Le Tour - Le Grand Fin

I made it!

Did you see me riding full blast down the Champs Elysee with the wind behind me and La Asphalt Chanteuse flapping in the slipstream just before midnight?

It was a hard fought battle at the end, but with grit and determination I made it!






I am left wondering now if I have done enough to earn my King of the Mountain jersey as it has certainly been an uphill struggle at times.

I have learnt a lot of new techniques throughout the course of the Tour...

1) The Double Start Cast-On
2) Using contrasting colours for the cuff, heel and toe of a sock
3) A new heel technique (apologies that I do not know the official name for it)
4) The rosebud toe (which was later abandoned in favour of kitchener stitch)
5) Shaping through the calf to give a better fit
6) Lovely twisty cable stitches done without a cable needle

All in all I am pretty pleased! There are a couple of things that I will do differently next time, for example, I am not that keen on the way the heel sits when it is on the foot and I started the contrasting wool a couple of lines too early but, hey, this is only my fourth pair of socks.

I can't wait to see all my fellow Moutons Volantes cyclists crossing the line with their garments in hand, it has been exciting to see what everyone has been knitting and the gusto with which they and all the other riders have approached this project.

Right I do believe it is time for a well deserved glass of something very cold and slightly fizzy...Salut mes amies!

Need For Speed

Stage Four: Cholet Time Trial

Phew, just made it through the time trial!

The official desciption of this stage is 'short and intense, but also smooth', and as I am finding the TDF stages are relating spookily well to my sock stages. I have 'intensely' sprinted through the heel of La Chanteuse and have learnt a new technique in the process. By knitting to the bottom of the foot then beginning even short row shaping you get a lovely right-angled heel cup to sit your foot in.


As you can see I have worked in the Asphalt yarn again for contrast and will pick this up again for the toe. My main concern at the moment is that everything seems to be going rather too smoothly...

Au revoir mes petit pois!

Le Tour Stages Deux et Tois

Stage Two: Auray - Saint-Brieuc

Following a slow start I feel that I am making good headway and have rejoined the 'pack' in this stage.

The main colour has been introduced and after originally naming it 'Chartreuse' I have change it to 'Chanteuse' the French feminine word for singer. Combine this with Asphalt and in a rough Franglais I have christened my TDF socks 'La Asphalt Chanteuse' or 'The Singing Road Socks'.


This particular section of the race is described as 'short and tense on hilly roads featuring the climb up the Mur de Bretagne “wall”' and it seems to describe perfectly how the sock is progressing. Getting to grips with the travelling pattern is a tense affair and a couple of my little birch Brittany needles have developed a nasty bend but they are hanging in there. There is a relief though as the pattern calls for a knit 2, purl 2 rib on needles 1 and 2.


Having a look at other Team CA projects everyone is putting an excellent first push and probablyjane has posted a superb commentator's report and there is the low-down on all the other competing riders.

Onwards and upwards!


Stage Three: Saint-Malo - Nantes

Moving confidently on to Stage Three with the promise of 'a rolling early part of the stage along the banks of the Rance, through Dinan and Calorgen, (plunging) into Brittany on straight and fast-riding roads to end at Nantes, the farthest point of the Loire area. This will be the first real chance the sprinters have at a stage win.' This looks as though it is time to settle back in the saddle, don my comfiest cycling shorts and knit like the wind down the leg before facing the time-trial tomorrow and the possibility of a heel?

Knit on mes amies!

Le Tour de France Knitalong 2008

Le Grand Depart - Brest to Plumelec

And we are off!

Well almost!

I have got off to a slow start as the riders left Brest on the first leg of Le Tour, my yarn finished its journey from Edinburgh to London and threw my project plans into disarray. It is so beautiful that I decided my chosen project wouldn't do it justice and have had to rethink at the last moment. I am considering this to be a technical difficulty along the lines of having the wrong saddle for the terrain. On a more positive note my Yarn Yard colours match pretty well with my riding team, Team Credit Agricole, in fact I could not have requested a better colour scheme, although the yarn shows up more bluey in the pictures!






My decision is now made and I am going to knit the Canal du Midi socks from Knitting On The Road by Nancy Bush. This will be my fourth pair of socks and they have a relatively fiddly lace detail on them, a different heel to the ones I have knit before and some shaping around the ankle which are all new techniques I have not tried before making them perfect for the Polka-Dot jersey category.

Cast-on is complete and I have learnt a new technique already, that of the Double Start Cast-On and thanks to the wonder of the internet found a great video to help me. This particular method gives a nice elastic and very neat edge making it perfect for sock cuffs.


Doesn't the yarn look great! I have named this one Asphalt as it has a lovely gravel appearance.

Bonne Nuit!

Repeat After Me

As me and my beloved are heading off to France this summer and I am currently in training for the Tour de France KAL, I have decided that it is time to refresh my French conversational skills. In order to do this with the minimum of embarrassment I have been looking at a few audio courses I can study at home or mutter quietly under my breath on the bus...

This appealed to me because of the word 'Active' in the title but I can still remember a few key phrases from school.



'Taking Off in French' sounds incredibly exciting but I don't fancy completing Le Tour on this bike!



Anything with food on the cover is always going to be a 'guaranteed' sale!



Vive La France!

Tour de France Knit Along

Just a quick news flash!

I have just been accepted as a member of Team Credit Agricole for the second annual Tour de France Knit Along

Le Tour kicks off on Saturday 5th July in Brest and ends on Sunday 27th July in Paris by which time about 200 riders will have tackled 3,500 kilometers of road and I should have learnt a new knitty technique and cheered on my team! I am knitting for a Polka Dot Jersey, also known as King of the Mountains and it a project that will be a challenge to me.

Watch this space for updates during Le Tour and you can follow all the teams at the main website and cheer on all us sporting knitters.

Right, I better go and limber up!