At the Retreat

There was knitting, knitting everywhere!





Plenty of hugs!



Lots of yarn winding.



Some people had jazz hands.



We all saw an angel



and there was heavenly yarn!



Speaking of yarn. . . next entry will be photos of some of the gorgeous knitting being worn by such talented knitters.

Stash Weeding

What a weekend! More about the Knitters Review Retreat during the week. At this moment, I don't have the words to describe how wonderful it was.

But here's a little taste.

One feature of the Retreat is the stash lounge. We bring our unloved and unwanted yarn (books, patterns, magazines, needles) and leave them for anybody who wants to give them a good home.

This year I was ruthless when I went through my stash. This might be a sign of some yarn maturity. When I didn't know any better, I'd impulsively buy yarn with no thought about what I could do with it. This often resulted in odd amounts. Not enough for a sweater--but too much for a shawl. Or I'd buy yarn for a shawl or sweater and then find out the yarn was just too. . . itchy, soft, warm, fibery, slick, dull, thin, thick, twisty for me. And so it sat. Perfectly fine yarn but unloved and unwanted.

This is what I brought to the stash lounge:



Over the weekend, I kept checking the lounge to see which yarns I had brought were gone. By Sunday morning, I saw nothing of mine in the stash lounge anymore. All went to knitters who would appreciate them.

I'm also happy to report that I added very little to my yarn stash. Here's the yarn that followed me home. Of these skeins, only three were bought either at WEBS or at the Retreat's marketplace. All the others were in my Retreat goody bag. YES, you see Socks that Rock and YES that was in the goody bag!



Please don't think I'm currently yarn-deprived. I'm not. Here's the state of my stash right now. Only loved and hoped-to-be-used yarn remains.



And dare I make the promise that I'm starting a yarn diet? Only knit from the stash OR if yarn is bought, it's for a specific project. Something to think about.

On Our Way

to the Knitters Review Retreat, my friends and I have taken a detour to 2,500 square feet of knitters paradise--



I only have this one photo of WEBS interior, because I was. . . uh. . . busy.



Actually, I showed remarkable restraint. But tomorrow is another day and we'll be hitting WEBS again in the morning.

Right around the corner from WEBS yarn store is their beading store. Gorgeous things! I keep saying I'm not into using beads in my projects. However, this store might make me change my mind.

Matchy-Matchy

I'm a matchy-matchy sort of girl. Shoes and purse must be the same color. (Except in summer. . . yellow, orange or green purses are OK with black sandals.) Toenails and fingernails must be polished the same. (Um. . . summer exception again.) And undies? Yes, of course, they have to match. (However there is a dirty laundry exception.)

Seriously, though, I really, really, really am a matchy-matchy girl!

I have two pairs of green gloves that I rarely wear because none of my scarves have green in them.



So for the Knitters Review Retreat mindless knitting project, I decided to make a scarf to go with the gloves. But after a couple of false starts of both yarn and pattern,



I finally decided on the 22.5 Degrees Scarf using the recommended Wollmeise. Yes, the life-changing, magical Wollmeise is in my stash. However, it wasn't first choice because I thought it wouldn't match the gloves.

I was wrong. Horribly wrong. The rhabarber colorway matches and complements the gloves beautifully. And the feel and drape of the Wollmeise is incredibly wonderful! I knew immediately we had a match!

The Not-So-Silent Retreat Scarf

It's Knitters Review Retreat time! My fourth year.

When I tell people I'm going on a knitting retreat, they have visions of devout women silently knitting. A soft and gentle scene.

Nothing could be further from this! Picture Times Square on New Years Eve. OK, it's not quite that. . . but almost.

100 or so women (and a few men) all chatting, laughing, gawking at our beautiful knitted sweaters, shawls, hats. Catching up with each other, telling jokes, sharing techniques, asking advice. Connecting our Knitters Review and Ravelry names with our real names, looking for old friends and getting to know new friends. There's a whirl of color and happy noise!

And our hands are busy knitting, knitting, knitting.

The first year I went to the Retreat, I brought a sock with me. Big mistake! Tiny needles, thin yarn, yarnovers, a chart. A recipe for disaster! I learned that, for me, the Retreat wasn't the place where I could work on something that needed close attention.

The next two years, I went into mindless knitting mode for the Retreat. Last year, I worked on the Orange Baktus. Garter stitch. Size 5 needle. A four row repeat. Perfect! I was able to knit and talk at the same time!

So now came the decision for this year. What to do? I thought about the baktus and how I like the look of striped ones. Then I found a pattern for another equally easy scarf.



But I wasn't crazy about making another baktus. And, though I really liked the pattern for the other scarf, the yarn just didn't seem right for it.

This very long story does have a happy ending.



To be continued. . . .

Finally Finished

These bibs were almost two months in the making. Yes, I set them aside and got distracted by many, many other things. They sat for the longest while without the i-cord ties and border. But, being I was seeing the baby's grandmother yesterday, I finally finished them.



This is such a cute, easy pattern. However, I changed it up a bit by using the instructions for the applied i-cord and the ties from this bib.

The yarn used is Peaches & Creme.

Almost a Blog Entry

I promised myself that I wouldn't post another blog entry till I finished something--

SO

The Clapotis is finished!



Well. . . sort of. I still have stitches to drop and ends to weave in.



Consider this sort of a blog entry.