Knitting Retreat - Part 2

I thought I have to do another post on the retreat as some of you were curious about the SOUP episode & some of you were asking about the cardigan, so here we go .....

The SOUP - it was teriible ! We paid $15 for lunch & we were told that we will be served a bowl of thick chunky vegetable soup with a roll - all we had was a little bowl of water with a few shreds of vegetables. We were felt so cheated since it was our first visit to the restaurant & I know we will not go back again next year.

The cardigan - it's a top down cardigan which I designed for the retreat. It is a simple project to learn top down knitting. The cardigan was knitted with 3 skeins of Handmaiden Casbah & 3.75mm needles. Although the yarn is 4ply, the cardigan is really warm. I added cables on the fronts, back & sleeves for some interesting knitting. I have written notes on the construction of this cardigan and if any of you are interested in knitting it, please let me know in your comment. Please remember to include your email address in the comment as I cannot reply to the comment. There are a couple of people who left me comments asking for my sock pattern but I cannot send the pattern as they have not included their email address.

I also design a shawl to showcase the new yarn that we were launching at the retreat ....

.... the new yarn is Handmaiden Camelspin, a luxurious silk & camel blend. As the skein is only 300m, I decided on a simple shawl which will only require 1 skein. The shawl is knitted from point to point with a berry stitch border that is knitted on at the same time. I love the shawl as it's so soft & the sheen of the yarn is gorgeous ...

This Berry Triangle is now on sale in ravelry !

Some of you may have noticed a picture of a pair of socks among all the yarn in the retreat - it's also another one of my designs. I have not named the socks or written the pattern as I was testing the new yarn, String Theory Caper Socks. The yarn is lovely to knit and is similar to Casbah but much softer & I love the almost solid colors.

I will have to write up the pattern soon ....

I Am Back .....

..... and so much had happened over the last few weeks. Helen & I have been busy organising Knitting Inspirations 3rd Annual Retreat over the long weekend. This year, 29 of us spent 3 nights at the beautiful Avalon Homestead !

The retreat started on Friday afternoon & everyone was greeted with one of these goodie bags .......

...... which came in handy when the Yarn Market was opened with lots of gorgeous yarn ......

...... accessories, needles and for the 1st time hand sewn projects bags made by one of our ladies .....

We started the retreat with a knit along of the top down Eccentric Cables Cardigan which I designed for the retreat.

On Saturday, we had 3 workshops lined up - Peter gave us an interesting & informative talk on Jumper Building Blocks where we learnt how to customise jumpers to different yarns & styles .......

Then we had Molly who gave us hands-on experience with knitting lace with beads & nupps - we were able to practise on a beaded bookmark that Molly designed & it was great fun .....

The 3rd workshop was conducted by Helen who demonstrated finishing techniques like seaming, short row shaping, button holes, etc & Helen also helped seamed a couple of projects ......

The day ended with a PJ night where we wore our PJs to dinner & it was great that we need not dress up for dinner ....

Sunday was a relaxing day & we just sat around & knit & spin ....

In the afternoon, we took a short walk up the hill to Pecan Hill for lunch where we had the "World Most Talked About SOUP" - I am sure we will be talking about this SOUP at the next retreat but we will not be having any more of that SOUP !

The retreat went very well & we had lots of fun & of course lots of knitting & spinning & many projects were finished over the weekend. I am amazed at all the beautiful projects that the group has produced & in all my excitement, I forgot to take photos !

I am still recuperating from all the excitement during the weekend which was made possible by this incredible group ......