Knitting On Holiday In France

Like most people I look forward to my summer holiday all year, a chance to kick back, relax and broaden our horizons – and for most knitters it's an opportunity to broaden our yarn horizons! I feel lucky that my hobby is fully portable, I have friends that are quilters and no matter how big the suitcase a sewing machine doesn't really make it into the luggage! While there are some restrictions with bringing knitting needles on planes you can pack them in your luggage and enjoy your hobby at your holiday destination, we choose to get the ferry to France each year – it allows our daughter to pack as much as she needs to keep her entertained for the two weeks, allows my husband to indulge his wine obsession and allows me to bring whatever I'm working on and more importantly allows me to visit any local yarn shops I can find and buy yarn!!!!!!

When we first visited France 8 years ago I could only locate one yarn shop in Quimper (we always stay in Brittany in a lovely coastal village near Quimper), since then I've found 2 other shops and one very lovely market stall holder in Corcaneau. I always love buying different yarns than what I can buy at home in Ireland. Brands bought were La laine Perlee, Phildar and Katia. I love finding new yarns and speaking to knitters from different countries, the latter usually involves my really poor schoolgirl french and their rather better english! I still haven't decided what to make with it all but here is a selection of what I bought!

Knitting in public can be a bit of a win/loose event – I've had some really lovely comments from both knitters and non knitters alike, I've also had some really, really stupid comments ranging from you're doing that wrong (from someone who hasn't knitted in 20 years) to why are you knitting socks when you can buy 5 pairs for €3.00 on the high street. I've also ended up helping people to remember how to knit or learn from scratch – something I'm always happy to do. I knit everywhere – waiting in the waiting room the doctor/dentist, on the ferry, in the car, on the beach, in the bar, by the pool. I really don't have very much patience and I'm a stickler for time keeping so knitting in these situations helps me keep happy while waiting. Below is my Cold Mountain WIP on the beach at Kermor in France.

As well as finishing the Cold Mountain, I also got a Seascape, also by KnitLab, finished and was able to work out a pattern for a Hat/Neckwarmer which I'll be posting as a free of charge pattern as soon as I get a chance to type up the pattern and work out the beanie version – the first version is for a very slouchy hat!

 

Finished Cold Mountain and Seascape after blocking:

 

On a visit to Pointe L'Abbe I was intregued to find this fantastic yarn bombing, and like Dorothy and the yellow brick road it lead to a yarn store!

 

Pompoms made by the local primary school for the yarn bombing!

It inspired me to do a bit of yarn bombing myself – our favourite local Coffee Shop/Italian Deli/Wine shop the Pointe Vecchio in Killaloe has a bicycle outside so of course it needed a woolly jumper just in time for the Feile Brian Boru!

Next time – Sock weight convertable Hat/Neckwarmer pattern.



Reflections on Knitted Lace

I've recently cast on Cold Mountain by KnitLab (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer09/PATTcoldmountain.php ), Kieran Foley aka KnitLab is one of my favourite designers. It's my second Cold Mountain, the first was one of my first lace weight knits, it was made for me and I adored the stole – from knitting to wearing it was a pleasure. I've also made a number of his other designs, including SeaScape, most of his patterns can be found on his website www.kieranfoley.com This one is being made as a gift.

I tend to make a lot of knitted lace as gifts – as a general rule the amount I would need to charge for a lace shawl is not something people are willing to pay. A handknitted lace gift is something special that comes straight from the heart. Below are some picture of other lace items I've made over the years.

So who is so special as to receive the shawl currently on my needles. My daughter's school principal is going to be the beneficiary of this shawl. My little girl is graduating from primary school this year, her principal has made her first 8 years of formal education go so smoothly. She's an amazing lady who has devoted the last nearly 40 years to the children she has taught, she has chosen to retire this year and I know she appreciates a handmade gift more than anything I could purchase for her. I'm sure the school will do something special for her but I wanted to do something more personal. I'm very proud of the young lady she is becoming and I owe part of that to her school and it's principal.

So what attracts me to a lace pattern? You would be surprised to hear that flashy photographs aren't top of my list, the pattern has to appeal to me but the difference between admiring and casting on is:

1. How well the pattern is written – I know for some people the overall effect is number 1 but really if the pattern isn't well written then I'm never going to be able to reproduce the item.
2. Beads – I avoid them like the plague! They get caught in everything when you're wearing the item and if you miscount the beads at the beginning you have to break the yarn and have to rethread and every time you have to break the yarn you have to weave in the ends and it's always  tricky to weave in ends on a lace pattern.
3. Repeating patterns – I like them. Once you've knit up one pattern repeat you don't have to constantly refer to the pattern which just speeds everything up!
4. Charts – yes – I love them!
5. Yarn/Yardage. I rarely use the yarn specified in a pattern – I live in a small village in Ireland, you can't just walk into your LYS and pick up the exact yarn for every pattern you can find on the internet. A couple of times each year I will travel to Dublin and Cork, visit the better yarn shops there, smell, fondle and snuggle the yarns, buy what I need but commit the other information to memory so that I can order online knowing the yarn will work for the project. Sometimes I will buy on spec, you can estimate that 800 – 1000m of laceweight yarn will make a good sized lace shawl so really once I've run through items 1 to 4 above the yardage of the yarn on hand will decide if I proceed with the pattern or not.
6. Don't do deadlines – or if you must double the amount of time you think you'll need!
7. If you're not loving making it then just frog it and pick a different pattern!

Just a final note - no matter how much you want to wear the finished item blocking is essential for the lace pattern to pop!

Next time – Holiday Knitting in France!

Keep an eye out for my new Etsy Shop – Lough Derg Knits – which will be up and running from the beginning of July 2016!

Watch this space - coming soon new blog to support my Etsy shop!