Fun Knits Fall Knitting Retreat

Where do I begin - At the beginning I guess.

People started arriving about 3 pm on Friday as they arrived they were given tooth picks and a small ball of Hempathy yarn (just in case they forgot their knitting) They were asked to knit something using only the tooth picks and to show it on Sunday.

We had a nice Salmon buffet supper and then introductions. Then some of us went to the Yarn shop. Lots of yarn found new homes this weekend.

Sat Morning we went to the conference room and shared out ideas for some Christmas knitting.

Mom showed how to make her crochet top towels. Carol showed how to make socks with Briggs and Little Tuffy. Our little snowman is knitting his own scarf. We had a knitting snowman for everyone to assemble. Kathy was showing how to make end-to -end scarves and had a sample bracelet people could knit. Lynn came with her yarn to sell and her little sock ornament to make.

I had a Waffle weave washcloth made with Hempathy or cotton and a mitered Christmas ormnament to knit. Also a hat and leg warmers made of Bravo crazy colour.

Megan had her Toe Kozies and kits - they were a big hit.
There was lots of sitting around knitting. This year Roger let his wife Rachel come. She spins yarn for Roger to knit but she has also taken up knitting. They had lots of fun.










We ate, ate, ate all weekend. Plenty of food and it was all great. On Sat night we had Prime Rib buffet. After the dinner we were entertained by Hal Douglas and Friend's band. They were just wonderful. It was great to sit and knit to a live band. This was quite a treat. I think we were a different crowd than they are used to.
We played with yarn a lot. We had a couple of circle knits. We got 8 people together and all knit in a large circle on the same item using circular needles. Then when finished we all put our name tags in a bag and drew who the winner was. Penny won the first one and Jackie won the second one. These circle knits are quite fun.


Sunday morning we had a show and tell. Lots of wonderful garments. I couldn't get my camera to work right so I didn't get many pictures of this.










Remember the little balls of yarn and tooth picks I told you about. Well here is some of the finished items. These knitters are very talented and such good sports. Our final picture is the entire group of knitters at the Fall retreat. I will send you all a copy of this picture later this week once I get unpacked and the store back in shape.
Thanks to everyone who came and made the Retreat such a fun success.

Well that was fun!!

The retreat is over and everyone seemed to have a great time, including me, I even got to sit around and knit a few times at this retreat. . I am too tired to go and get my camera and download the pictures so you have to wait until tomorrow to see the pictures.
Actually I am too tired to blog - tomorrow I will tell you all about it

Busy, busy, busy etc...... Oh also a SALE!!!

I am so busy getting ready for the retreat. We are also having a huge in store sale at Fun Knits this weekend. There is a private sale for the retreat goers on Friday night and Sat from 1 - 5 in store sale. Notice Sat hours. We are closing in the morning so everyone can enjoy the morning activities of the retreat and lunch.
There are 38 people coming to the retreat. It is going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait.
Now back to the sale. Everything in the store will be 10% off except books and patterns. Lots of the sock yarn will be further reduced and novelty yarn will be slashed. I am also clearing out of a few of the yarns in store and they will be greatly reduced. So you don't want to miss this sale. It is just in time for gettting ready for Christmas.

Great Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend. Here is how it went. Friday we drove to Judy and Ihor's house and got settled into their guest house. It was wonderful. They live on beautiful place right on a lake. The weather was perfect all weekend. We just visited on Friday night.

Saturday Judy and I got out the spinning wheels. It was so beautiful we sat out on the deck to spin. I finished spinning my very thick and thin beginner yarn. It was awful but I will keep it anyways. Then Judy rowed me around their lake. What a treat.

Saturday we had a fun party. It was a pot luck dinner and the food was great. I got to visit with lots of old friends and meet some new ones. Here is a picture of Raven with her hand spun Navajo plied yarn that she is knitting a scarf with. She is a very new spinner and this yarn was perfect. Wow I was impressed. We played a fun knitting game. We all sat in a circle and 9 of us knit on the same huge round garment. And here is Judy wearing the finished product. She is going to use it as a Christmas garland on her tree. This was a lot of fun to knit and we made a great video of our fun. I am hoping to put this onto Youtube so you can all see our fun. Have to figure out how first.

On Sunday I spun all day and actually produced yarn I was proud of. I will show a picture when I get one taken. We then went out for dinner. All weekend we had a great time. Thanks Judy and Ihor for a wonderful weekend.

Off on another knitting/ weaving/ spinning adventure

Sometimes when things don't work out something better happens. This is the case this weekend. The retreat I was planning on going to this weekend was cancelled but my friend has invited me to her house for a fun fibery weekend. So I am off in a different direction to have fun retreat of a different kind. Lucky me. I am taking my loom, my spinning wheel and my knitting. Fun, fun, fun.
Plans for our retreat are coming along nicely. We still have a few spaces left if anyone want to come. It is close to full.

What fun I had

I really enjoyed my stay on Salt Spring Island. The first night we just relaxed and did nothing. Rare for me. The next day we went shopping out for lunch and then went to visit Mary Tanti.(The designer of the new Kauni Jacket) She made us a great dinner then we got down to business and she helped me finish the Kauni. Cardigan. Yes I said FINISH. She showed me a great cast off that just completed the sweater so nicely. I ended up staying up unitl 2 am to get this sweater finished so I could wear it the next day.

The next day we set up to sell yarn, Not until noon so I did get to sleep late. After the yarn sales flurry I sat around and chatted with Lucy Neatby. She showed about 10 different techniques in about that many minutes. Wow is she ever an amazing knitter. Lucy loves the kauni and we traded kauni for DVD's and patterns. She had all kinds of ideas for the Kauni yarn and I can't wait to see them.

That night Mary had a few people over for dinner, Lucy Neatby and her assistant Susan, Elna ( she wrote Cottage Knits, More Cottage knits and One More Row for Briggs and Little) and my Husband and I. it was really fun to relax and visit with such wonderful talented knitters. of course we talked about knitting - knitting and more knitting.

Thursday we went to Jane Stafford's studio. we had a great visit and what a nice studio she has. I bought some wonderful cotton to weave some towels and left her with some Kauni EQ and EM to weave

So that is how the last few days went. I feel blessed and humbled to have been with these wonderful talented people. I learned so much and the biggest thing I learned was that I have so much learn about knitting.

The pictures are in order of event.

And you may wonder what my husband thought of all this knitting and fibre fun. Well he enjoyed lots of time to play his guitar. He is a clasical guitarist so he travels with his own amusement when times get boring.