It is an interesting adventure shopping for yarn in Paris. There are quite a few boutiques, but they are relatively small. I get the sense, from remarks made by French knitters in the Ravelry group, Tricot & Co that knitting is not as popular in France as it is in the United States. In fact, some of the French knitters have commiserated in threads about the "grandmother image" knitting seems to have here. A few days ago, while we were waiting for our check at a small cafe, I pulled out my knitting needles and the waiter seemed very amused. "That is all dying out," he said in French, corroborating this possibility. Then again, perhaps he was just making polite conversation. Anyway, there are lovely jewel-like knitting boutiques here that are wonderful finds for any knitter, and I was lucky enough to visit the favorite boutique of my Parisian friend, Fabienne C. The name of her preferred store is Lil Weasel.
Lil Weasel is located in another one of the covered passages in France, le Passage du Grand Cerf.
Lil Weasel displays yarns by color instead of brand, creating a lovely rainbow effect.
For anyone seeking American or British yarn, this is a good destination. I saw Debbie Bliss Angel and Rialto, Cascade yarns, Lotus yarns, Spud and Chloe, Rowan felted tweed,
Malabrigo, and Fonty.
There is also apparently a line of in-house yarn: Lil Weasel's "Lil Wiiz":
Across the covered passageway, a few steps away from Lil Weasel yarn is their lovely fabric store filled with interesting prints:
I was unable to find any of the Anny Blatt yarn I was seeking at Lil Weasel. However, when I asked the owner where I might find the patterns I was looking for, she directed me to Modes et Travaux.
Modes et Travaux is a three-floor emporium of sewing, embroidery, knitting, and the tools thereof:
Upstairs on the third floor I finally found what I was looking for—an entire boutique of Anny Blatt & Bouton d'Or catalogues and yarns:
They have a mini trunk show of knitted up patterns as well. There is a large stock of Victoria in different colors—Victoria is a ribbon yarn which is used in many Chanel-style designs by Anny Blatt. It comes in thin bobbins in a giant variety of colors. You can see it in the middle section of this photo:
I used the Victoria yarn to make my Charm Pull, and I bought some in black this time to use as trim in a future possible Chanel-style jacket. Along with the Victoria yarn, there is a sparkly yarn called Muguet which is used a lot in Chanel-style designs by the knitting company. Chanel has been adding more and more metallic elements to their designs over the past few years, so it is good to know of another source of yarn that can add a lot of sparkle to a jacket trim:
There is also a fine mohair yarn with subtle metallic element that reminded me a bit of Rowan kidsilk eclipse. You can see it in the middle section--it is surrounded by merino yarns:
My favorite find was the catalogues themselves. In the past I had ordered only one Anny Blatt catalogue directly from their website as a splurge birthday gift to myself. Between the cost of the magazine and the shipping, it was a total of $60!!!! However, here the design books were 6-8 Euros each, including translation where it was available! So I got several books with some intriguing designs I will be sharing with you later. Unfortunately, there was only one magazine with English translation booklet available in the store. We will see how I do with translating the French this time. The kind lady in the store said they would email me the English version in future.
The woman managing the Bouton d'Or/ Anny Blatt yarn section, Fabienne G., was very friendly, and told me that she was expecting a giant group of Americans to descend on the store Monday. Apparently there is a knitting tour of France going on right now. Fabienne told me the women have rented a boat and are traversing France via canal, knitting. Can you imagine the possibilities? Fabienne said that you can cross almost the entire continent of France by canal. And her French knitting group has invited the American knitters over for a party on Monday at a hotel close to Modes et Travaux and she invited me as well. If it is physically possible, I will attend. The sight of 50 American knitters stampeding Paris is too much for me to resist. If I manage to decipher the written instructions in French that I was given, I will be there in person to report and photograph what I can. Meantime, Bon Tricot! (Happy Knitting)