Our First Retreat...

Our first retreat has come and gone. But the memories will last for a long time. We had a wonderful time...and had beautiful weather. I knew we were in the right place when I saw the spinning wheel that they had displayed above the stairs.

Upon arriving each person found a goody bag on their bed. I searched high and low for just the perfect fabric and then gave it to Mimi. She and a friend of hers turned the fabric into this adorable pyramid bag. I then embellished each bag with their name or initials and a red yarn ball stitch marker.

They also got a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky and a pattern to make these cute "Duffers"...a quick and easy 19 row felted slippers pattern. We'll be getting some Lamb's Pride Bulky in stock in the near future.

After eating our supper of homemade chili and my Granny's corn muffins, Kristina gave a workshop on beading. We made this cute little beaded pin cushion. I'm going to put mine in the spare bedroom and put my T-pins in it for blocking.

Saturday morning we feasted on scrambled eggs, bacon & sausage, homemade biscuits & gravy and cinnamon apples from Miss Lily's. Then Mimi taught a workshop on her Bella Cell Phone Pouch. Here's a photo of some of the finished cases. Aren't they cute!

I made mine a little shorter since I have an older phone. Embellishing them was the really fun part! I might have to make some of these for Christmas gifts this coming year.

Ater a short break we had a lunch of chicken salad croissants, glazed fruit salad, & chips. Then for Saturday afternoon we had free time to do whatever we wanted. Some folks stayed at the tables and continued working on their projects while others went hiking or went out on the porches and enjoyed the warm sunshine Some folks even went and took a quick nap. Can you guess which one I chose to do?? If you guessed a nap, then you would be right. But I did get out in the sunshine a while before my nap.

After our break Lisa did a workshop on Knitting Tips. She did a great job of showing how you could change patterns to work best with your body shape. I think a lot of folks learned some new ways to improve their projects.

For supper we enjoyed some homemade Lasagna with a tossed salad and french bread. And then we had birthday cake in celebration of Mimi's birthday (which was on Monday). After cleaning up from supper we had a Fashion Show where everyone got to show off their knitted and crocheted items. And then they got to pick one of the door prizes. We have some amazing vendors that sent us door prizes for our retreat. Thank you Mango Moon, Classic Elite, Shaune Bazner, Cascade, Brown Sheep & Hiya-Hiya for the wonderful prizes you sent. We were able to have just enough so that everyone got a door prize. Following the fashion show, we did our gift exchange. You either got to pick a wrapped gift...or "steal" someone else's already opened gift. Folks had no second thoughts on stealing my gifts as I got them stolen from me THREE times. But I think in the end everyone had a lot of fun and there was much laughter.

Here are some photos of the folks enjoying sitting on the porch and knitting...Mavis & Kelora.

Roz & Melinda...

Beverly, Lisa & Marilyn...


Paula & Peggy...

Merriam, Tara & Melissa...


Kristina & Wendy...


Betty & Patti...


Linda, Leigh & Mimi...

Unfortunately, Donna had to leave early, so I didn't get her photo. :-(

Sunday morning came early with light showers of sporadic rain. We all packed up and left our retreat with smiles on our faces...and less knots in our back thanks to our massage therapist, Tara. Tara worked hard all weekend giving chair massages to each person. We hope to see more of her as she has begun taking a Weekly Class.

It was a fun weekend and we hope to make this an annual event. If you missed our retreat this year, then I hope you'll plan on coming to our next one.

Kristina took some more photos that you can see here.