Close to my Heart

A Fun Retreat

Here it is Thursday already and I still haven't posted about last weekend's Fun Knits Knitting Retreat.  I was a bad blogger though, didn't pull out my camera until it was almost time to leave for home on Sunday morning.  Shelley has a great summary of the retreat that you can read about here.

The theme of the retreat was Christmas knitting.  Yarn and patterns were provided for lots of quick Christmas gifts.  Here's a cute snowman ornament that we put together:

The little group that I spent the majority of knitting time with:

From left to right are my friend Margaret, Peg, Lisa, and Patti.  Patti is a new new knitter who during the weekend moved on from dishclothes to socks and a felted bag.  Go Patti!

And finally, the beautiful great room:

The Spring retreat is already scheduled for the first weekend of April 2008.  Maybe YOU will be able to attend?  Shelley tells me that there will be lots of great workshops, including dying with Judy/Sweatermaker herself!  I'm already looking forward to it, but first we need to get through this wet west coast winter.

Retreating

Already it is (almost) the last weekend of October, which means it's time for the Second Fun Knits Knitting Retreat.  Really looking forward to a relaxing weekend spending time with fellow knitters.  I'll also be taking some of my knitting related papercrafts to flog.  I have lots of Christmas Colour Knitters Gift Tags (none left in my Etsy store to link to at the moment) as well as lots of knitting bella cards (selection of the colours I made up are shown below).  I'm also taking a variety of Christmas cards.

(Not the best picture because it was evening before I thought to take it)

Back in a few days to tell you all about what I know will be an awesome weekend!

Knitting Retreat Epilogue: The Stash

What a difference a week makes.  Last week at this time, I was enjoying this lovely setting:

It still brings a smile to my face when I think about the retreat.  I was thrilled earlier in the week to see that Shelley has already reserved the dates at Camp Homewood for next year's retreat.  I definitely plan to attend.

The Retreat weekend found us visiting Fun Knits twice, so of course, I did add to the ol' stash.  Here's what I ended up with.  On the left is some Lorna's Laces Sock yarn.  I've been looking for some time for a colourway that would go with black pants, so this should do the trick.  On the right is Colinette jitterbug, which is so lovely it just might be for something lacy that is not hidden away on feet.

Patons Classic, in the same colours I used for the Fairisle Teddy Bear I showed you in the last post.  I bought enough of each colour to make a large felted bag, probably with some sort of fairisle design incorporated into it. 

Shelley was nice enough to invite two local yarn vendors to the retreat on Saturday morning.  I purchased this lace weight yarn from one of them, enough to make a substantial size shawl:

Anyhow, life here is good.  I have a renewed interest in my knitting, and we are enjoying some spring weekend weather.  I'm having a leisurely Saturday at home, but will go out  soon  to do a few errands and maybe even some spring clothing shopping.  Here's a sneak preview of my latest finished knit blocking.  I'm after some co-ordinating garments to wear it with.

Happy Weekend!

Knitting Retreat Part 3: Friends and Bears

Everyone at the retreat was given a bear along with the yarn to knit their bear a custom sweater.  There were a variety of different patterns available, to suit different knitting skills.  Some knitters embarked on their first sweater ever, using simple patterns.  Others chose to try lace for the first time, and knit their bear a little tank top with a co-ordinated lace shawl.  Still others chose cable sweaters or fairisle sweaters.

Shortly before the end of the retreat, the bears posed for a picture.  Some of the knitters who came from further away had already taken their bears and started the journey home, but just before the end of the retreat on Sunday at lunch time, the following bears remained:

And here's the bears happily posing with their knitters:

Still another bear and knitter picture, this one is of the Victoria Knitter's Guild.

I look forward to seeing some of these knitters again in June, when I plan to attend the Victoria Fibre Festival, where the Yarn Harlot will be appearing.  I'm extremely excited about that upcoming event!

A big highlight of the retreat for me was finally meeting up with Peg.  We've been reading each other's blogs for some time, and it was wonderful to finally see each other in person.  Here we are with our bears:

Peg is a lovely woman that I look forward to seeing more of.  We are already talking about a Fun Knits visit in the not too distant future.

My personal knitting goal for the retreat was to learn to knit fairisle, a goal which I'm happy to say was accomplished.  And would you be surprised to learn that I chose pink and brown for my first fairisle sweater?

I didn't think so.  The knitting of this sweater was completed shortly after returning home from the retreat.  I still have to attempt the steeks though.  That will be accomplished on a weekend when I am feeling brave.  I don't have a sewing machine (and admittedly have a big fear of those contraptions).  I am however very comfortable with a crochet hook, and I know I've seen instructions somewhere online for crochet steeks, so that is what I plan to try.  Any tips?

If I haven't yet bored you with these Retreat Recaps, please stay tuned for the final installment, the Stash Acquisitions. 

Knitting Retreat Part 2: The Fashion Show

Warning:  Image Heavy Post ahead

I've never before been in a room with SO MANY knitters.  It was really awesome.  It was fun looking at the items others had on the needles.  The knitting energy in the room was quite something.

Saturday after dinner, we had a fashion show.  This was the time that everyone could show off their finished projects.  I took my Malabrigo Cardi, since that was my most recently finished non-sock item, but wished I'd taken a few other items as well.  It was hard to know what to bring along.  Many of the knitters showed several impressive knits.  I tried to photograph some of them, but it was rather difficult to get the "action" shots.  I do have several to share with you, but regret that I was unable to get some shots of some other amazing items, like an awesome fairisle sweater. 

Here's what I do have to share:
(Note:  because I have so many pictures, I've made my images smaller than usual.  All images are clickable)

Here's Megan's beautiful sweater.  This is one you want to click on to see the detail.  I forget if she said her Mom Shelley or her Grandma made this sweater, sorry.  I also forget the fiber (I'm thinking cashmere?).  I guess I should have paid closer attention!

A pretty shawl, made by Marilyn from Victoria, modeled by Margaret.

Roger was the one man in attendance.  His colourwork was amazing, look closely at the hat he is holding.

Neat sweater with intarsia seals:

This is an almost finished Elizabeth Zimmerman surprise Jacket.

I have the pattern for the baby version in the one EZ book I own, and now I really want to knit it.

This Wedding Shawl was truly amazing:

Cute little sock earrings:

Another lovely lace shawl:

There were many more impressive items shown off, but these were the only ones I was able to get pictures of.  It was really quite overwhelming, and that made it difficult to photograph.  There were also a few instances that by the time I had my camera ready, I'd missed the photo op.

There ends Part 2.  Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I'll show you the teddy bear sweaters that were knit.

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!

A Good Time Was Had by All

I'm home from the Knitting Retreat, which I would classify as a huge success.  Kudos to Shelley for all the work she did to pull this together.  I'll blog more about it tomorrow (so glad it's my Flex Day) when I've had a chance to get some rest and organize both my thoughts and pictures (If you want to see some crafting finished objects, I did just post a special card I made last weekend on my other blog).  In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of one of one of the younger cuter knitters in attendance, enjoying some knitting time today with her Grandma: