Illumination Series - sparking new ideas

Spring returns with longer hours of light - the golden wings in the beautiful leather panel by Jorge Centofanti seem to take flight again, sparking new ideas and awakening tangible ones after a long hibernation ....

Illumination Series - Tapis Lumière - Light Rug (Guadameci)

This panel within the Centofanti Illumination series encourages and inspires to resume work on my project Timbuctoo (also see: Tahir Shah) which I started the day I bought the panel in August 2010. Some things just take time.

If Guadameci is an art you are not familiar with please read about it in this article on The Art of Leather. You might be as thrilled as I was - to discover an ancient art and some of the very few artists who are still engaged in creating leather art - how lucky can one get.

Timbuctoo

Tapis Lumière

Signs of Spring

Taking a Turn

Life consists of crossroads, doesn't it. Constantly, we are making binary-code decisions, consciously and, supposedly, subconsciously, with all its ensueing consequences. Sometimes the road we chose appeared to be the easier one, sometimes we purposely tried the rocky path, both serving their momentary or longrange purpose. In the last post of this blog, you were introduced to Elisabeth, who had made a courageous decision to open a store - and taking that turn appears to have been an exciting, positive and very successful choice!

Being surrounded by colors is like taking a vacation for resting and stimulating the senses at the same time - and such as we perceive music quite individually, we see color just as individually, triggering sensations and feelings and bringing forth personal and individual memories - and which yarnie could resist the sight of such lovely eye-candy yarn!

Part II, Interview with Elisabeth:
The first question was: Q: Elisabeth, you launched your yarn shop in May of this year. Even before the lovely little shop opened its doors, I’ve been pressing my nose against the window, admiring the tempting display, the wide choice of premium brand yarns and accessories, ranging from wooden shawl pins to the attractive specialty of this region, le Lauragais, the Pastel Blue. What was the reason behind opening a yarn store in these difficult ecomical times and how come you picked Revel? (See Part I, Interview with Elisabeth)
Vous avez ouvert votre magasin de laine en mai de cette année. avant meme que la jolie petite boutique a ouvert ses portes, j'ai été me coller le nez contre la vitre, admirant l'etalage tentant, le large choix de fiet d’accessoire haut de gammes, allant des broche de bois pour châle à la spécialité attrayant de cette région, le Lauragais, le bleu pastel. Quelle était la raison de l'ouverture d'un magasin de laine dans ces conditions difficiles de l'économie et comment se fait que vous avez choisi Revel?

True Treasure Cove for Yarnies

A ) Elisabeth:  It is true that the economic conditions are not favorable and that is why I am renting a very small place for an affordable rent. Actually I am still a little bit anxious but my faith is stronger than my fear. And as yet I do not pay a salary to myself. I pay the rent and charges and pay my suppliers, at this time this is the most essential task. I gave myself a year to assess the trend. My choosing Revel is primarily for proximity (I live in close-by Sorèze). Revel is a small town that I love, it is also my hometown. I also think that Revel had to have in a shop in its streets offering precisely this merchandise and using the services offered: I give lessons in knitting and crochet. [[And as we have heard since even men are beginning to take knitting lessons at "Elisabeth Tricoter"!]]

Luxurious Selection

Il est vrai que les conditions économiques ne sont pas favorables et c’est pour cela que je loue une toute petite surface pour un petit loyer. Effectivement j’ai une petite angoisse mais ma foi est plus puissante que ma peur. Et puis pour l’instant je ne me verse pas de salaire. Je paie mes fournisseurs, mon loyer et mes charges, c’est l’essentiel pour l’instant. Je me suis donnée une année pour évaluer la tendance.

Si j’ai choisi Revel c’est avant tout pour la proximité, j’habite Sorèze. Revel est aussi une petite ville que j’aime, elle est ma ville natale. Je pense aussi que Revel se devait de posséder, dans ses rues commerçantes une boutique proposant ces produits là et ce service là car je donne des leçons de tricot et de crochet.   

NORO - what else!

Q: You are also carrying beautiful items related to the Pastel Colour, such as Pastel soap, a heavenly hand cream, lace doilies. Also you sell some exquisite knitted Baby clothes, which are indeed hard to resist, any mother’s or grandmother’s heart will start beating faster…

Plus, you have another store in Durfort, dividing your time between your two shops. The Durfort shop is open during the summer season and is well-stocked with many Pastel-related items, above all yarns in the incredibly intense yet very pastel blue. When and how did you become aware of these special dye-ties exisiting in the Pay de Cocagne?

Vous vendez également dz beaux objets liés à la couleur pastel comme le pastel savon, une merveilleuse crème à main napperons en dentelle. Aussi, vous vendez des vêtements de bébé tricotés exquis, qui sont en effet difficile de résister, a faire battre tres fort le coeur de toute mère ou grand-mère... De plus, vous avez un autre magasin à Durfort, divisant votre temps entre vos deux magasins. La boutique Durfort est ouvert durant la saison estivale et est bien approvisionné avec de nombreux articles lies au Pastel, et plus particulierement les articles de laine dans le bleu incroyablement intense mais très pastel. Quand et comment avez-vous pris connaissance de l'existance de cette teinture (ou pigment) speciale au Payes de Cocagne?

Perfect marriage of yarns and colors

A: The boutique in Durfort opened its doors in April 2011. I was virtually seduced, as if struck by a thunderbolt, by the marvellous color, this Blue Gold, this hue of color, the blueish gray: the color PASTEL. It is a blue that emits very specific vibration giving the senses an impression of serenity. Every day clients experience and tell me about their feeling of the same happiness, and I am also told they don't wish to leave because it is a place for feeling wonderful. So I got interested in this dye plant with its many and varied virtues. Leaves are used for the pigment with which the fabric or fleece is dyed, houses' shutters are painted, watercolors created...
 With the oil extracted from the seeds a whole range of cosmetics is being produced in Toulouse.  

I learned the technique of dyeing, and every day I grew a bit more passionate, always on the lookout for pastel-dyed yarns for knitting. I made many different designs and creations with the Pastel yarns, scarves, mittens, wraps, baby booties and so on. These creations sell very well and find an appreciative clientele, American, Dutch and English visiters to the store are very fond of them. 

 
La boutique de Durfort a ouvert ses portes en avril 2011. J’ai été séduite, (un véritable coup de foudre) par cette couleur, cet Or bleu, cette teinte, gris bleu qu’est le PASTEL. C’est un bleu qui possède une vibration très particulière donnant une impression de sérénité. Tous les jours j’entends les clients partager le même bonheur et nombreux sont ceux qui me disent ne pas vouloir repartir de ce lieu ou l’on se sent bien.
Je me suis donc intéressée de prés à cette plante tinctoriale aux vertus multiples et variées. On utilise les feuilles pour obtenir le pigment avec lequel on teint le linge, on peint les volets on réalise des aquarelles etc ….

Headlong into Blue
dancer and choreographer Zoe Scofield in one of Mandy Greer's crochet works - #freeform

Avec l’huile que l’on a extrait de la graine on fabrique sur Toulouse toute la partie cosmétique. J’ai donc appris la technique de la teinture, me suis passionnée  chaque jour un peu plus, j’ai cherché partout des fils à tricoter teints avec cette plante. J’ai tricoté de nombreuses créations bonnets, écharpes, mitaines, des chaussons pour les bébés etc… que j’ai très bien vendues. Les Américaines, Hollandaises, Anglaises en sont très friandes
Some more information on Le Lauragais and the small town Revel, beteween Carcassonne and Toulouse in south-west France? Yes, because it is still relatively undiscovered, no major tourist streams, still truly a place of genuine natural beauty. Quaint timbered houses, cobbled roads, even the archetypical bistros that have been disappearing fast in most parts ot France are found here. And there are the odd finds to discover right at the center of town such as this antique car, a shop for quail eggs and one for buying everything dyed Pastel blue.

The rolling landscape of le Lauragais is soothing and gentle, pleasing and calming to the senses. There is nothing confining the sweeping view but nature itself, the majestic mountain range of the Pyrenees to the South and the wooded Montagne Noir on the other side of a wide flat channel once connecting the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, its alluvial soil beneficial to the growth of trees, wine, and many agricultural crops such as corn, sunflowers, melons, potatoes and so forth.

Musée du Pastel - Château de Magrin

The 3rd president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, passed through this area during the time he was minister to France, however he did not see too many of those endless rolling fields, instead he admired the huge oak tree forests that were covering most of the area around Revel at that time. He visited the Canal du Midi in 1787, as told in "Thomas Jefferson's Journey to the South of France", by Roy & Alma Moore who followed Jefferson's route through the south of France. The book, a gift to us from our wonderful friends Mary and Lucien from VA, includes beautiful drawings, highly interesting excerpts of letters and notes by Jefferson.

Le Lauragais (For Sale): Artist: Cisco Centofanti

Elisabeth divides her time between her yarn shop in Revel and the store : Bleu Pastel en Cocagne, 81540 Durfort, ouvert l'aprés midi, 15-19 h , fermé lundi (open in the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., closed on Monday). http://www.artisanpastellier.com/blog/
Store address: Elisabeth Tricoter, 26, rue de Vaure, 31250 Revel, France (Tel. 0033(0)7812851)
Encouraging comments are welcome: elisabeth.tricote@orange.fr
Visit her website at http://www.couleur-lauragais.fr/faiteslevousmeme/

Yarn! Yearning for Yarn!

The yarn-yearning caption does not quite qualify for being a catchy diacope so aptly described in the INKY FOOL blog by M.H. Forsyth, in the style of "Bond, James Bond". But it is the mantra of textile crafts people and so the news of a new LYS (Local Yarn Shop), a lovely lace pattern or intricate design is making the rounds quickly.
The arrival of a LYS in any town is something all knitters or crocheters will hear with joy, fancy ideas begin to flash up, day dreams and fantasies appear on the horizon almost instantly. Read on and join us following Elisabeth's dream!

Sunflower Fields 2013 - Photo by Anne Mader

The location: Revel  is a small town in the Midi, south-western France. It mirrors exactly the image international tourists expect from a truly French town, however it is still genuine and not a tourist-adapted fake. There are magnificent timbered houses, lovely boulevards, lots of little Cafés and an exceptionally interesting and uniquely beautiful market place with a Bellfroi at the center. Ancient arcades line the square and offer shade in the heat of the summer in south-west France, justifiably also called the Tuscany of France, that has so far escaped mainstream tourism. Le Lauragais: a beautiful, gentle rolling landscape with huge sunflower fields, gliding in soft waves to the far horizons of two oceans and bordering the Pyrenees mountain range.
Every Saturday, the traditional market draws a good number of people, not only from the surrounding villages and towns but that weekly event has also managed to be on top of those visitors' "must do" lists. Easy to see why: within the old and layed back bastide town of Revel there is a wealth of small restaurants, Cafés, shops and galleries. (The picture below is from this source)
 

Revel Market

Artists abound, displaying and selling their distinctive art - there are painters, local and visiting, wood-cutters, sculpturers exhibiting in the Musee du Bois, musicians, leather artists specializing in the ancient craft of Guademeci... scratch the surface and you are in for a surprise. If you plan on staying for your vacation, your choice might fall on taking classes in Occitan, the language formerly spoken by famous troubadours and even by kings and queens, while these days Occitan (called lenga d'òc Occitan) is an endangered language and you can count yourself lucky to listen in to the occasional Occitan conversation, most likely held by two elderly persons during market day in one of those little Cafés bordering the stands. And recently, Revel was able to welcome the arrival of a new store, where you might take a knitting lesson or two:

Elisabeth Tricoter (Picture by Elisabeth)

Elisabeth Tricoter is the name of the brandnew Local Yarn Shop in 31250 Revel, France. It is not only well worth being visited by locals but by all yarn lovers who happen to vacation in or visit this lovely area of the Le Lauragais.
Many people harbor a dream of what they would do if... and Elisabeth bravely took the plunge, her long-cherished plan to have her own yarn store finally came true, her desire to realize her life-long dream won over despite all odds. You can share her dream by following an interview with Elisabeth in a number of blog installments (in French and  English), and I hope you will enjoy and be able to identify with this wonderful story! 

Elisabeth Tricoter (Picture by Elisabeth)

Interview Elisabeth:Starting an interview usually begins with the past – but we going backwards from today – describing the presence, unravelling the past that led to the presence, which will lead into future.

Un interview commence habituellement par le passé - mais nous reculons à partir d'aujourd'hui - décrivant le présent qui s’effiloche sur le passé qui conduit au présent et débouchant sur le le futur/l’avenir.

Q: Elisabeth, you launched your yarn shop in May of this year. Even before the lovely little shop opened its doors, I’ve been pressing my nose against the window, admiring the tempting display, the wide choice of premium brand yarns and accessories, ranging from wooden shawl pins to the attractive specialty of this region, le Lauragais, the Pastel Blue. What was the reason behind opening a yarn store in these difficult ecomical times and how come you picked Revel?
Vous avez ouvert votre magasin de laine en mai de cette année. avant meme que la jolie petite boutique a ouvert ses portes, j'ai été me coller le nez contre la vitre, admirant l'etalage tentant, le large choix de fiet d’accessoire haut de gammes, allant des broche de bois pour châle à la spécialité attrayant de cette région, le Lauragais, le bleu pastel. Quelle était la raison de l'ouverture d'un magasin de laine dans ces conditions difficiles de l'économie et comment se fait que vous avez choisi Revel?

Elisabeth Tricoter (Picture by Elisabeth)

A: The final decision to open this boutique was made in March of this year but I had been dreaming about doing that for a very long time. Yet it was very difficult for me because doing so, I knew I was going to be very busy and therefore lose my freedom and my time that I spent with my grandchildren ! Nevertheless, I threw myself into this aventure. There are several reasons for this: Firstly, I felt passionately about wool and what you can do with it ever since my childhood. The second reason is that we all get older and so the realization of this dream was " now or never"!
La décision d’ouvrir cette boutique a été prise au mois de mars de cette année mais il y a bien longtemps que j’en rêvais. Pourtant cela m’a été très difficile car ce faisant, je savais que j’allais être très affairée et  donc perdre ma liberté et mon temps que je consacrais à garder mes petits enfants! Malgré tout, je me suis lancée dans cette aventure.Il y a plusieurs raisons à cela : Tout d’abord, je suis passionnée, depuis ma toute petite enfance par la laine et ce que l’on peut en faire : la tricoter. Associer les couleurs et réaliser des ouvrages. Deuxièmement, l’âge avançant, la réalisation de ce rêve était : « maintenant ou jamais »

Elisabeth Tricoter (Picture by Elisabeth)

Secondly, I strongly believe in a return of the art. I think young people will love doing what their mothers and their grandmothers knew how . Once you knit necessity and today we will knit for fun. And we all knows we all need to find simple gestures, we find ourselves through our creative power. I also posted on my window a small article stating that knitting is therapy as well as a hobby. Another reason not least : industrial offer new materials, so new ! as beautiful and sensual as each other. We deal with a wide range in quality, colors, blends, this is fabulous!

Ensuite, je crois très fort à un retour de cet art. Je crois que les jeunes gens vont aimer faire ce que leurs mamans et leurs mamies savaient faire. Autrefois on tricotait par nécessité et aujourd’hui on tricotera pour le plaisir. Et Dieu sait que nous avons tous besoin de retrouver des gestes simples, de nous retrouver nous-mêmes à travers notre pouvoir créatif. J’ai d’ailleurs affiché sur ma vitrine un petit article précisant que le tricot est une thérapie en même temps qu’un loisir. Une autre raison et pas des moindres : les industriels proposent des matières nouvelles, tellement nouvelles ! toutes aussi belles et sensuelles les unes que les autres. Nous avons affaire à une grande diversité dans les qualités, les couleurs, les mélanges, c’est fabuleux! 

Next interview installment follows in the next post.

Store address: Elisabeth Tricoter, 26, rue de Vaure, 31250 Revel, France (Tel. 0033(0)78.13.12.851) Encouraging comments are welcome: elisabeth.tricote@orange.fr
Visit her website at http://www.couleur-lauragais.fr/faiteslevousmeme/  

First time I saw the ocean...

In Japanese there is a wonderful expression: aaware. It refers to the special beauty of the volatile, transient: the cherry flower, the first snow, a shooting star passing across a nightly sky.
But as fleeting as it might be, its impression often stays on in our memory for a very long time.

Jorge Centofanti - The Golden Way

I was ten years old and stayed with my god-mother who lived close to the Dutch border. She was expecting her first child and I was thrilled that I could feel the yet unborn baby kicking inside the belly, and it was as if I had created a touching bond with the invisible child. My vacation with my aunt Luise was pure bliss and this blog entry is written in rememberance to her. She loved to laugh and tell funny stories, her southern Swabian dialect as strong as ever as if she had never left home. But instead of adapting to the local lingo and northern vocabulary, she introduced her own familiar dialect and expressions to the villagers, and the butcher, the baker and the lady at the garden shop, everybody smilingly added her vernacular to their own command of the language.

On a sunny day we went to Scheveningen. At that time it was an exciting excursion, involving hours of driving in a car and going "abroad" to the Netherlands at that, passports had to be presented and stamped at the border, a small suitcase was packed. And then, finally, the overwhelming first view of the ocean! It was more mighty and endless than I could ever have imagined. Nothing framed the horizon but the sea and sky. It was a windy day, the waves thundered in and the wide sand beach was glistening with the froth whipped in by the wind. The air had a taste new to me and when I had the first waves whirl around my bare feet it seemed like a miracle from heaven, so cool, so fresh and so much alive.

 

What astounded and fascinated me most about the sea were the many colors. I had vaguely assumed a blue like the sky on a summer day. But the variety and innumerable shades of blue amazed me and I still find it fascinating to stand at a beach and look out to the ocean and marvel at the ever-changing spectrum of shapes and colors.

 Looking out to the Boulevard Beach was the Kurhaus Hotel, maybe then as popular as it is today (see the present-day Kurhaus), and to my surprise and delight my uncle and aunt decided to have an afternoon treat at the Kurhaus, coffee and cake, and for me an incredibly tasty, thick hot chocolate drink. I felt like a million and as happy as a child can only be.
 The chocolate / cocoa brand was Droste, of course, the chocolate maker Droste famous for the visual effect on its boxes of cocoa, the socalled "Droste Effect" as shown here. Can you detect the many images each in a yet smaller scale? The site will take you further and lead you to the most interesting work of M.C. Escher and the Droste effect, and anybody interested in patchwork designs will find this a challenge to replicate.

When driving through the dainty Dutch villages I noticed that the windows were often dressed up with short lace curtains. There were even patchwork lace curtains, stitched together unevenly but still looking absolutely beautiful in my eyes.

I took home with me an experience and the memory of a wonderful day I haven't forgotten in more than 60 years, witness to the poem that True Happiness is the Absence of the Striving for Happiness (Zhuangzi). The day was simply magic.

I still love the color of blue with all its shades and in all its uses. Its history is fascinating, such as The War of the Blue - Indigo Versus Woad, and items dyed with woad into a lovely pastel blue are still made today in an area in France called Le Pastel (Lauragais) amongst other places. Blue is "azul" in Spanish and I named my shrug (see below) Azul, the lovely pattern Ovate is by Toni Gurbisz. The shrug Ovate is for Sale - contact me.

A favorite blue of mine is Lapislazuli, and I like to use it in combination with some yellow and green as in the Blue Morpho Papillon bolero.
 

 

 

Feel free to add your own story of how you saw the ocean for the very first time!

Taking Walks

Taking a walk through Ravelry is like walking through day dreams: Yarns, patterns, techniques, assembled in clearly structured spaces. How did we manage without Ravelry!

August is a month for summer knitting or crochet in lovely bright colors - but also for lots of outdoors activity, working or playing in the garden, taking many smaller and not so small day trips or just enjoying the company of wonderful family and friends.I did finish Forest + Frill from Tiny Owl Knits, my third one, called Yummy Summer Bolero,

Made with some stashed Colinette yarn and my own handspun and dyed wool. I alternated 20mm and 10 mm needles, the frilly edging was done with a 10mm crochet hook. Send me an e-mail if you wish to buy it, it is for sale.

Here are a couple of sites and blogs I chanced upon last week: The amazing "Indiaflint"- taking you to new creative horizons.
Need to get more crochet wisdom? Here are very good tutorials "Stitch-Story.Blogspot.fr" - and if you want to learn the absolutely neatest way to turn a dc crochet chain learn how to by watching this tutorial.
You feel like designing your own stuff? Check out this incredible site of "nervous.com".
Interested in unusual book blogs? Here's one: The Inky Fool" - and I am sure you already know Good Reads - if not, it might be a very good idea to visit this page and find lots of new and unusual food for thought.

This summer of 2012 artist Francisco Centofanti of Francisco Centofanti Artworks made a number of paintings in the Midi (France). He captures the very essence of this beautiful landscape and the yet quite uncrowded area. Here is one of his paintings - they were sold the moment they were posted! But look at his other work, too, his paintings have already become sought-after collector items.

Transparent Spaces

 There are incredible textile artists found all over the world. This cloister could not be more beautiful, the airiness of the crocheted web countervailing the massive Roman architecture, and somehow reminiscient of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, especially the skeleton of the church made of strings and hung upside down, to be seen in the museum below the church.

Artist TOSHIKO - HORIU " Chiesa Romanica con colonne a crochet"

Geometric crochet impressions of a Roman Cloister. Also see: Cathedral Knitting in this blog.

Jorge Centofanti: In the Illumination Series, this is a detail of the Dome Panel / Coupole I. This is all done freehand, a true master plan is visualized and realized to perfection. Inevitably, intricate lace pattern come to mind.

Below the collar for the Timbuctoo project: An I-Cord Collar with three yarns held together: my own handspun and madder-dyed silk from eons ago, ribbon tape and alpaca wool. A larger bead at one end, a button hole worked into the I-cord at the other end. Three rows of crochet, working in a gold and copper colored twisted ribbon.

Promising Gold

The beautiful Guadameci panels (see this previous post) created by Jorge Centofanti set an entire process of research in related fields into motion. In his latest exhibition "Illuminations" in Revel, near Carcassonne (France), one can view these highly impressive panels, some of which address Calligraphy. A truly fascinating subject, Calligraphy has held many artists captive and cast a spell on their creative work. Jorge Centofanti created this panel of the Arabic Letter Alif.



From Jorge Centofanti's panels I took to wandering a meandering path through literature, rereading my copy of "The Calligrapher's Secret" by Rafik Schami and very well translated into English by Anthea Bell. This prolific author of many books is a Syrian-German writer and every one of his many books are well worth reading, highly entertaining and enriching. 

From Rafik Schami I took to surfing the net for more information on Arabic writings and cane across the latest book by Tahir Shah, a prolific writer of stories and traveler across many countries and continents. Now living in Casablanca ( Morocco) his fifteen books tell the amazing tales of his travels, and his latest book Timbuctoo will allow the reader to submerge in the incredible account of a young seaman who reached Timbuctoo as the first Christian, was held captive in this fabled city of gold and later reached England, poor and destitute, where he lived to tell his story. The gold of ancient times in fact is the amazing treasure of Sufi history, literature and architecture, the latter two tragically and sadly being destroyed right now. 

Tahir Shah's book is available as a very affordable E-book and, starting 7 July 2012,  as a beautiful limited edition hardback, with fold-out maps. It is made for book lovers and since the E-book is so affordable I think I will indulge myself and put that precious hardback edition on the very top of my wishlist.

All this talk and public rave about the fabulous Timbuctoo book raised the urge to put the spirit of adventure into a piece of knitting - true to Jane Thornley's freerange knitting inspirations. On Ravelry, there are even a few Islamic Motif patterns such as from Chris Laning, who generously provides a lovely pattern pdf and even a chart for a pseudo-arabic calligraphy piece.



True to free-form though, I rather wanted translate the colors of Timbuctoo into a freerange piece. The idea was to use Jane Thornley's uninhibited and joyful approach to knitting - let your mind, your yarn and your knitting needles tell you the story and it will take you to magical, unexpected places. I am visualising a knit with lace sections, leaving peep-holes to raise curiosity while providing a tempting yet veiled view of what lies beyond.....   Next stage of this project in this blog post.