Noro Mini Knits Two

We have just had a delivery of this lovely new book by Jenny Watson. The designs include patterns for babies and children up to 12 years, cardigans and sweaters for ladies and accessories, a welcome addition to the Noro range. See the designs and yarn quantities here.

Sadly the lovely weather has ended, it is wet and windy today in France, but still warm. Fingers crossed that it will improve for the workshop at the Chateau which is now only two weeks away, I am spending the weekend working our menus. We still have one space available due to a cancellation, so if anyone wants a last minute holiday book now.

French knitting retreat

I have decided that with the current exchange rate it is not viable to run an autumn workshop at the chateau this year. However there is an alternative on offer! Come and spend a few days with Culli and I at our home in the Charente Maritime, this will not be a workshop but more of a knit'n'natter for a maximum of 3-4 guests at a time, for further details see the workshops page on the Kangaroo website.

Was it something she said.............

As you can see there is plenty of room to find your own space!

Supper time

The evening meals became livelier every day with conversation levels becoming deafening and more and more wine being consumed as the week progressed. With a mix of meat eaters, vegetarians and a vegan the catering was a challenge but judging by the empty plates I think we coped!

Shades of Autumn workshop at Chateau de St Julien L'Ars

14th - 21st October 2008. This was our fourth residential workshop run jointly with Rowan, the course was design based with tutors Debbie Abrahams and Jane Crowfoot. I arrived at St Julien on the night before the workshop straight from the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally so was not feeling that lively to say the least. However we had an early arrival, Christine had come all the way from Australia (via New York) to take part in the workshop so we launched straight into entertaining mode with a lovely meal cooked by Di and enough wine to sort out Christine's jet lag for days!

The remaining 17 guests and Jane and Debbie arrived on Tuesday, after all my panic about delays from the Channel tunnel, Denise was the only late arrival. The workshops were on a similar theme to the week in June, however we had decided to introduce felting this time which was a great success. The thought of actually producing a finished project by the end of the week gave all the guests further incentive. The weather was kind to us with lovely sunny days, warm enough to sit outside for much of the time, but cold enough at night to have a roaring fire in the small dining room downstairs and some roasted chestnuts. The outing to Poitiers on the second day was a great success, with possibly more shopping than inspiration occurring, but on the second workshop everyone settled down to achieve their targets for the week.

The workshops consisted of two full days on basic knitwear design, how to change a pattern and yarn and how to plot charts and graphs, these were followed by half day workshops on intarsia, fairisle, beading and hand felting, with evening workshops on crochet and finishing techniques. Knitting needles were constantly clicking, some even at the dinner table every evening.

We had a second outing to the picturesque town of Chauvigny on the Saturday morning to visit the bustling open air market and to climb up the steep steps to the beautiful old church.

The final review of the week produced some fantastic projects, with certificates and prize-giving in the evening followed by a lively meal and some of us chatting away into the small hours, seemed like a good idea at the time until I had to get up four hours later to get the breakfast ready! Another wonderful week with a lovely bunch of guests, looking forward to June 2009 already.

Principles of Design workshop

The workshops were held on the first floor of the chateau in a light and airy room with triple aspect windows overlooking the beautiful grounds, this room is linked to a sitting room with large sofas where guests can knit in comfort.