29 June 2007

Les projects

It's now just about a week to go before le Tour gets underway and there have been some fantastic projects being chosen by all the participants. I thought it was high time for another round-up!

Les chausettes est tres populaire this year, et pourquoi pas?!* Wielding the DPNs (or magic loops as the case may be) will be Paisley (Baudelaires - tres Francais!), Sharon and Thursday (each doing their first ever pair of socks!), Chris (Sockamania socks for Juillet), and Alyssa (aka Saphire) (on-your-toes socks). And if I understand her correctly, Dotty is planning to knit 24 socks - yes, 12 pairs of socks, during the Tour. That averages out to a little more than a sock a day!

Not to be outdone, Michaele is planning to make not one, not two, but THREE market bags - one for each week of the Tour! Also working on a market bag, one of her own design, will be Heather - I bet it'll be a beauty!

Even to experienced knitters, lace can be a real challenge, and several of our tricoteuses are throwing down the lace gauntlet, including Sharon, Charisse, and the blogless Gretchen, Cheryl, and Chelsea (please let me know if you have a blog, you three!) Vivian is taking this opportunity to catch up on some lace knitting she meant to have finished last Christmas! Don't worry, V, we'll cheer you on and you'll be finished by July 29th!

Auntie Jim reckons a shawlette is more French than a shawl, and I have to agree! She's making the Clementine shawlette in alpaca - brave for summer! Knitabulous is taking on not only the Mystery Stole 3 (which has beads), but is also test knitting the brand-new Peacock Shawl designed by Jae. (I will pause now for you all to drool. Back now? OK.) Not one to put too fine a point on things, Knitabulous reckons the French connection these knits have is that "the road will be strewn with dog merde**." I should also point out that the Tour is passing through the town of Pau which features a paon (peacock) on its coat of arms, as a symbol of power (and also a play on the town's name. That French sense of humour, gets me every time!)

Kristen has also taken a historical angle and is knitting the Lady Eleanor stole, in honour of Éléonore d'Aquitaine. Hopefully she'll provide us with a history lesson sometime during the Tour.

Jacqueline would like to point out that the Australians are great sprinters (yes we've already ogled Robbie) and she will be no exception. She's planning to knit Laurent from Vintage Style and points out that the name Laurent is, indeed, Francais. Another (sadly blogless) Aussie lass, Tam, will also be sprinting through Juno from Rowan 40. She recognises there is nothing French about that pattern but she's willing to watch French movies, eat brie, quiche, éclairs, pain au chocolate and croissants and drink French champagne while working on her knitting - sounds like a bonne idee Tam!

Also in the sweater stakes is Cindy (French Girl Fawne), Nikki (Rosedale sweater that has been a bit of a mental mountain for a while now!), Devorah (a vest), Beverly (chickami), Cindy (Cosy V-neck from Fitted Knits), blogless Nikki (Skin of the Sea vest by Ilga Leja), and Angie - who is making a cycling-team coloured jacket for her son who also happens to be a bit of a cycling blogger!

A few people have taken us quite literally about this yellow jersey thing - new knitter Elisa is going to work on a yellow lace washcloth and soap holder, Ina was thrilled to find a use (cabled cardigan) for some yellow yarn in her stash, and Susan is doing a cardigan in not only yellow but with green mixed in as well.

A few of you are still choosing projects or coming up with clever ways to make the things you're working on fit the Francais theme... even my mum has joined the fray and is making a couple of cable & bobble headbands to be worn apres ski - great idea!

Now, I thought it would be of great interest to all of you to know that Robbie McEwan (yes, him) has done a series of 'Tour de France 101' spots for my local tour-coverage-tv station. You can see them all here. You should all view these as a homework assignment. May I particularly recommend the segments on Waxing / Shaving (as in why don't cyclists have leg hair) and Massage. The segment 'Answering the Call of Nature During the Tour' may also answer a question that is burning in many minds. Oh, and if you want to read what the man has to say for himself (rather than just ogling him again), McEwan has a Tour diary entry here.

A bientot!

*Translations anyone?
**Even if you didn't take high school French, chances are you can figure this one out!

17 comments:

Nikki said...

tres magnific! (spelling doesn't count against us does it? :) My high school French teacher would be so disappointed!)

I love seeing what everyone is going to be working on...

and my guess is socks are very popular this year?

Unknown said...

I forgot to mention that Robbie McEwan can park his bike (and dirty old bike shoes) under my bed any night of the week!

Sarah said...

It's fun to see such a variety of projects all in one KAL!

Anonymous said...

What a great variety of projects. Moi, je n'aime pas tricote les chausettes but I sure admire those who can crank them out so easily. Yes, I'll have to study up on Eleanor of Aquitaine so my project can qualify for the KAL!

Dotty said...

Yep, I'm gonna knit 24 socks. I've been commissioned by a local dyer to knit her 12 pairs after I knit her some sample socks. I warned her that once she tries handknits, there's no going back to store bought socks. She's custom dyeing the yarn and it should arrive at my place by the 7th. This KAL will be a good kick in the pantalons to get them started/fini before I have to focus on (ACK!) Christmas knitting.

Anonymous said...

Socks are very popular, and why not?
:)
I think my years as a French linguist are perhaps FINALLY going to pay off!

Thank you so much for putting this together. I might get in trouble with the gods of chocolate for saying so, but this TDF KAL just might be better than chocolate and peanut butter!

It's also great to find new knitting blogs. And links to Robbie, be still my heart!

Unknown said...

Bonjour, Pays Bas (The Netherlands) overhere. I'm really curious what my team (Rabo) will do next weeks!
I just joined, hoping to finish my EVERlasting Pinwheel jacket (free pattern at Elann.com).
groeten uit Nederland

thursday said...

socks are very popular and why not? Also, I do think that many know words like "merde" in languages they don't speak!

And really, 24 socks?? That's crazy! I'll be lucky to finish one!

I'm excited to see someone making that Peacock shawl -isn't that gorgeous!!!

mrspao said...

Tres tres bien! Les chausettes sont parfait pour le tour! (and that is the end of my French vocab)

Chelsea said...

Hi, guys! I just wanted to give you my blog address (I think that I did in the email, must have slipped by ;). You can reach me at http://www.runbioknit.blogspot.com. I'm always open to input on things, so feel free to leave comments (or critiques). Thanks! :) I'm so looking forward to starting this. I listened to DH's clip and snap as he slid into his shoe clips this a.m. I so can't wait to watch the Tour!

Kate said...

I'm excited to see the Eleanor of Aquitaine stole and the peacock shawl! My beret is nothing compared to them. Oh well, I'm a new knitter so I have an excuse to be a little on the simple and easy side. Besides, I'm so slow that it will probably take me almost the entire tour to finish!

Vivian said...

I'm so excited for the tour to start!

I'm already psyching my self up for the climb! I've really been feeling that this silly lace project is like staring up at Alpe d'Huez from the bottom.

But I have my sights set on the maillot à pois rouges!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have gone insane. But then you have to be crazy to be a sprinter - to get up there with all the other crazy sprinters and risk a spectacular crash every flat stage.

Hopefully the patterns are as easy as they looked when I made this crazy decision.

Anonymous said...

salut, I've joined this KAL too after I read about it on a fellow Dutchie's blog

*waving madly at Ajour*

while wearing a green jersey, I'll be trying to finish my Mermaid by Hanne Falkenberg. great project, beaucoup de stitches though.

Elaine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elaine said...

Try 2. I clicked before reading what I had written and it was illiterate, so I figured I'd try again.

I've just joined - sounds like lots of fun. I'll be knitting a tres chic jacket, plus socks on the plane from NY to London.

Chelsea said...

Oooh - Elaine, do you get to see some of the Tour? I'm so jealous! DH got to see the Giro d'Italia in Italy a few years ago. Dang! During our honeymoon (a little over a year ago), we could have seen the Giro too if only we felt like leaving France for a few days. Unfortunately (or not) we loved it too much there and never made it over to Italy. :) Anyway - I hope that you get to see some fun stuff while you're over there!