When Julie Archambault first learned to knit, her mother and aunt told her she was holding her needles incorrectly. Julie continued to knit her way and proved she could do it well. These days, she’s the one teaching them new techniques!
Julie recently began publishing her own designs, starting with a shawl she knit in our Vintage yarn as a gift for her sister. Promenade en Forêt – meaning “a walk in the woods” in French – features beautiful cables, designed to look like trees and bunnies, with modified bobbles for the bunny tails. It is knit from the bottom up, using short rows in the top half to create a crescent shape. The finished shawl is approximately 78” wide, though the instructions explain how you can easily make it bigger or smaller.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am an educator and I manage a non-profit organization that offers services to intellectually challenged people. Recently, I started teaching knitting in a LYS and I love it very much.
How did you come up with this design?
My sister loves bunnies and trees so I decided to try to find something that I could use. I found Barbara Walker’s “Tree of Life” motif, but I decided to modify it to incorporate cables to mimic the bunnies I had designed.
What made you choose this yarn?
I knew my sister loved big and warm shawls, and I love Berroco Vintage because, although it contains 50% of acrylic, it is a gorgeous yarn and wonderful to work with. It’s one of my “work horse” yarns so, of course, I had some at home.
What’s your favorite thing about knitting?
Since I hate sitting and doing nothing, I like that I can knit while doing something else. I also like that when I knit I can focus on that and calm my mind.
Do you have a cool design you want to share? Or did you recently finish a project with Berroco yarn? You can email Ashley: apalumbo@berroco.com or post it to the Berroco Lovers forum in Ravelry.