Wednesday 22 October 2008

Shades Of Autumn - Knitting in France

Arrived home last night after another fabulous week at the Chateau St Julien l'Ars near Poitiers in Western France. Debbie Abrahams and myself tutored a group of 18 wonderful knitters for the week. They all produced the most amazing work, focusing on a knitted felted bag project and collecting design inspiration from our surroundings. The sheer volume of their work was pretty staggering with many knitters burning the midnight oil (often with glass of vin rouge in hand) and others waking early to get on with their projects.

We visited the local town of Poitiers and the wonderful market in Chauvigny. We did machine and hand felting, beading, colour work, crochet and finishing techniques. Although I am now totally exhausted (slept through for nearly 10 hours) and really fat having eaten all the cheese physically possible and drunk copious amounts of wine, I am also thoroughly inspired and need to get on with a felted project of my own.

Kangaroo are running another workshop in association with Rowan in June next year and may do yet another in September. For more info go to www.kangaroo.uk.com
(Apologies to the French for our desecration of a statuette of national heroine Joan Of Arc who we felt was in need of a little yarn to keep her warm and trendy.)