Do you think I'm bringing enough?

For six years, I attended a knitting retreat sponsored by Sutter's Gold 'n Fleece up in St. Germain.  It was great!  Stayed at a lodge that used to be a logging camp but now has the main lodge and various cabins.  We would arrive on Friday night, have two classes on Saturday, prizes Saturday night and knit, knit, knit!!

Two years ago was the last retreat that Liz held.  At that time, Mom and I decided we would do our own retreat of sorts.  Last year we rented a cabin outside of Mercer and while it was nice enough inside, on the outside it looked like a very bad shack.  We came up on Thursday, explored on Friday (spent about an hour driving one way to get to where we wanted to explore/shop), Saturday we stayed at the cabin working on our projects and watched movies/listened to a book and came home on Sunday.

This year, we are doing pretty much the same but have rented a cabin a little closer to where we want to be and have a friend joining us.  Mom plans to work on a rug hooking project she started a couple years ago, Charlene will work on a plastic canvas tissue box and I will be working on all the lovelies in the photo (which will hopefully trim down my WIPs).

For those curious (and so I have a list to make sure I bring all the patterns):

1. Towel holder: weave in ends
2. Pumpkin mat: weave in ends and add border
3. Tan ribbed scarf: weave in ends
4. Towel holder: figure out pattern
5. Aunt B's Pioneer Braid shawl: start 2nd braid
6. Green doily with cream edging: weave in ends
7. Paw Track Socks: fix tight cuff of 
8. Pioneer Braid Scarf: cast on and work first 3 braids (so I know what I'm doing on #5)
9. DDs 2nd sock: cast on
10. Mom's double knit pine tree mittens
11. Baby sweater: add button and weave in ends
12. Dishcloth: weave in ends
13. Baby sweater: add button and weave in ends
14. Green star afghan: weave in ends
15. Linda's Wildflower sock: cast on
16. Caliometry: add button and weave in ends

I debated about bringing 1 or 2 big projects or just items that needed to be finished and compromised on both. It seems like a lot but with 9 of the 16 projects requiring buttons/ends woven in, they should go fast leaving me ample time to concentrate on the other 7 projects.  Friday we will be stopping at Sutter's so there will be an opportunity to buy more yarn in case I run out of things to do...

What did you do this weekend?

You know how you get to work on Monday after the weekend and your co-worker asks, whatcha do this weekend?  My short answer would be took a knitting class, attended a birthday party and ran some errands.  Well here is the long answer.


Saturday I took the  Beaded Knitting Workshop at The Cat and Crow.  There is definitely something to be said about reading and doing versus having live demonstration and working on methods with someone there to answer your questions.  This class was excellent preparation for the Moebius Cowl class I'll be taking on Wednesday to which beads will be added to it.  In the afternoon, I attended an 80th birthday party for my best friend's mother. They had done a lovely DVD of pictures of Gloria and family/friends and lots of signing as they are a very musical family.


On Sunday, my brother and I ran a few errands.  First we went to Stoughton to drop off the large ball winder for one of the Wednesday night crew.  From there, we went on to Penzey's Spices and Vom Foss-very cool places if you have need of spices/oil/vinegar and like to cook.  Then on to Mounds (have to stop at a pet store when my dog is along), Michael's, World Market (take my advice DO NOT buy the peach salsa, blech!), and then Shopko.  


Once back at home, I took pictures of the items I'm going to take up north for crafting weekend coming up and recent yarn purchases (have to keep my Ravelry stash up to date) and worked on some blogs and then finally some knitting!!  


The size 6 needles are in the process of being liberated from the mittens (they are needed for Wednesday's class).  I'm casting off the mittens using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off so far it seems stetchy enough but will have to decide if in future I will need to go down a needle size like others have mentioned.


...and that is what I did this weekend.  Wishing you a lovely week!