What more can a knit girl ask for? I spent the weekend surrounded by nature and a group of wonderful knitters and Nancy Bush!!! I met so many great women this weekend, we knit, we laughed, we ate, we listened to all the wonderful stories on Estonian Knitting and the history or Socks and patterns from Nancy. We learned some importants tricks on slipping stitches kinwise vs. purlswise... and we got to show off some of our own work.
The Marconi Conference center where we stayed was super nice. It over looks Tomales Bay in Point Reyes California. What a beautiful locale! Let me tell you I am still in Knitting Bliss--I hope it lasts all week.
It was a class room setting of course and Nancy brought in all the socks from 2 of her books for us to look at:
We did have a sock to knit of course and it was a nice pattern called the Stove Pipe Socks:
Look --by the end of Saturday night I had made some progress I was ready to start working on the 9 or so inches of the leg... Only then, I counted my stitches and I had 20, 20, 11 --Damn It! What did I do? The pattern called for decreases--what had I done? Did I just decrease haphazardly? Was I tired Saturday night? Major screw up! So what did I do? I enlisted Nancy's help to see if she knew how to rip it back and salvage this somehow? It was worth at try--even though I pretty much knew I was toast! Here is Nancy adminestering some 911 help--trying to undo and re-do the 9 lost stitches:
Here is what I had left after 20 minutes of Nancy's careful operation:
I did remember to bring my books and Nancy autographed them all for me and let me take a picture with her. She is such a nice down to earth person
O.K. so this was very picture heavy but I must include a couple of more shots of the awesome knitters I met at the retreat. Here are some group shots. Look one person finished a sock--that was my room mate Terry who is a Fireman/Firefighter and a pretty fast knitter.
Oh and How could I forget.. There were yarn purchases. There is always yarn right! Here is the haul from the retreat. Crystal Palace had a trunk show especially for us. Here are my purchases:
But wait there's more... On our way back home from the retreat. My new friend Jennifer (who lives close to me!!!yay!!!) and I stopped by Black Mountain Artisans in Point Reyes. This is a tiny little shop filled with hand made goods. Knitted items, leather, pottery, and handspun yarn. Check out what jumped into my arms and insisted on coming home with me:
Oh and last but not least, I did manage to cram in a tiny bit of progress on my scarf and Cala Lily sock # 2. More on that later.
I leave you with a cute picture of my little angel bear who is sporting his new cowboy hat and pony that I found at Cabaline's in Point Reyes.
Yeehaw Cowboy, Yeehaw! He keeps repeating this to me when he's in full gear:)
Your little boy is adorable!
Great yarn purchases. Looks like you had a great weekend, and NANCY BUSH..I'm so jealous!
Posted by: Melissa | September 12, 2006 at 11:42 AM
Wow! What fun! I should have given you yarn to give to her! lol
Posted by: Scout | September 12, 2006 at 02:01 PM
Oh, the socks! Oh, the yarn! There's so much that I just can't take it all in . . . but I do have to say that the blue yarn with the purple strand in it is particularly gorgeous. Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
Posted by: Yarn Aboard Pal | September 12, 2006 at 02:35 PM