C is for...

Chenonceaux

(château of...)

I know it will shock you all, but for this abc-along post, I decided to go with ponies another château...  And this time it is my absolute favourite, favourite, FAVOURITE!

The history of the château is long and convoluted, but if you would like to read about it, our kind Mr Wikipedia is again on hand to help out...

The run-up to the château is through an avenue of MASSIVE trees and it doesn't take much to imagine how grandiose it must have looked like in its hey-day...  after which you emerge into the spacious gardens and  see the château for the first time.

orange trees framing the driveway

Yes, by the way, well spotted.  Those photos were indeed not taken on the same day!  I think I've visited Chenonceaux three times so far, and only one of those days did the sun decide to stay around for any length of time.

The gardens are spectacular and are named after two of the most important mistresses (in all senses of the word) of the castle:  Diane de Poitiers (who was the mistress of Henri II and received the castle from him as a gift) and Catherine de Médicis (Henri II's queen, who expelled Diane from the castle after Henri's death.)

Diane's garden

Catherine's garden

I guess Diane de Poiters won that battle...

The interior is pretty impressive, too.  Most of the rooms are open to the public, and now any Tom Dick or RedScot can wander through the bedrooms and studies of the kings and queens and erm, mistresses of France.  I think this calls for some gratuitous bedroom shots...

you were perhaps expecting something else?

After such opulence, it is almost a relief to arrive at the newer part of the château: the galleries, which were built by Catherine de Médicis upon a bridge originally commissioned by Diane de Poitiers, that once connected the castle to the other side of the river.  I guess Ms Medici won that round...  The first floor, with its black and white tiles, was used as a ballroom...

and the second floor, of which I was sure I had a photo, but alas cannot find it, has its original wooden flooring, and is now used as a, well, as an art gallery.  Just goes to show...

Other rooms to see include the wonderful kitches, Catherine's library and the chapel, but the photos I have of these are too dark to be much use here...  No flash photography allowed...  But this year when DS and I go back to visit (because it's an addictive place) I'll be using my new camera, which has all sorts of funky functions that I haven't figured out how to use yet...  I'm sure if I fiddle with it enough I'll get some more piccies to drool over!

Oh, and I have been knitting, I promise... I may even have something to show in the next few days...

B is for...

Blois

(château de... louis xii wing)

To continue the theme of French castles for the ABC-along 2009, RedScot Inc. brings you the Château of Blois, in glorious Technicolor. 

(Although, technically, the incredible Castle at Blois is brought to you first by the Counts of Blois (from the 10th to the 13th centuries), then by Kings Louis XII and his Queen, Anne; François I; Henri III; Henri IV; Louis XIII and finally his brother, Gaston d'Orléans.   As country retreats go, it's not too shabby at all...)

The building itself can be divided into four main sections, the first being the Louis XII wing, the exterior of which is shown above.  Now, as you can probably imagine, I have many, MANY photos of this place.  The formation and stone-work especially has me drooling in architectronical* delight!

Above the main entrance-way you find an equestrian statue of Louis XII in full battle armour.  The original was sadly destroyed in the Revolution, but there's the magnificent copy from 1857 to gaze at in its place.

louis xii in ceremonial armour

So, by the time you get to this portal, you're already a tad impressed, but nothing quite prepares you for the courtyard...

unfinished classical wing of gaston d'orléans with françois i wing to the right

You enter through the Louis XII wing into a bright and very spacious courtyard to be confronted with several architectural styles: facing you is the latest (and unfinished) wing, built in the Classical style by Gaston d'Orléans. To the right is the Renaissance wing of Francois I, where a jewel of a polygonal spiral staircase adorns the façade.  It is truly, truly stunning!

i'll take two to go, please

The detail is incredible:

 maybe slightly on the draughty side, though...

:: droooooool ::

The wing on the other side of the courtyard houses the chapel, which although not particularly stunning from the outside, is beautiful inside...

bien sûr - stained-glass had to figure somewhere in this post!

I don't have so very many shots of the interior.  Well, no, to be truthful, I have lots of photos of the interior, but not of the particularly clear and focussed variety.  I do have a semi-decent one of François I's little crib, though...

restful, calm and muted colours - perfect for a good night's sleep

Once you think you've seen everything, you follow the direction for the exit, wander down a little staircase and go through a doorway, to be presented with a final wonder - the Hall of the Estates General - a massive salle with an incredible ceiling:

6,720 hand-painted gold fleur-de-lis

I don't think enough good things can be said about the restorers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  The French Revolution and then bombings in WWII led to much being damaged or destroyed, but thanks to the incredible work of these restorers, the Château of Blois is again a stunning thing to behold.  And photograph!




*architechtronical - pertaining to anything related to architecture that that can reduce the beholder to embarrassingly public shows of emotion.  (The RedScot Dictionary of Made-Up Words OUP 2018)

No Sox Please, We're British

A lie, of course!  I finally got back on track with some coverings of the podalic variety.  I name these socks 'Rock Pool Socks'.  God bless, them and all who sail in wear them.

tidal wave socks by deby lake in noro kureyon sock colourway 150

I call these 'Rock Pool' socks as the colours of this yarn remind me of the little pools to be found on the rocky beaches near my home in Scotland, complete with gentle wavelets brought in by the tide.

But oh - the colours!  The colours (actually, it was the only colourway of their sock yarn that didn't make me want to run away, shielding my eyes and whimpering for ocular salvation) are beautifully muted in shades of (working downwards, and remember, children, mummy is just a tad colour-blind and may be relying on Dulux colour cards for nomenclatural inspiration...) periwinkle, mocha, slate grey, nutmeg, amethyst, turquoise, emerald, café-au-lait, cedar, ivory and back to periwinkle. 

rainbow'r'not us

I must admit though, that I was all "UGH, this yarn is AWFUL" to start with, as the first quarter of the ball seemed to include all levels of thickness (and thinness) from cobweb/embroidery thread to DK in places.  Okay, it's NORO and it's to be expected, but I was not of the happy bunny camp and lost some of the length to chopping out the ridiculously fine stuff, after having it break too many times just at the part that was being worked on...  But further on into the ball, and further on into the pattern, it seemed to even out a wee bit.

I made a couple of mods... or at least I think there were a couple, but I can only remember one off-hand:  I changed the heel-flap to 'eye-of-partridge- stitch, as it seems to be quite a hard-wearing stitch, and with this yarn I reckoned I needed all the help I could get...

eye-of-partridge - check the unevenness of the yarn
(although it may also be my non-knitting prowess showing through...)

The stitch pattern is easy to memorise, and after the first couple of repeats you see the wave pattern emerge.  Simple but effective.

[add audio of gently lapping waves here]

I recommend this pattern very much indeed.  BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!  Oh no!  I finished another pair of socks, too!

'zombie socks' by sheryl giles in a&e 4-ply sock in maisie
'jaywalkers' by grumperina in a&e 4-ply sock in plum crumble

Hey - I didn't say they were a pair for each other, did I?!

A is for...

Amboise

(château of...)

Actually, originally 'A' was going to be for 'architecture', but I soon realised that:

1. the post would be on the extremely and way, way, way too long side
2. I'd be shooting myself in the foot if (hah - I say if like it's already not a certainty...) I couldn't think of a subject for any of the letters, and the opportunity for 'V for Versailles' (for example) had already been used up in a marvellous but way, way, way too long first abc-along 2009 post
3. Hang on... I think I've left the oven on...

So.  Chateau d'Amboise, subject for this post.

Brief history 101 (courtesy of kind Mr Wikipedia ): Built on a promontory overlooking the Loire River to control a strategic ford that was replaced in the Middle Ages by a bridge, the château began its life in the eleventh century, when the Count of Anjou rebuilt the stronghold in stone. Expanded and improved over time, on 4 September 1434 it was seized by Charles VII of France, after its owner, Louis d'Amboise, was convicted of plotting against Louis XI and executed in 1431. Once in royal hands, the château became a favourite of French kings; being rebuilt extensively, beginning in 1492 at first in the French late Gothic Flamboyant style and then after 1495 employing two Italian mason-builders, who provided at Amboise some of the first Renaissance decorative motifs seen in French architecture.

So, where was I?  Oh yes... Château d'Amboise is built on a hill.  I guess you may have noticed that already, but what you don't fully grasp until you get to the other side is that it's partly man-made.

wall and chapel of saint hubert

Rather sturdy, to say the least.  The Chapel of Saint Hubert is a particular favourite building of mine.  It is (or was for some time) the final resting place of Leonardo da Vinci, and also hosts some marvellous stone-work and beautiful stained glass windows.

I'm also rather partial to the wondrously carved portal, the details of which are superb, to say the least...

jaw-dropping intricacies

Inside the château proper, you find a spacious ground floor with guard rooms and halls and the council room, and every nook and cranny plays host to carvings and sculptures, like this little monkey and his plums...

(ooh - the comments I could make...)

... ornate fireplaces...

... and the odd king-sized (literally) bed or two:

The first floor is furnished in the more up-to-date style of the 19th century, the pièce-de-résistance being the marvellous music room, the fortepiano of which was very nearly ruined due to damp.  (My drooling.)

:: drooooooooool ::

The gardens are lovely, but sadly I don't have many photos of a decent quality, as the heavens had opened once we left the château, and decided to stay open for the rest of the visit... Except for one moment when we were back down on 'ground' level. Here's a shot of one of the towers, the spiralling insides of which were a simpler means of transferring soldiers and carriages up to the top, than the main steep entrance to the side.

excellent early exponent of the helter-skelter

Oh, and there's an olde chocolate shoppe just round the corner, too...  Marvellous!

FO? :: faints ::

I know.  A real-life finished object.  A rarity in these parts recently, rumours are rife about the sighting of the fabled Finished Object*.  We sent our roving reporter off to see if truth indeed be in them thar hills...

"The first indication of any legitimacy to this story was discovered when we stumbled across what appeared to be the cast-off skin-type remains of the FO...  Strangely, yet geometrically patterned, the 'skin' was examined by our experts who concluded that it may have come from a variant of the 'Lion Brand' Sweater Bag, sometimes called the 'Chinese' or 'Doomed' variant.

Feeling hopeful about a fruitful ending to our quest, we continued onwards until a scout for the group gaspingly returned to inform us that a species of Sweater Bag had indeed been sighted nearby...

Not wishing to startle it, (for it has been told that they have a tendency to pounce and maul, if frightened) we approached its den with stealth and as silently as fourteen reporters, six cameramen, seven coffee-runners and five camp followers could...  And there it was.
Confirmed as the Chinese Sweater Bag of Doom, ('Chinese' due to its interestingly coloured gullet) we sidled-up with caution and managed to take a few photos of it in repose. A strangely beautiful animal, the Sweater Bag is an odd beast.  Dull and with a somewhat plain dark-grey plumage, (black and white photos have been lightened to show the markings off to a better degree)  it seems rather unremarkable at first sight, but on closer inspection, there are hints of blue in the strange appendage at its top-most regions.

Before we could make any further examinations of the sleeping beast, it woke up and attempted to frighten us off by showing its coloured under-plumage in a rather exciting display of flapping and twirling.

Much like the legendary Sweater Bag Australis, (discovered in the early 21st century but yet to be photographed in the wild) we discovered that the Chinese Sweater Bag also had a marsupially pouch-like appendage on its front, which appeared to be ridged in pattern, but we had to wait for the flapping display to reach its zenith before we could confirm that to be so...

But confirm it we did...  The pouch was indeed in evidence, possibly as a remnant from early marsupial life in this part of the world, (thought until now to be extinct) and covered a surprisingly large surface area of the front of the beast.  This led us to believe that there may be at least one more pouch in the belly of the Bag.

Sadly we had forgotten to bring a net with which to capture the Bag and despaired of getting close enough to see inside, when an enterprising coffee-runner, with pin-point precision, threw her mobile phone at the Bag and knocked it out cold.  One of our more intrepid photographers rushed over and took a photo of the gapingly-mawed Bag in full gaping-mawdom (the results of which should ensure him everlasting fame and fortune) and provided us with proof that as well as having an interior pocket, the jaws of the beast were of the toothy Zipped type.  A remarkable discovery.

Obviously of mixed heritage (in the end we decided it was of Chinese-Scottish lineage) we saw an interior of Chinese silk and a Scottish tartan inner pocket - the mix in itself a very rare finding.  (The reasons for which were discussed with our experts, and the leading theory promulgated was that the original lining must have been lost, perhaps in a fight with another Sweater Bag, and a replacement found at the very last moment. Possibly in a remnants store...)

We left the beast as it started to regain consciousness and legged-it back to the studio. Sadly one of the coffee-runners never made it, and we dedicate this monumental discovery to his untimely demise.

This has been RedScot reporting for WTF News."

*Based on the Sweater Bag by Lion Brand Yarn in Katia Basic Sport in the Dark Grey (011) colourway.  Chinese silk lining and ribbon embellishment.  Yes, I did lose the lining before I finished it, so had to improvise...!

Z is for...

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Seriously.  This blog has been in hibernation mode and for that I give you many apologies!  Snoozing has occured primarily because I was on tour, then back here in Scotland for the Festive Season.  Sadly, I have no way to download photos here, so I have no freshly minted piccies of my newly-finished WIPs (that were victims of panic-completion-mode just in time for Christmas - nothing like a dead-line to make you appreciate every single hour there is in a day) to show you.  I think I'm going to have to trawl my flickr account to see if I have anything left to show instead...  Methinks we may have a miscellaneous grab-bag of a post in the offing...

Ah, well, I've found one already!  Not long ago, in the Very Longest Thread on Ravelry, we were discussing heraldry.  Well, actually, I believe it stemmed from my posting of the VLT Pledge in Latin.  (Remember - the VLT is in a group called the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group, so there are usually no reasons for the a lot of things there...)

Actually, it's best not to ask.

Anyway, comments came back about how excellently the last line (sic succurro mihi bob or so help me, Bob) would look on the CPaAG heraldic shield.  Which led me to thinking.   (A dangerous pastime at the best of times...)  This thinking led me to google.  (Huzzah for Knight Google.  And yay, verily, etc.)  And then onto my cheap-ass Compaq poor-relation of Photoshop.  Actually, I couldn't figure out how to take shapes and transfer them to other pictures, so a lot of this was filled in 'by hand' as it were... (particularly noticable on the cat.  On the right.  Mind you - the cats in the middle aren't that hot, either, but I digress...)

cpaag heraldic shield aka one coffee too many

So, what else?  (Apart from the fact, yes FACT, that blogging using Internet Explorer is a royal pain in the behind...)  Oh!  The Bebeh Munkeez for Baby E.  I forgot to post about them when I was posting about the bootees...  Such a cute design, based on the marvellous Monkey Socks by Cookie A.  This was by Nikkiana and named 'Baby Monkey Socks'.

bebeh munkeez in a&e sock yarn in sea spray

Aha... and here's another photo...  a montage of some squares I knit up for some super seekrit skware, erm, things.  Yeah.

the loveghans project

Can't say any more about those, or your computer would have to self-destruct in 5 seconds. 

OH!  I never blogged about my visit from the CPaAG Cake the Nellyphant, who is currently on a whistle-stop tour of the world!  I hosted his tiny multi-coloured self in August this year and it was fun to show him the sights!

cake in (and on) tour(s)

Actually, I have a whole lot of photos from that visit, so I may do a proper Cake blog post some time next year...

And talking of next year... May I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009 when it arrives! 

Y is for...

Yikes...

What with travel, concert and rehearsal days to take time away, I only have 4 real days left to finish my Christmas knitting...

Things still to finish (or, indeed start...)

• unmentionable pressie for DS
• fish hat for J
• golf club socks for DB
• toy for DS's cat
• hot water bottle cover for Mum

Why, oh why is it that all I really want to knit right now are socks for myself?

:: sigh ::

I have no knitting to show.  Nada.  Zilch.  Rien.  I'm a failure!  But my friends are not... In the space of the last two days, I've received a parcel from the US and another from Norway FILLED to the gunwales with goodies.  I am a lucky so-and-so, that's for sure!

nomilicious bounty

G, aka the lovely dizzybea, kindly sent over her pattern for some felted clogs, the pattern over which I have been drooling for a while... She also included two skeins of lovely LOVELY Knit Picks lace-weight yarn - 'Alpaca Cloud' in Peppermint and 'Shimmer' in Morning Mist and a tonne of chocolate... oh MY!  The yarn is so soft!  I'm now beginning to understand the frenzied love of Knit Picks I read about in teh Rav!

E, aka itisalwaysraining, sent me some of her home-dyed yarn. Can you believe she used beetroot for those marvellous pinks and oranges?  She also sent some Garnstudio Drops Alpaca in a beautiful deep purple, a divine little note-book and some more chocklit! 

So yes, in fact I can blame these two for my lack of finished pressies... I'm too busy savouring the delights of the cacao bean, thank you!

Obsession

I am obsessed.  No, truly, I am.  I don't know if it's the cable pattern, or the chunky yarn, or... or if it's just my addictive nature coming to the fore, but I just can't stop myself...

 

denimesque cabled glovelets

I know - I KNOW!   Yet ANOTHER pair of glovelets?  Well, I saw the yarn, you see, and I knew my life would not be complete without it adorning my person in some form or other!  It's Phildar Ondiaflamme in the Islande colourway. 

I think I fell for the yarn colours because I'd been playing with the macro setting on my camera that morning and had some interesting photos of denim in close-up.  (What do you mean, I was really trying to figure out how the damn thing works and accidentally took some shots of my skirt?)  The colours - I was entranced!  Blue, yes, but also green and purple and cream...  Very pretty! 

obligatory arty-farty close-up shot

(Of course, I just happened to shoot a close-up of the cabled part with the most colours showing!  Cunning!)  I decided to go for a more in-tune coloured bead for the inside of the cables - a pretty purple faceted glass bead that picks out the purple in the yarn.

Oh, but that's not all...  I saw a hat pattern.  Just a basic watch-cap thingy with ribbing all the way up... I got to wondering, as you do, how that would look if I added a cable or two from the glovelet pattern.  Told you I was obsessed.  And maybe not just a tad crazy.  Why?  Well, 1) because I've never knit a hat before, never mind try to make one up, and 2) did I tell you I really don't suit hats?  Really, I don't - I just look silly in any and all styles.  I know this as I think over the years I've tried on every style known to man.  And beast.  (Best not to ask...)  But I just couldn't let it lie...

Fingers twitching, I finally decided to use the green Madil Iceland yarn, mainly because I am vain about having red hair and know that the green will set it off nicely!  Oh, and my green eyes!  Heh!  If I'm going to make a hat that I probably won't suit, I may as well try to get it to highlight other decent stuff instead, no?!!

woohoo - matching set

And now, I think I can safely say that I'm cabled-out...  Erm, until the next time...