Knitting holidays in France - October knitting retreat

The last retreat for this year has just finished. We have had a fantastic week with plenty of sunshine, lots of outings, masses to eat and a bit of knitting.

We started the week with a visit to the Brocante in Saintes and found a few bargains - metal signs, trays, beads, necklaces and fabric.

On Monday we had a day at home working on projects. There is a good mix of scarves, shawls, gloves, a child's sweater and a lovely X-stitch project.

Dale's scarf and gloves

Anne's completed shawl

Veronica's completed shawl

 Experimenting with double knitting

A bee from my bargain bracelet from the Brocante completes Purl's scarf

Sue's fish sweater

On Tuesday we spent the morning in Cognac shopping and sightseeing, then in the evening we went to Egreteau our local Cognac producer for a tour of the distillery and tastings of Pineau and Cognac.

On Wednesday it was a visit to Saintes, shopping for fabric and yarn at L'Oasis and gifts at Maison du Monde.

 Some amazing fabrics for cushion covers and bags

A lovely gift for me - a Louisa Harding shawl pattern and yarn

For our final outing we went to La Rochelle for the day, starting with a loo break at the Aquarium where there was an amazing exhibition of x-ray photographs.

Followed by a walk in the sunshine around the old port and down to the beach

 where we had a coffee in the sunshine

 and a paddle

 then back to the old port for lunch

 followed by a wander around the shops

 and a visit to the wonderful little yarn and fabric shop Mercerie l'Aguillee

We managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the market in St Jean d'Angely on Saturday morning before the trip to Bordeaux for their flight home.

Cognac brocante

A perfect visit to the brocante at Cognac on Sunday morning - the sun was shining and I found some great bargains for a total spend of just over 20 euros.

15 x 100g skeins of Pingouin frondaison a tweedy 97% wool - just need to decide whether to keep it on put it into the knitting holidays in France shop.

16 square glass plates, 2 terracotta planters and some compulsory purchases from my favourite plant stand.

Mystery Blanket workshop - days 3 & 4

Yesterday morning we went to Cognac, first stop was Tissus Bonnet the lovely fabric and yarn shop for fabric remnants printed with colourful macaroons and cupcakes, gorgeous ribbons and trimmings and yarn with pompoms.

Fabric remnants and ribbon from Tissus Bonnet

We had a coffee in the square, then wandered back through the town via some of the clothes shops to the indoor market and home for lunch.

 a hoopoe in the garden at La Nougerée

In the afternoon workshop Debbie went through horizontal and vertical mattress stitch and swiss darning, the main bug bear on the Mystery Blanket still seems to be thistles!

Supper was fresh asparagus wrapped in parma ham for starters, followed by fish pie and then peaches cooked in Pineau and brown sugar. Another evening of laughter and knitting in front of the fire.

Brizambourg brocante

Today is a public holiday in France, so although the shops were shut we still managed to spend some money at the little brocante in Brizambourg.

There were more stalls than usual, but the best one by far had heaps of old cotton and linen sheets, pillowcases, crochet and lace.

There was a shopping frenzy with Annabel, Felicity, Debbie and me grabbing pieces of fabric and lace, all amazingly cheap. Usually at the brocantes you pay a fortune for the old fabrics but it was our lucky day! We all came away with bags of goodies, they now have the problem of getting it all home!

After lunch of salads and cheese everyone moved into the garden to enjoy the sunshine.