Knitting holidays in France

June has flown by, we have had a workshop and a retreat and I haven't had time to put any of it on the blog until now.
Two brilliant but very different weeks. The first week of June was a knitting and crochet workshop with tutor Jane Crowfoot, we had three residential guests - Mary, Dani and Barbara and four who live locally coming on a daily basis - Annabelle, Lorraine, Mel and Josie.
Jane fresh from a week in the Shetlands had brought along a project for everyone, a gorgeous knitted fairisle bag with lace edging in soft heathery shades. In addition to this there were workshops on basic crochet and how to read a crochet diagram.
Mary and Barbara arrived a day early to tie in with flights to La Rochelle, so on the Sunday morning we went to the market in Saintes to buy some fresh fruit and veg for lunch................

........................then had a coffee at the Roman amphitheatre

The next morning we settled in the studio for the first workshop, Jane also brought along a huge selection of shades form the Rico cotton DK range for everyone to dip into.

Jane's knitted bag project with fairisle design and lace edging

on tuesday morning we went shopping in Saintes

to the huge fabric and yarn shop where we all bought, pattern books, yarn and ribbon

then on to Maison du Monde

then back home for more knitting and crochet

Barbara's beautiful crochet design which she managed to complete in the first day

a visit to St Jean d'Angely for shopping, sightseeing and coffee

more finished projects being blocked

a shopping trip to Jarnac

knitting and crochet in the garden

dorset buttons

projects nearly finished

Culli has been busy making yarn bowls

Dani's beautiful crochet scarf, created from 40 shades which she is working at random

The end of another wonderful week, with Dani and Barbara promising to return next year and Mary staying on for the knitting retreat that started on the next day.

Final day of the Kaleidoscope workshop

It is the final day of the Kaleidoscope workshop, based on designs from the book by tutors Debbie Abrahams and Jane Crowfoot. 

The weather is definitely starting to change, but the needles and hooks are clicking fast to try and finish projects.

After lunch we have a show and tell, the work that everyone has produced is fantastic, some gorgeous colour selections and lots of guests going out of their normal comfort zones, experimenting with design ideas, colour choice and new techniques in knitting and crochet.

Felicity –  a selection of knitted squares in bright shades inspired by the patterns in Kaleidoscope to make a cushion cover

Mary – used yarn and beads from left over from the Mystery Cushion to inspire her

combination of knitting and crochet to make a cushion cover

Fran – chose to make 'Crackle' a circular cushion crochet project out of the Kaleidoscope book

Amanda – 'Dazzle' zig-zag cushion cover from the Kaleidoscope book. After a traumatic start with the beads she nearly caught up again just 24 hours later.

Katherine – chose to knit 9 squares from the project notes in sampler form using just four shades, pink purple, green and blue

Elizabeth – brought some favourite colours and beads to make Jane’s fairisle i-pad cover

Sonia – inspired by a knitting workshop she had been to with Lisa Auerbach has knitted a series of squares using a wonderful combination of colours and design. 

Laraine – worked on a knitted piece in lovely subtle shades and learnt to crochet

Astrid – has been working on a design idea for a jacket for her son with crochet front and knitted back using a selection of gorgeous soft shades in a Shetland yarn that I found for her in my stash. 

Katrin –  has put together this colourful crochet cover with square patches on the front and beaded 'BeBop' back.

Toril – has worked the crochet borders for her knitted scarf and nearly completed a beaded hat design from Debbie's Bead Club.

Mandy and Eleanor had to leave a day early and Lorraine could not make it on the final day, so we were missing three from the show and tell, but I think all three of them gained a huge amount from the workshop. 

It has been another great week with lots of laughs.

Saturday morning was an early start for some, Culli took Mary off to La Rochelle at 6 am, then came back to collect Fran and Katrin. However, on the way to Angouleme the poor old Volvo glided to a terminal halt, fortunately our knight in shining armour (Kevin Garraway step forward!) came to the rescue and managed to get Fran to the station with a few minutes to spare.

My trips to Bordeaux and Angouleme went smoothly, then a shopping trip in La Rochelle with Elizabeth and Amanda before taking them up to the airport. Sadly it was tipping down with rain, so we only touched the edge of some of the lovely shops in La Rochelle, however, Amanda did succumb to a lovely Desigual handbag……..

Looking forward to seeing everyone back here next year.

Kaleidoscope workshop days 3 and 4

The week seems to have flown by!
On Wednesday morning we went to St Jean d'Angely for a wander around the market and a coffee in the sunshine then back to knitting and crochet in the garden and a swim for some.
After the workshop on Thursday morning it was a trip to Saintes for some more retail therapy in the fabric shop, shoe shops and Maison du Monde.
Everyone's projects are growing fast, but disaster struck for poor Amanda who realised that she had transposed a row of beads and had to undo her work nearly back to the beginning......