2007 Projects, Home & Family, Knitting, Spinning, Stash
The 2007 KR Retreat!
So I’m a little behind on posting this . . . . partly because the Retreat was so overwhelming that I needed to digest it for a bit . . . and partly because lifes craziness returned full swing when I got home. . .
Friday morning I actually managed to leave on time . . . the toddler took my leaving remarkably well though I don’t think he really understood that I’d be away all weekend either. I stopped at our favorite bakery and got 40 mini cannoli (YUM!) and can proudly say they actually all made it to the Retreat 
Next stop was at South Station to pick up Lynn who was riding along with me. Its a bit of a long ride and Lynn was great company and so we chatted away the whole ride out. We did stop once along the way, partly because the trim on the edge of my windshield was loose (from the car wash). Our first destination was Webs!
What can I say, the place really is as overwhelming as everyone says it will be. We stayed pretty much in the front “shop” area and saved the full warehouse for next time . . . didn’t want to burn out on yarn too early in the weekend! Actually, I think I was fairly restrained all things considered . . . I picked up some more pink yarn, 8 skeins of Misti Alpaca
. . . and 2 of the Dale of Norway baby books that had loads of cute patterns for both kids. And the sizes on most of it go to 48 months so that was perfect.
I also got cones of Harrisville Shetland, some of which I’m using for my New Beginning project from the Retreat and these are for the stash:
Back on the road for the rest of the drive to the Retreat. . . We arrived at the Inn at about 3:30 or so and got checked in with both the Inn folks and Martha. The goodie bags this year were amazing and further proof that Clara and KR have arrived since major companies are now offering stuff. These bags are the knitters equivilant of the bags given to celebraties at award shows.
Here are a few shots of the (in)famous Stash Lounge:
Dinner was fabulous and we spent the evening knitting and chatting and doing introductions. My roommate is the one with the 2 Kauni Sweaters! which Clara showed in the KR report . . . Aren’t they beautiful! I may just have to try one after seeing hers!
Friday night after thing wound down in the ballroom we headed back to our room . . . I mentioned that I got Harrisville Shetland for my New Beginnings project . . . well, its wonderful yarn and I’m loving it but the catch was that its unscoured and on cones! So out came the Niddy Noddy (yup, I actually brought it with me!) and I wound off the entire cone of yarn while chatting with Meg. Then it need to be scoured . . .
Luckily for me the hotel bathroom had nice hot tapwater! After its bath we (me and the yarn) went outside for a little fresh air . . . at 11 at night I was swinging a skein of yarn overhead to get the water out. Fortunately, the other guests were knitters so if anyone did see me at least they didn’t call the desk to report a crazy person acting suspicious on the lawn!
Saturday morning we had our class after breakfast. I took Pam Allen’s Lace class and found it really interesting.
She gave us charts and had us work up a series of swatches that showed the effects of decreases in lace patterning depending on angle and placement . . . it really gave me something to think about from a design perspective. We also had a lovely chat about lace in particular and knitting & the yarn industry in general. All in all, a very nice class.
After lunch (again, really good food and such a treat to not cook or clean up) we had a little break before the Market opened. I managed to be one of the first in the door and got a couple of photos before it got picked over. . . .
That’s my roommate Meg in her rainbow Kauni! There wasn’t nearly this much left by the time it was over but there were a lot of satisfied knitters
I was again, remarkably restrained. I got a copy of Clara’s book, a t-shirt, a few note cards and bookplates from Clara. I also got some yarn and fiber from Sugar Maple Merinos (in the first photo above). I got 2 skeins of bulky Merino, but by the time I wrote this they’d been knit into hats . . .
This photo shows the cables pretty well but not the color, which is more like this:
and 2 skeins of Mohair/Merino blend in Fingering weight which will be either small shawls or large scarves.
And I got a lovely bag of silvery grey merino roving that is going to be a sweater at some point (really, it is!) and that was pretty much it for me and shopping.
Actually, what I worked on most was spinning some handpainted roving that I’m spinning up into yarn that will be for a baby surprise jacket for the little one . . . I got the second 2 oz packet of fiber spun and most of the 4 oz that are spun plied . . . I’ve got another 4 oz that I’m going to spin before I knit the sweater. I hadn’t done much spinning in a while (spinning wheels and 2 yo boys are a bad combo!) so it was nice to get so much done. I’ve been interested in trying a BSJ for a while now and what better time than for my own little peanut!
Saturday evening Barbara from Foxfire Farm came and spoke to us about her experiences with raising sheep. It was an interesting peek into what it takes to be a shepardess.
The rest of the evening was spent knitting and spinning and visiting . . . with a few glasses of wine (I had my 1 for the week with dinner, Dr approved thank you) and lots of cookies and treats as well. It was a wonderful and relaxing evening. Many of us stayed up for a while longer than we otherwise might have to enjoy a little knitting drama . . . One knitter was working hard to bind off a Mobius that she had been knitting. Its made from her own handspun yarn . . . from the hair of her pet Samoyed Dog! The drama was that she was running out of yarn and lacking more yarn or available fiber . . . she might have had to wait until spring (and the dog shed again) to have enough yarn to finish it! She made it with mere inches to spare:
Talk about a knitting clif hanger!
Sunday morning I woke up with a bit of a migraine (theory is that perhaps it was because we were headed back to reality) and after we had a lovely breakfast together we headed back to the ballroom for some wrap-up and the New Beginnings projects. Clara spoke about the Retreat and how its grown and evolved over the years and thanked us for coming. We then gave her a “Standing O” for throwing such a fabulous party . . . . and we made her cry!
She had us write letters to ourselves and handed out letters to those who attended last year . . . and then we began our projects. The idea is basically to start something for yourself (that you finish before the next retreat) and then to have others that you have connected with over the weekend knit a stitch or a few stitches on your project. The project I chose is to knit a Shetland Hap Shawl based on the patterns in Sharon Miller’s book and using the Harrisville Shetland I picked up at Webs.
I’ve got 5 different colors in shades of brown and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
After lunch we packed our things and managed to stuff everything back into the car and headed out. Lynn and I stopped off at Webs again on the way home to exchange a cone of yarn I got with the wrong dyelot. The impressive thing was that neither of us actually purchased anything else!
MIL called me on the cellphone when I was about 20 minutes out and said she was making dinner, bless her! When I did get home the little guy seemed happy to see me and then was up to his usual tricks within minutes. By all reports he was something of an angel all weekend and saved up the trouble until I got home. Figures.
Monday and Tuesday I did battle with my old friend migraine. And I manged to realize that I’ve gone from morning sickness to this weird thing where I can’t eat if I’m the one doing the cooking . . . and after being gone for 3 days and sick for 2 thing kinda piled up around here so I haven’t been online much while I try to catch up again.
I have done a little knitting; I made Father & Son cabled hats from the Sugar Maple Merino for the guys. I’m planning to add the pattern as a Free Pattern on my site. I’m also done with the Irish Hiking scarf and have worked on the Hap shawl.
