Craft exhibition in Niort

Jane and I had a little trip out last week to the knitting and sewing show at the Parc des Expositions in Niort. Most of the stalls were for stitching rather than knitting but there were some lovely hand dyed merino and silk blends, plus vintage ribbons, buttons and trimmings.

A great day out for inspiration and a bit of shopping!

The 2014 knitting and crochet retreats have started

Wonderful, a whole two weeks of knitting, and a bit of cooking. Spring has finally sprung and we have had nearly two weeks of glorious weather and the cowslips are out.

Guests Juliet and Stephanie arrived on Thursday in glorious sunshine, soon to change to pouring rain on Friday morning! However, after breakfast we made a quick dash into Saintes to the yarn and fabric shop for a few emergency supplies, yarn for all of us and a new crochet book for me then back home for lunch and an afternoon knitting.

Stephanie has made a start on an entrelac hat and lacy shawl (a brave move on the concentration levels but has been saved a few times by the lifelines), Juliet finished off a pair of moss stitch bootees and has moved onto experimenting with different crochet edgings, I have finally completed a project for Knit Now magazine that has been hanging over me for weeks and have started on some Easter bunnies.

Today we had more rain in the morning but the sun appeared in the afternoon so we went to Cognac for a wander around the shops, more fabric and ribbon purchases for me, and a couple of albums for Stephanie from the vinyl record shop. After coffee in the square and a quick photo session in the church and down by the river it was back home for more knitting.

Fabric and yarn shopping

I have just had a great day out with friends Moira and Lesley to the fabric shop Tissus Renard in Niort. The shop is on the industrial estate just outside of Niort and is packed with buttons, trimmings, fabric and budget yarns. The weather was disgusting with torrential rain and a howling gale so we made the most of staying in one building and managed to spend nearly two hours browsing and buying...... It is one of those places that you really need a list for, otherwise you just buy for the sake of it, which I did!
on
a lovely piece of thick spotty oilcloth that was a remnant and will definitely be useful for something

12 balls of pure cotton knitting yarn, which I can add to the other 100 I have stashed away

three rolls of ribbon that I couldn't live without

 

 

and a huge piece of tweedy fabric that was just too good a bargain to miss..............

www.knittingholidaysinfrance.com