Holiday Knitting

Well we've been back over a month now but I'm still in mourning :-/  it was a lovely holiday - what isn't there to love about France in the spring-time! 

Naturally I did some knitting - can't go anywhere without a suitcase full of knitting projects.  This sock was mostly knitted in Belgium -

Appropriate given it's colour and those famously yummy Belgium chocolates :-)

I finished it in Versailles - also appropriate because of the amount of walking we did about the palace gardens and grounds ... Marie Antoinette's impossibly cute 'hamlet' ... the Petit and Grand Trianons ...

 

The colours of spring in Europe are lovely - and reflected in the clothing worn by many women and children (must be sub-conscious) !   Soft greens, aqua, clear jade, teal colours, apple greens ... the colours of all those new fresh leaves against the freshly washed sky ...

I found those colours in some yarn in the wonderful haby shop in our favourite town in Burgundy - Avallon.

Luckily, one of my daughter's friends is expecting her 2nd bub which provided the excuse I needed to buy it - bought a pattern & the needles ...

 Really European style with all those stripes.

I think I was somewhat obsessed by those colours - bought this deliciously fluffy mohair in Vezelay - 

I bought it from the breeder  :-)  she showed me photos of the goats and everything ... very lovely.

My 2 Blythe Dolls came with us!!   and I did some knitting for them too ...  Lillian needed a chic Parisian dress ... classic, understated elegance - 

figure hugging with 2 little 'Dior pleats' at the back (a bit hard to see in the black yarn) -

Audrey asked for a similar dress - but with bracelet length sleeves and a frilly hem "like the dress in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", the one that other Audrey wears with the big hat" ...

We all did lots of shopping in France and the Blythe Dolls needed a new bag!

I met up with a lovely group of knitters in Paris - a knitting group I met on Ravelry .  Despite my appalling lack of French they were very welcoming and sweet.  As a group they had been knitting shawls and were having a Shawl Fashion Parade in the Palais-Royale.  I took this shawl project but I'd only just started.  I'm not entirely happy with this and it will probably get un-knitted ... not sure about the yarn - I love purple, I love green but I don't love the way they are mixing here.

Autumnal Crafting

Must be something to do with the season - I've been working with a lot of yummy russet browns, tans, oranges and berry colours.

There is a new yarn shop in my neighborhood - called "A Coffee and A Yarn" it is both a cafe + a yarn shop ... in other words, it is my version of heaven :-) Spent part of last weekend there are simply couldn't resist the last 2 balls of heavenly soft, Eli Riva BabySilk Cashmere (70% baby alpaca, 20% silk 10% cashmere) in a yummy russet / brick colour. Have already started turning it into a "shawlette" (198yds. of Heaven by Christy Verity this link through Ravelry).

This is going to be a match 'made in heaven' for my favourite overcoat - as well as an excellent match with my kitchen tiles :-)

In a previous post I showed you some crochet trim I got to do at work (being paid to do craft - Heavenly!) well, we had to alter the orange version and so I had to replace the crochet trim. This time it was a cotton yarn and as I did the unravelling of the original trim, I was able to work out what they had done originally and reproduce it ...
This photo also shows the fabric of the garment - knitted cotton - made on a knitting machine or a commercially manufactured fabric (I think).