I spent this past weekend at the beautiful Norwegian Wood Retreat Center hosted by the lovely and gracious Deb Sorenson.  She bedazzled us with wonderful food!!  The other knitters staying there were really fun and great company.

The first evening I did my Herbert Niebling presentation for the people staying at the retreat center.  On Saturday, after a breakfast of scrambled egg BLT’s (!), we were joined by three additional knitters and tackled invisible stranding (shown in picture above, upper left).  Sunday, three different knitters joined us for Essential Shawl Techniques, including garter tab cast on, no end stripes, picot bind off, and i-cord bind off.  It was impossible not to be distracted by the non-stop bird action at the feeders!!

A special shout out to the delightful Gail, who came all the way from Florida just for the retreat!!  Okay, she was also visiting family in the Twin Cities…

We all decided that we are going to design a knitted bikini for the mature woman – it will have long sleeves, a turtleneck, and go all the way to the knees.  Woo hoo!

I will be returning to Norwegian Wood October 12-14 for another retreat.  Saturday will include finishing techniques.  On Sunday, we will knit up my little beaded Snowfall Hats in time for the holidays!!  Maybe I will have my sexy bikini finished by then!

Thank you for the nice birthday wishes!!  It is always nice to make it to another birthday…

I just finished a lengthy, kind of boring, project: Fading Point by Joji Locatelli.  I have made several of her patterns – she is very talented!  It is drying on the blocking board.

I used Fading Point Kit #12 from Primrose Yarn Co.  It is made up of five colors of their Adelaide Sock Yarn:

Color 1: The Picket Line or The Parade
Color 2: Crime of Passion
Color 3: Just a Girl
Color 4: Squeaky
Color 5: Romance Novel

I had to add an extra section to each half due to my tight gauge 🙁 so used a yarn from my stash to transition (Lost City Knits Merino Fingering in a beige).  I also switched colors 4 & 5 so that Color 4 would be at the center back of the shawl.  The color was such a pretty, speckled pink!!  I placed the beige between Colors 3 and 5.

Sharon F. asked to see the inside of my Farrell Hat, so I must comply!!

PS re: inside of hat: I did not show you the side where all the colors start and stop — definitely not as attractive!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG SISTER!

Let there be cake, flowers, yarn, and general merriment.  I wish I was there to share the big day!  You are my inspiration, best friend, and partner in crimes and misdemeanors.

Here’s one of my favorite photos of Susan (taken with my daughter).

:groan:  THAT is a tortured title if I ever saw one!!

Hi, everyone!  Am I the only person who thinks the yarn world has gone a little bit nuts?  $400 for sweater yarn.  $120 for hat yarn.  $250 for shawl yarn.

Then, you still have to (get to?) knit it!  Plus, I just heard about a knitting retreat that is $9500 for three days!  Is everyone a billionaire but me??

Okay, Susan, settle down.  Anyway, I just finished a cute little hat that I did not spend $120 to make.  I spent around $40.  Still a lot, but not in the billionaire range!  It is the Farrell Hat from the latest issue of Making.  The hat struck me right away, as it did my friend Kim.  We decided to buy Peerie Yarn – the new Brooklyn Tweed offering – and divide the skeins.  That is why it was cheaper!!

Reds sure photograph weird!  It looks absolutely electric in the picture — much more subdued in real life.  As I started this hat, I hated it.  I thought it was the ugliest hat I had ever seen.  But it has since grown on me.  I love it.  It has such a retro, Europe in the 40’s, crazy feel to it!!  I see myself wearing this quite a bit.  It is very “un-me,” but that is what I like about it.

The yarn was nice to work with and blocked beautifully.  🙂

PS to Pru: It IS a carnival!  That is such a good word to describe it!  And, yes, Sally and I are blatant and unapologetic enablers!  “You knew that when you took us in.”