Early June knitting and crochet retreat in France

Where does the time go to - I seem to be more than a week behind with the blog at the moment!
The first retreat in June was another wonderful week - a mix of old and new guests.
We started the week with a trip to the Puce de Couturieres at one of our local villages - a wonderful market of new & vintage fabric, trimmings, yarn, buttons, bag handles and lots more .....

By the end of the second evening everyone was starting to feel a little weary 

and yarn winding was not going well

After an early walk in the fields with Buddy & Billie I was ready for a trip to Cognac

Starting at my favourite yarn shop

Then a wander around the town

and coffee and cognac (for some!) in the square

Back home for more knitting and crochet

The next outing was to Saint Jean d'Angeley

First stop was the sweetie shop

Then more shopping and sightseeing

on the last evening we went to visit Egreteau our local Cognac producer for a bit of tasting and shopping

Back home for apero's and supper and a show and tell of some of the projects. The end of another week at Knitting holidays in France with some amazing people

May knitting and crochet retreat in France

We had a small select group for this holiday - with four returning guests. The weather was lovely for most of the week, but ended with a spectacular storm on the way back to Bordeaux.
It was a lovely relaxing time, we managed three outings for shopping and plenty of knitting and crochet.

The countryside looks amazing at the moment, very green from all the rain we have had, dotted with bright splashes of colourful red poppies.

Shopping in Cognac for fabric and yarn

Twins Lesley and Angela were both working on the same project - The Rossylyn crochet blanket by Helen Shrimpton

Coffee and a sticky patisserie from our wonderful boulangerie 

Garter pattern Something Blue by Emma L Willey

Pam was making the Lattice Sampler shawl by Jennifer Weissman

And as well as the garter and various other projects Linda was making a gorgeous crochet table cloth

Knitting and crochet retreat in France

It is the end of the first retreat at Knitting holidays in France - another great week apart from the weather which could have been a bit warmer.
We had six lovely guests from England, Wales, Orkney and the USA, lots of knitting a bit of crochet and plenty of chat.
Our first outing was to Saintes for a bit of shopping and sightseeing

Tuesday was a public holiday so we went to one of the local Brocantes where there was a wonderful mix of bizarre and vintage - I snapped up a bargain buy of 11 balls of pure wool for just 9 euros!

On Wednesday morning we went to Cognac to visit the lovely yarn shop 'My little Mailles' and a bit of shopping in the market.

followed by coffee, cognac and chocolates in the square

On the final day we had a show and tell of all the projects which included a Debbie Abrahams Mystery Cushion, cardigans, shawls and some crochet sea life!

 On the final day everyone made the most of the sunshine.