Knitting Retreat Part 1: The Samples

I'm still trying to organize my thoughts and pictures from the weekend's fabulous Knitting Retreat.  I think what I'm going to do is divide the weekend into several posts.  Hopefully I'll get the posts written today and then use Typepad's handy scheduling feature so that there will be scheduled posts throughout the work week ahead.

One of the most interesting parts of the weekend was the Sample Workshop.  I wasn't sure what to expect, and had envisioned different yarns floating around the room and knitters stitching swatches with the yarns that interested them.  This is not what it was at all.  Instead, there were little samples of each of 25 yarns given to each of us as well as a binder with inserts to store the samples, and descriptions of each of the yarn.  Each sample was tagged and the corresponding number listed in the binder.  Here's some photos of the samples:



Some of the samples I was familiar with, such as pure wool, bamboo, etc., however there were several samples that I wasn't even aware of, such as corn, which smells and feels like corn starch!  Still others were familiar but I've never knitted with before.  There was some beautiful silk, cashmere, angora, and quivit, among other fibres.  The samples are enough to knit a swatch, then perhaps unwind and put back in the binder.  I'm the type of person that likes too keep things that are a set together, so if I were to knit a sample, I'd want to put it back with the other samples!

Shelley did a little talk on each of the yarn, as the samples were being handed out:

It was probably the most interesting and informative part of the whole weekend.

Thanks to Shelley, her parents, her daughter Megan, and her staff person Deb for all the time they took to make up all the samples.  This provides us all with useful information as well as a nice souvenir of our weekend.

While I've been off playing with yarn, Joe's been busy working.  Today is his 15th day in a row, the majority of those being 12 hour days.  He's getting tired but is enjoying the work (he runs heavy equipment building logging roads).  Obviously he has no time, nor would I expect him, to buy groceries, cat supplies, or prepare meals.  So that's what I'm off to do.  I think I'll make a big pot of chili for dinner, of which we can enjoy some leftovers in the next few days.  Then time to play with yarn some more, prepare some blog entries for the next few days (I'm thinking I'll probably have two or three more posts about the weekend to share with you), and off to skating tonight. 

Have a good week, and I hope you'll all have lots of time to play with your yarn!

Comments

[Uli]

Wow...... that sounds very interesting. Nice sample yarns.

[Paula]

I love the yarn samples...
Elann.com has another Sample Skeins Subscription - starting April 2007. 52 sample skeins per year! http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=Sample%20Skeins%20Subscription%20-%20Start%20April%202007

I did this a few years ago it was a lot of fun playing with the yarns.