Sunday and Monday

Sunday morning and no rain so we head into Saintes for the huge brocante in the Hyper U car park. Loads of stalls but nothing (affordable) that leaps out saying 'buy me', so we all leave empty handed. After a quick stop at the Sunday morning market to buy prawns, vegetables and strawberries we go home for lunch and more knitting.

On Monday we spend a quiet morning at home working on our projects and in the afternoon my craft group come along for a knit'n'natter, lots of gossip, tea and cakes.

It is the last day of the holiday and we have achieved a huge amount. Stephanie has persevered with her beautiful lace scarf and two hats, Juliet has made some lovely crochet flowers and jewellery, experimented with crochet trims and finished a pair of bootees and some Easter chicks. I have finished a Debbie Bliss Ballerina bunny and my project for Knit Now mag.

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.