September knitting and crochet workshop at knitting holidays in France

Our knitting and crochet workshop with the lovely Carol Meldrum has just come to an end. We have had a week of sunshine and stitching. We had decided to make this workshop a design your own project but all the guests opted to make Carol's gorgeous book cover, choosing a colour scheme from inspiration they had found our brought with them.

The workshop started with a lesson on colour theory and how to use a colour wheel, then a few sample swatches.

 

The week before the workshop started Culli and I finally moved in to the cottage next door to the Barn. It has been brilliant living on site at last, I have been enjoying early morning walks with the dogs as the sun comes up and can pop home to find things any time during the day.

On Tuesday we went to Cognac for the compulsory yarn fix at 'My Little Mailles', then Wednesday morning a wander around the market and some fabric and sweet shopping in St Jean d'Angely.

By last night everyone had finished their book covers.

Carol's sample book covers

Eileen's book cover, inspired by a rug from Afghanistan

Robyn's book cover

Katherine and Clare's book covers inspired by the colourful designs by Gudrun Sjoden

Mandy's book cover inspired by a plate from Morocco

Katrin's book cover

And some of them even had time to make some crochet tubs

Knitting and crochet workshop with Carol Meldrum - days 5 and 6

Work in progress
Thursday was the last full day workshop at knitting holidays in France and the competition was heating up to see who would actually complete a project.

Finishing off
On Friday morning some of the group were still finishing off squares and the rest were pinning and blocking and learning new methods for joining in crochet or by sewing..

Rhona's squares being blocked in the sunshine

Annabelle gave up on her squares and went back to her favourite knitting project - more toys!

However, when she saw her squares laid out she decided that maybe they would make a bag after all. They are absolutely beautiful with lovely textures and a subtle sparkle from the bead work & lurex yarn.

Sue B has been learning to crochet something other than granny squares and has come up with some lovely textures and subtle shades.

Rose has been learning to crochet and experimented with various stitches to create a collection of squares, a bowl and the start of a body for a hippopotamus.........

When Lillias arrived on Saturday she said that she hadn't knitted for many years and was feeling very nervous about what she would be able to achieve. Well these are her beautifully knitted squares, soon to become a bag, lined with the lovely fabric she bought on Tuesday. 

Sandra has created some amazing textured squares, joining them with splashes of pink and lilac yarn to lift the neutral shades. The fabric she bought on Monday will be used to make a lining for the bag.

Michele has combined a mix of textures using buttons, bobbles and beads using stitch patterns from different sources to create a really lovely and unique mix.

Christine went off piste from the start, deciding that the neutral shades were not for her. After rummaging around in one of my boxes of stash she came up with this buzzing colour combination inspired by her love of Mexico. The owl fabric will make the perfect lining.

 After a spending a gruelling 2 hours on one of the cable squares, Rhona has put together a stunning mix of textured squares to make into a book bag, the lovely batik fabric she bought on Monday will be used for the lining.

                                   

 In the afternoon we went to Cognac for the last bit of shopping and sightseeing.

Then back to The Barn for gin and tonic and the final show and tell.

The finished results are fantastic, everyone has achieved a huge amount in just a week, a big big thank you to Carol Meldrum for being such a wonderful tutor. We finished the week with a supper of Charentaise melon with Pineau, Paella then Banoffi pie. After supper, the secret Santa gifts were distributed - everyone rose to the challenge of creating something from some felting yarn they found in my stash. The gifts included scary badges from Carol, lovely bars of felt covered soap from Michele and cute little woven mats from Lillias.

If you would like to join me and Carol at Knitting holidays in France, we are taking bookings now for September 2918. Details here.