilled I mean- it pilled EVERYWHERE. My itsy bitsy flat (19 sq m/200sq ft) was rained upon with little lipstick red pelotes like the hail in Italy during this past June.
So I kind of turned a bit on Phildar. I know it's not fair, maybe I should have just turned on that yarn. I mean how can so many knitters that I admire be enamoured with Phildar (leading to the name Phildar-phile) if it's not a good option. When I got back to Paris in August, I took a quick flip through Tendances for this Fall but it didn't burn into me. Too much 60's Pop stuff and stripes that I wouldn't wear. Nothing screamed at me enough to want to get it (I have a knitting postponement shoppers maladie). But it has since started to grow on me a bit; much in life happens that way with me.
But my secret to admit? I have never been to an actual Phildar Boutique until today. Which doesn't really count. It is Monday, and it seems everything is shut on Monday or it's a French holiday I don't know about. I have known there was one in the quartier for a while. The Phildar boutique is literally not more than 200 meters from me- a 5 minute walk, and I hadn't gone in. Today Becky posted about her "sweater that will never be." I looked at the sweater and thought... hmmmm I might like that wrap sweater. I promptly decided I needed to get up off my derriere, buy me a pattern book and get a ball of yarn to see what I thought of it. It looks a bit of fine gauge too, so I might even get a pair of bamboo circulars to test (the sharp Inox points on my tiny circs make my fingers HURT).
It will have to wait till tomorrow as I said my neighborhood Phildar is open every day but today and I am not in the mood to head to the Bon Marche. But tomorrow I will get to take that dirty secret off my list. I will have lived in Paris and I will have gone to the Phildar!
Posted by Stinkerbell at September 20, 2004 12:18 PM | TrackBack