Island Knitting Retreat Pt.2

After a morning lesson with Cat, it didn't take long for most of us to decide we had to go visit the LYS, Island Wools. I, like many others, fell down hard. My two selections are dyed in the shop. Julie's Whimsical Colors on Silk Whimsy called my name. I almost was able to resist until Megan called Into The Abyss "Electric Cookie Monster Blue". Then I decided that that skein needed a friend, namely a skein of Darkened Forest.

On a slight aside, Julie currently has signed copies of Lit Knits in her shop and she does ship.

Each day was an adventure. Mornings started out with a group breakfast, followed by a lesson, then a group lunch. Then everyone would split off for their own afternoon adventure. One of the days I went with Linda, Melissa, and Susan to the Lime Kilns park to look for Orcas. We didn't see any, but we did see this cute light house. And behind it is Canada. We were so close to Canada that I ended up having to turn my cell phone data off so that I wouldn't accidentally be charged for using Canadian services.

While driving to Roche Harbor (to find Linda a rich husband.... haha) we accidentally found Krystal Acres alpaca farm and country store. Of course when I took my camera out, everyone turned around and walked away at the same time! 

Susan got tempted and bought some yarn. By the evening, we had heard that quite a few people had found Krystal Acres and left with goodies.

I am so thankful for having gotten to know so many wonderful knitters. They are my tribe. No where else can you talk about yarn with passion and not have people look at you funny.

 I had the pleasure of taking the group photo. Almost everyone is in it.

The day we left the island, Francine and Caitlin took me back to Seattle. I didn't expect to see a Washington sign as we disembarked from the ferry. As we drove by I shouted out, "We have to go back! I need a picture of the Washington sign." To which Francine replied, "A picture standing by it?" "No, jumping by it!" Thanks guys. I love that neither of you thought it was weird.

 Thanks for taking the picture, Francine

The drive back was full of good conversation, and great stops. We visited no less than three yarn shops. I managed to resist at Wildfibers (although I enabled Caitlin and Francine into some Spincycle Dyed In The Wool) Wildfibers has a sample of my Beyond The Pines shawl and it was great fun seeing it in person.

When Francine took us to Serial Knitters, I took leave of my senses and bought two skeins of Black Trillum's Pebble Sock. With names like Butterbeer and Hedwig, who could blame me? Of course if you don't understand the allure, you are clearly a Muggle.

All in all, it was a great trip. There were so many more experiences and conversations that can't even be described in this blog. I hope it isn't the last time I get to see everyone.

Island Knitting Retreat Pt.1

Earlier this month I was invited by Jim and Cat to attend Cat's Island Knitting Retreat. I'd never been to Washington, or on a sea plane, but that was about to change. After landing in Seattle, some of Jim's relatives picked us up. What a fabulous family. I thought we had a pretty good view of the Space Needle while driving. I didn't realize that the sea plane would afford us an even better one.

An hour later we landed at San Juan Island at Friday Harbor.

Thanks for the great picture, Cat!

Although not apparent in this image, I got to sit in the co-pilot seat. It was great fun!

 Thanks for getting this image, too, Cat.

Cat picked Jim and I up and we immediately set out to have a picnic on a beach. Silly me. I had packed myself a sandwich for lunch. It was completely unnecessary. We gorged ourselves.

After a few other stops, I was dropped off at Lakedale Resort. You would think that I wouldn't need a dinner after all that, but I met up with some other knitters and we went out to the Cask And Schooner. It was a pleasure getting to meet some of the people I was going to spend the rest of the week with. But by the end of the day, I was pretty pooped. I had one last look at the view from my door before passing out for the night.

Hypnoskew And The Evergrowing Stash

Well, you would think that life might slow down just a little after a wedding. But as it turns out, combining lives and stuff (well, mostly adding yarn to Connor's life) is rather time consuming. I also went on a work-ish trip last week that involved getting up around 7AM every day and passing out close to 11PM with not much time in between. Since then I have suffered a great loss. The sock I cast on the day I got married has gone missing. The yarn, the needles, the bag it was in just vanished. It's been over two weeks. I'm pretty sure it is gone forever. To console myself, I have started a Skew with the Hypnotoad yarn. I call it Hypnoskew. All hail.

I've also been knitting away at my Seadragonus sock with my Happy Go Knitty - BFL sock yarn in Forget Me Not. The pattern is by the lovely Wei Siew. Go knit a pair. It's pretty nifty.

And in between all that and more, I decided it was high time to catch up on photographing all the new stash I had acquired since the last time I had taken pictures of my stash. Bit sobering... but I love it all.

Also, it hasn't stopped me from getting a few more skeins while I was on my trip and a kit off of someone's destash on ravelry to cheer me up after the loss of my sock. Clearly, knitting the Hypnoskew has the long-lasting ability to erase any memory of buying yarn.