Je crochet, tu crochet... nous crochetons?

I often find myself reaching for solace in a magazine on a rainy weekend - so this Saturday I treated myself to an issue of French yarn mag Phildar. (I told you I was obsessing over yarns!) I guess it was a combined lure of the bright colours on the cover and the fact that this issue boasted a whole bunch of crochet projects!

The magazine is a summer edition so I will be adapting the yarn choice to make them work for this fast approaching Autumn / Winter season. I have a ton of soft beige mohair to use up and so will ease myself back into the world of knit with this simple, flowing cardi

I reclaimed the yarn from a huge Alpaca jumper last winter, it is a lovely caramel colour and so I think I'll make it up into the lace effect waistcoat, below, which I'll be wearing over my new, knitted, navy sweater dress, nipped in at the waist with a giant, tan leather belt.  I have a long train journey coming up next week and this will be the perfect travel project!

This is possibly the project that swung the purchase for me... I love the effect of waves in crochet, especially when using different textured yarn and have been wondering how to incorporate some deep blue, glittery yarn I came across last summer into a project. I'm thinking of teaming it with grey & silver... not yet decided on the accent colour as yet. It will involve a lengthy delve into the depths of my supplies!

So feeling all inspired and pleased with myself I sat making these decisions over a nice cup of tea in the dry warmth of my lounge... and then it hit me.  

All the instructions are in French!  

Now, a crochet pattern looks scary enough on first sight at the best of times, but throw in the added complication of a foreign language and there is sure to be some head scratching going on! Not to mention quite a bit of un-doing and re-doing... ooh la la!

But I'm up for this challenge; in fact I'm so totally ready for this challenge I can hardly wait until my train journey next week to begin. You see, I have been planning (and chickening-out) of running my crochet & sewing workshops as bilingual sessions for some time. My French is good, but teaching in French to the French has always seemed a bit too scary... I mean, teaching in your own language can be tricky enough when you need to find alternate ways of explaining something until that wondrous "a-ha" light-bulb moment arrives for the student.

So, now it's my turn to be the student again - seems like perfect timing what with all the kids returning to school this week! I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. I'm looking forward to enhancing my vocabulary, learning new terms of phrase and experiencing that joyful eureka moment of success! And most of all I'm excited to be pushing my comfort zone and finally having the confidence to take Get Smitten Creative Workshops to the next level!

Wish me luck!

Lisa x

{images by Phildar from issue 50 of Phildar magazine - you can flick through the whole issue online here}

p.s - 'crochet' means 'hook' in French, however, it is not a verb to be conjugated as implied in the blog title! You would actually say 'je fais du crochet' (I do crochet) as it is a pastime. Just sayin'!