on holidays, slow progress...

Yes yes, I know, it's been a while since my last post. About 2 weeks I think. It's just that these days I have started my holidays and travelling season, so I have other matters on my mind than knitting. "How dare she?!?!" I hear you exclamating! Don't worry, I haven't gone completely off the grid just yet! I am currently in the south of France (again) visiting my family and I have with me a few knitting projects to keep me going.

I am, of course, still working on the Hawaiian Trunks. The progress is slow, I confess. And I won't be finished in time for the boys' birthdays as planned. But it's ok really, it's nearly a tradition with my sister to be really late in the present delivery. Take last Christmas for example. I got my gift from my sis' only early March!
The problems I am encountering with this project at the moment is that the blue cotton that I bought from La Droguerie is quite quite hard to work on the hibiscus flowers colourwork bit, it just won't stay in place in place in my fingers! This is rather annoying, and I must do breathing exercises every 4 or 5 rounds or so to keep me from throwing it all away.
And of course I also forgot to bring the necessary needles to get a move on on the sunset pattern trunks... It's typical, one always has to forget something when one packs for a trip away. And also typically, I have starting using 3.25mm needles, which doesn't seem to exist in France. So for now and this project I am stuck (I have only completed the belt).

Being on holiday at my Mum's for a short time, we couldn't help but to go to every wool shop that we know off in the area. And I didn't resist buying some wool and started working on a cropped jumper for myself. I know it's not fair isle, but it's a cool project still.
(Oh, and talking of my Mum, she knitted this amazing short sleeve cardi in a duck blue mohair blend wool... I've been wearing it constantly for a week! Well, in the evenings; it's been sunny and 25°C and over since I got there last Friday, hee hee.)

Otherwise I am trying to come to terms with some computer programs to create colour charts. Not doing very well here so far, but I won't give up. The same way I'm not giving up on my Hobbit Kindle cover, it's just on hold I promise!

And finally, I've been doing a bit of sewing. All related to knitting too! I have a mind to recycle -or "upcycle"- old t-shirts into knitting bags. And I am having quite some fun with this to tell you the truth! I am looking forward to be able to get myself a sewing machine and make more of these than really is necessary...

So you see, I am away but still am a busy bee with my knitting needles.
The first 3 weeks in May I'll be travelling in Southern Africa (can't wait!) so posts will be scarce then. But I trust you'll forgive me, and be sure that I'll get back on weekly schedule as soon as... So keep patient my friends!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, there wasn't any princess, who wasn't living in a land far far away.
There was me, Sylvie. Born and raised in southern France (which actually is sort of a far far away land, depending where you're reading this post from...), and I've always been surrounded by knits and wool and needles thanks my Mum.
I am a child of the 80's, and in the 80's, fair isle seemed to be all the craze. Or at least my sister and I used to wear quite a few fair isle and intarsia jumpers then, so it was the craze in our household at any rate.

showing some Mummy love, wearing my favorite fair isle jumper she knitted

Funnily enough I never got into knitting when I was a kid, but somehow the failed attempts to learn to cast on and stitch and purl that I made then didn't go wasted when I decided, 2 years or so ago and now living as an expat' in Edinburgh, to pick up the needles again. Success!!!
Quickly I felt like I wanted to move on to beyond basic skills. So I went to a knitting class, and was taught by Vala how to knit fair isle (find her on Ravelry here)...

my first fair isle rounds

the end product of the fair isle class

And an obsession was born...
Obsession doesn't even start to describe it. I went to the class in late November, therefore quite a lot of of my friends ended up with fair isle hats in their Christmas stockings. And I just dived in in creating my own patterns. I went a little bit nuts over this, but I've made it to the schedule. But this, my friends, will be the subject of a future post. Or two.
Although I am far to have become the most skilled of knitters (always progressing!), my mind is buzzing with so many ideas of designs to turn into color charts that I just had to put it out there. Out there being this blog, on the world wide web, an entire world to share my crazy ideas with. What I aim is to share with you the charts and designs I am creating, without pretention. I'm doing it, the knitting and the blogging about it, because I'm having so much fun with it!!! And I'm crossing my fingers that you'll be having fun reading me and trying my crazy fair isle designs!
Until then, my fellow knitters...