A whole weekend of knitting!

This past weekend was just beautiful in so many ways. First of all the weather was wonderful. Overnight the temps got pretty low, but during the day it was just right between 60 and 70 degrees. Secondly, the family and in laws all went camping in the fifth wheel camper that my in laws own. Thirdly, and most importantly to me, I went on a knitting retreat! I got down there on Friday and left Sunday afternoon. Now you are probably waiting for the massive amounts of projects that I got done. Well.... think again. I didn't do nearly as well as my friend Kim. She got a whopping three projects done over the retreat. For me it was more about hanging out and getting to know people and seeing what people were working on. Yeah I did knit a ton, but it was one of those one step forward and two steps back kind of things. I almost finished a mitered square from Mason-Dixon, but then as I got towards the end I realized I counted wrong somewhere and the whole thing had to be frogged. Then I pulled out the knee socks I am working on for my daughter and Socktoberfest. Well after knitting through the heel and about an inch up the leg... I tried it on and I hadn't made the foot long enough so rip I did. Oh well! That is precisely why I didn't take the lace I want to finish or the sweater I wanted to start. Having to frog way back or entirely on a big project is just too heartbreaking. I did get a lot of spindle spinning done though. I will get pictures of that to show later. I got 140 yards of two ply sock weight yarn spun and a spindle's worth of yet to be 2-plied silk and wool. Sometimes when I am doing a bunch of talking and listening spinning just makes more sense. I don't have to pay it as much attention! lol

My spinning did have a fun result though. There was a lady that was sitting next to me named Liz. She said she had thought about spinning before but never really took the plunge. After watching me spin for a while though it wasn't too hard to shove some roving and a spindle in her direction and get her to give it a try. She really did great! Better than I think I did my first try at spindle spinning. My first attempts really demonstrated how the drop spindle gets its name. After spinning for a bit she produced her first little baby skein of handspun. It was so fun to share with her! I sent her home with some of my extra roving and a spindle that I made from some chopsticks so that she can continue at home. Yeah a new spinner is among us! And yeah for Liz she even finished a whole pair of mittens while she was there. It was a beautiful pink pair made from Nature Wool. So soft!

Over the course of the weekend we had a swap where we swapped a skein of yarn from home among people in the room. We couldn't talk and say anything about the yarn we had to trade. It was like swapping charade style. And yes, I was shocked to see red heart/ ancient acrylic yarn being passed/ run away from around the room. I think for next time, and yes there will be a next time, there should be more guidelines about what yarn is brought. I ended up with some pretty Takhi pink tweed which will fill in my stash nicely lol. There were also three mini workshops, knitting with wire, knitting two socks at once, and kumihimo. The knitting with wire I have looked at before and although I like the looks of some of the projects I don't think this is something I am overly interested in. Wire just isn't soft and squishy like yarn is. Enough said. The sock knitting basically went over the idea being talked about in the Fall Knitty. I think the consensus seemed to be that while this is a neat party trick I am not sure why you would want to do this. There are just too many places where if you make a mistake then you are just up a creek. Even our LYS sock knitting guru tried it several times and each time ended up having to rip the whole thing. So I don't know maybe it is something I will revisit at another time and maybe not. My favorite workshop was the kumihimo. This is a japanese braiding technique which can be as easy or complex as you want it to be and has so many possibilities for using in conjunction with knitting. I had finished a good section of cord in less than an hour! On the way home in the car I even showed the kids and they mastered it too in about ten seconds. On Saturday night given the season, we were to bring our scariest handknit item to share for a scary party. I didn't bring anything because generally when I see things going downhill, I stop the knitting and start the frogging before things get too far. There were about ten ladies that brought things to frighten us with, but I gotta say I wasn't too afraid. Most of them were the kinds of things that when you have spent the time and know yourself what mistakes are there it is terrifying, but too someone else... eh not too bad. There was one lady who had made a sweater out of kureyon that she just couldn't wear and couldn't bear to have it look at her from the bottom of the closet anymore. She offered to give it to anyone in the crowd who take it and love it, (even if that meant scavenging the yarn), and my friend and I were the only ones interested. Soooo... we have decided to take it apart and make matching sweaters for our daughters out of the yarn. All in all it was such a fun refreshing weekend and everyone there was already talking about when the next one could be so hopefully there will be more in the future! A big thanks goes out to !Barb for being such a great retreat planner and host