Northern California Knitting Retreat

It's true, I went on another knitting retreat the weekend after my knitting group's retreat and it was amazing! This time I flew down to San Francisco with my good friend, Monica, and spent the night before driving to the East Bay for a mini yarn and fabric crawl and driving to the retreat center in San Juan Bautista. First off, the weather was superb.

Straight off the plane, we grabbed our rental car and headed to the Legion of Honor for the High Style exhibit. Let me tell you, it's amazing and you should totally see it if you live in the area. 

I think this was my favorite piece in the exhibit because TIGER PRINT and I love that it drew inspiration from 17th century gowns and Marie Antoinette - this little number even featured panniers. The rest of our time in SF was spent eating, knitting, and watching Murder She Wrote and reality tv.

Friday morning we drove over to Berkeley to meet up with the ladies from the Stash & Burn podcast and do a mini yarn and fabric crawl featuring Philz Coffee (not fabric or yarn but very, very important), Claddagh Yarns, Stonemountain & Daughter, and A Verb for Keeping Warm.

It was incredibly difficult to show restraint. But I came away with three cuts of fabric for myself and a remnant of some polka dot knit jersey for a tank for Little A. I'm super jealous of folks that live near this store because it has an excellent selection of apparel fabric.

Left to right and top to bottom: polka dot jersey for Little A, Cotton & Steel rayon, Pendleton wool suiting (at half off!) and a woven cotton and lycra plaid. Project wise this will be a tank for A, probably another sorbetto top for me, a pleated pencil skirt, and a summer dress. 

At VFKW I picked up a skein of Reliquary II in Vermillion for some kind of around-the-neck accessory. We said good-bye to the East Bay and drove in some crazy Friday afternoon traffic to San Juan Bautista and didn't leave for almost two days. It was glorious. 

And you know what? I didn't take a single picture the entire time. I left my phone in my room except for calling the kiddo at bedtime each night. If you want to see pictures taken by more responsible instagram knitters than myself you can find them here. I'll just say that I laughed so hard my face hurt for a couple of days and I'll never see White Rhinos and animal crackers the same way again. I can't wait until next year!

2015 Purlygirl Retreat

This last weekend was my knitting group's annual retreat to Fort Worden. We go every Spring and spend the weekend eating, laughing, talking, and knitting. 

 

Fort Worden is a beautiful place to walk and I enjoyed some time on the beach (I also took the opportunity to stretch since marathon knitting is hard on my hands). The weather was a bit brisk but warm enough that I didn't need my coat, just a handknit sweater. 

There was knitting on the porch, knitting in the living room, knitting at the dining room table, and knitting in the car. Basically, lots and lots of knitting all of the time and it was wonderful.

It was great to spend time with ladies I don't see very often as well as those that I do see often and spend some time relaxing and catching up. The retreat gets better every year and I can't wait until the next one.

Purlygirl Retreat

Later this morning I head off to Port Townsend for the third annual Purlygirl retreat. We'll be staying at Fort Worden and doing lots of knitting, eating, and laughing our heads off. I'm working on packing my knitting projects.

 I'm winding these little lovelies into balls to cast on Fiar by Irish Girlie Knits. My new friend, Sonia, is knitting Fiar and I'm basically just copying her brilliant idea (we have the exact same gradient set). This is a gradient set that I picked up at Vogue Knitting Live and the colorway is Flutter.

 I swatched my French Marigold Miss Babs and got perfect gauge for Aislinn on size 5 needles. The swatch was slightly dense before washing, but after a nice bath it created a lovely fabric. In my experience, superwash yarns have a tendency to become very fluid after washing so I think this yarn knit at a slightly dense gauge will be perfect for a cardigan with both stockinette and lace.

 Mr. B's birthday socks are coming along for the ride. These are what I'll knit on during the ferry ride and any late night shenanigans. The pattern is Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern (a very simple texture pattern).

I also did my nails last night. For three whole days I'll be away from sorting papers at work, housecleaning, and other rough-on-my-hands activities so I thought I'd get extra fancy. I'm not super awesome at painting my own nails but I like this pretty well. Sally Hansen's Black Out with some Essie luxeffects in A Cut Above over the tips. It's 4-year-old approved. 

I'll be back after the weekend! Enjoy yours!