F.O. Breckenridge Cowl & a weekend away

Somehow from all my blissed out relaxation time I forgot to blog about my knitting weekend retreat with my knitting group in early May. It's our annual trip to Port Townsend to stay in the officers housing at the military base of Fort Warden. (For all you movie trivia buffs, this is where they filmed an Officer and a Gentlemen. I should really watch the whole thing one day.)

It was a great time with great friends. A lot of knitting was done. I also went on many walks along the beach (basically right outside our front door!).

I think the pictures speak for themselves. 

We had a knitted gift exchange this year. The theme was an accessory that has cables or lace. Since I'm anti-knitting lace, I opted for cables. This is Breckenridge Cowl from French Press Knits. It was for Cara who loves jewel toned colors. Plus I thought it would look great with her beautiful red coat.

Erin had my name and I received a beautiful pair of pink cabled fingerless gloves which I don't have a picture of. You'll have to take my word that they are just lovely. 

As you can see, it was the perfect weekend for knitting and relaxing!

Moral of the story: There is safety in numbers

This past weekend a few friends and I headed to Tacoma for the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. It was a gray, rainy February day but we were all looking forward to a little knitting, a little yarn shopping and hanging out with friends.

After a quick trip around the market place, I was pretty proud of myself for showing some serious restraint. I had a shopping plan. I wanted to pick up some Socks that Rock to make another clapotis. I have one, but I don't love and I don't wear it. I want to love it. And I want to wear it. I've learned a lot from my last one so I'm going to make another one.
After we all purchased a few things, it was time for lunch. We hopped on the light rail and headed into town for some beer, burgers and knitting. It was fun. Our waitress was just learning to knit so she was thrilled we were all sitting at her table.

Back at the retreat, we visited with more friends, chatted about books, podcast, movies and just generally enjoyed a rainy Saturday without thinking about things that needed to be cleaned, cooked or whatever back home. But then it was time to load up and head back to Seattle. Before that, however, Katie decided she needed one more trip to market place to check on some yarn. Not wanting to abandon our friend, we all decided to accompany her.

And that's when it happened. In less than 5 minutes into the marketplace, we all split up, ran around and fell down. A lot. We all fell onto lots of piles of soft, lovely yarn with our credit cards slipping through the card machines as we went down. And then we got up, laughed and ran to another booth where the same thing happened.

(So pretty. I was drawn to lots of pinks and reds for some reason. They were all very Meg like colors.)

When it was all said and done, we decided there was safety in numbers. But it sure was fun to split up. Now, to go play with my new yarn.

Madrona: The Download

I just returned from this years Madrona Fiber Festival. I've unpacked the suitcase, unloaded the food bag (or what's left of the wine, I should say), petted, photographed and admired my new yarn and now I'm ready to blog about it.

Lounging in the living room.

First, we got to the hotel to discover the room I reserved for the four of us was not the one we got. Instead of 2 double beds, we ended up with a sweet suite! And the best part was, when we told them about it, they said, have it for the price you were quoted! Sweet! The other fun (maybe annoying) part about checking in was when Mara, Rebecca and I checked in, the two young men at the counter just looked at us and said:

Young men: "You're knitters?'
Us: "Yes, we're knitters."

Them: "Really? Huh?"

The stereotypes live on.

My first class was Lace Basics with Evelyn Clark. It was very interesting and while it took me a little while to get the hang of it, I think I'm going to like it. Plus, I think this will be a very good challenge for me as I'm not one for really following directions all that well and with lace, one must pay strict attention to the pattern and details. The class was accomplished with minimal swearing. Plus it was fun to have Erin there too!

The afternoon was free time! Good thing I travel to Tacoma with my Tacoma Fun Fact Friend Mara! We took a great walk along the waterfront, saw the house where Frank Sinatra was born and checked out Stadium H.S. where 10 Things I Hate About You was filmed in honor of Heath Ledger.

This morning I only had one class Knitting in All Directions with Margaret Radcliff. It was very interesting to learn about different techniques to cast on, pick up, use waste yarn for design elements. I think this will be some practical and handy stuff to know!

Now of course I can't leave out the market place! One of the highlights of the convention! I did go a little crazy, but I really don't think I was alone there! I bought a bunch of sock yarn! I bought several skeins from Tactile - a company that uses naturally dyed yarns and writes the names of the sheep that the yarn came from on their lables! I also bought a skein of Socks That Rock in Farmhouse. Then I bought Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road so I could knit up all of this new sock yarn!

I also picked out the yarn for my clapotis! I'm using medium weight sock yarn from Socks That Rock in Faulty Dryer. I've already printed out the pattern and I'm ready to get to work!