Jardin Majorelle

When I was in Marrakech I had to visit Jardin Majorelle, beeing the YSL fan I am....

Yves and Pierre Bergé bought it in 1980 and restored it. It was originally the work of a french painter named Jacques Majorelle and the blue color of the house is refered to as Majorelle blue, the giftshop was selling small tins of the color...

The adress is Rue Yves Saint Laurent but got that name after his death. It´s located outside the medina and walkable distance ( If you like to walk...) It´s a botanical garden and Yves´ ashes are spread here. Even though there are a lot of people visiting it´s a very calm place and I can totally get that he liked beeing here and it´s a wonderful contrast to the world outside the walls. There are no fashion on display but books where sold and there is a café that I did not visit but according to a woman I work with is really good

Part of the house is a museum showcasing the history and traditions of the Berber people, it´s very interesting and has a lot of costumes

Yves made his own Christmas cards to sent to clients, business associates and friends and there´s an exibit showing them, some of them have a dog and I can remember seeing pictures with the two of them a long time ago.

Fading Bubbles

I´m not much of a sock knitter or user, but I have a theori that I´ve been knitting my socks to big, so now I´m making them tighter, I like to knit socks though becourse they are kind of fast and there are a lot of lovely yarns out there and you can try new tecniques and even though the yarn might be expensive, it´s usually just one skein ( but somehow I had to order 3 more skeins after this project...)

A friend was buying yarn from Wollelfe I I wanted to try some and decided on sock yarn in the color "fresh" The yarn is gradient and comes in many weight and different yardage. On the picture below it looks like I´m knitting blue socks from green yarn....LOL
The picture is from my recent trip to London, more on that later....

The pattern is called Bubbles down the drain and I used the lacy pattern and knitted my sock with a "normal" heal just from bottom and up. I don´t have a really good way to start my bottom and up socks ´but I have figured out a way to do a "normal" heel backwards, becourse I really need that extra yarn due to very high wrists.
Socks knitted on circulars are a good project to bring on a short trip, for longer trips I prefer a lace shawl, you get a lot of knitting on low weight

Siri

Siri is a beautiful old fashioned swedish name and this cardigan is as beautiful. It´s designed by Linnea Öhman and available for purchase on Ravelry. I´m a strong believer that you can´t have to many cardigans ( that goes for dresses, shoes, bags and a lot of other stuff as well....)

 I prefer to knit cardigans and sweaters top to bottom and in one piece to minimize the sewing. Siri is really all about the yoke. The yarn is called Duo from a danish company called Design Club DK, I bought it at Tant Thea and used 2,5 skeins of the 4 I bought...This is a Lovely yarn that brings out the pattern of this design. I honestly have to admit that I used the pattern for the yoke and then went freestyling for the rest... The buttons are from a local store; Gregers Sy who has a nice selection of notions

This pattern comes in Swedish and English and I can recommend it, it´s a little bit challencing but once you get the hang of it´s not difficult.
I like that this yarn has a little greys, it get more alive from it.
I have a skirt to match ! I only need to hem it first....This color works really well with navy too!

Ginger my love

A lot of people are making Ginger jeans as well as a lot of other jeans pattens and I honestly did not get what the fuss was about this pattern. I´m not a jeans girl even though this is the kind of sewing I like, my last pair of jeans I used when painting walls in my hallway....and I have been trying on jeans at stores but they don´t fit well or the content of lycra is so high that the denim feeling fades and I love denim as a fabric.

I decided to buy Ginger and also start using PDF pattern that I hated and still dislike but it´s a good way to store them on the computer and they are usually cheaper if you don´t count the money I hade to spend on a printer....

Ginger is designed by Closet Case Files and I also ordered the Carolyn PJ and the e-book on how to make jeans. You get to download the patterns 5 times during 2 years and not beeing used to this I had 1 e-book left when I managed to find them on my computer. I wrote and explaned how I messed it up and I my account very fast got 5 downloads to use. Thank You!

 I love this pattern, I measured myself and was right between sizes and went down and it was a good decision, I made the high waisted jeans and made a boothcut leg by myself. I raised them almost an inch in the back, that´s what I usually do with all pants and skirts, I have a small "shelf" that needs some extra fabric. The instructions in the e-book was brilliant, both inches and metric. The fabric is a 2% lycra denim from my local chainstore Stoff och Stil, button from stash that has a lot of those extra buttons you get when you buy RTW, mines are mostly donated by friends.

Once they where finished I bought the red denim and grey and mustard twill with 3 % lycra, The mustard I will save for fall. Not only could I use my stashed buttons but also my stash of quilting fabrics did come to use as lining the pockets

I did not interface the lining other than where the button and buttonhole should be and I cut it length wise to reduce the stretch.

Marrakech

Morocko and Marrakech has been in my plans for a long time and in November 1915 I went for a long weekend. I stayed at a Riad, that´s a small B&B or hotell in something that used to be a private home, I booked mine through Airbnb and I have to admit that I got lost a couple of times trying to find my way home ...

 One thing that has been on my bucket list is to ride a Camel...outfits where included and I have to say that the head scarf was good to keep flies from the face. The guy next to me is a mexican living in Germany , we had a lot to talk about especially since my next trip was to be Mexico, he tought me to say Oaxaca correctly( It´s O-a-hacka)

 Marrakech is really a pink town  and it´s easy to get lost in the souks. I had a henna tatoo, that has also been on my bucketlist, I had it at Djemaa el- Fna, the famous square that´s on Unesco´s list of World Heritage places. I payed to much but not as much as she tried to rip from me....

 I found a fabric store that really did not have anything that I fancied, I also found a store next to it that sold sewing machines

 Djemaa el-Fna, probably in the morning, There where a lot of restaurants and café a staircase up in the souks and up there it was more peaceful than the hectic ways downstairs, I had really good meals and usually I could get a beer or a glass of wine with my food. At cafées and for desert you could usually get Patisserie Marockaine that´s little biscuits or cookies, 4-5 on a little plate and they remind me of the Swedish cookies that I´m very fond of

 I Went to the seaside one day and on the way we stopped at this Place there they made Product out of argan nuts. It was supposted to be in the district where the nuts grew but I never saw any...

 I found some fabric and notion stores at Essaouira also, but the only thing a bought was a towel...

 This is inside the photografic museum that the owner of my riad recommended, very interesting! It´s also an riad but bigger than the one I was staying at and on the rooftop there where a small restaurant. If I should give you one recommendation for Marrakech this should be it!

Marrakesh is probably the only place I can say that I will never go back. I got really tired of people trying to rip me of in so many ways.  One of the reasons I went was to visit Jardin Majorelle; YSL is after all my fashion hero... more to come on that!