I have a small compliment of pictures of the very cheery participants, but my camera did not come out till Sunday morning, and most of us were in our jammies. The jammies that completely stole my heart were the cardinal red snowman jammies with a close second, the knitting sheep jammies. I confess I dressed, but only because my jammies are of the definitely not for company and just squeaking by for home variety. I'll shall have to work on that for next year!
Though we call it a knitting retreat, it really doesn't matter what so long as you like fibre and handwork. One of the ladies was making a braided rug. Though I have not pictures of it, it was gorgeous. The fibre was interesting, thick wool strips that almost looked as if they were knit and then felted. The edges did not look fresh cut, and yet... It was a very interesting project.
Our usual complement of spinners was there.
A weekend like this would be such a great place to try out different kinds of wheels but I just love to watch. Its so interesting watching the different wheels and so many different ways of looking at spinning. The reasons why we spin are as varied as the product we produce and the fiber we were spinning with. Some of us spin to know the yarn, some of us spin because when we found spinning, we found the things our hands most need to do. There was my beginner trials and masterful 3 ply sock yarn that was so pretty that it almost made you cry on seeing it and a whole range in between of yarns for every sort of project, thick ones thin ones, loosely spun to be tightly plied, tightly spun to be loosely plied. So many styles, so many interesting perceptions.
I took along my lace flyer and the mighty little queen. The wheel and I are getting better acquainted all the time, but the flyer and I have a ways to go. It really made a difference. Instantly finer yarn, but with that, came the challenges of trying to sort out the best brake setting and sorting out my drafting to match it all. Timing has never been my strong suit and it just zipped along. I was close, but I think before I spin up more that fine fine soft green from Abbotsford, I think I want to practise on some plain stuff. It will be interesting to see what I can do with a fine shetland and the lace flyer.
I had thought I packed another fiber to spin, but when I arrived, my bag was suspiciously empty of choices. So much for packing only what you need. Next time, I am going to pack everything and the kitchen sink. I will keep some of the supplementary material in the car but it will be close enough to get at.
I did knit, some on the lace, and some on the socks. I did have a fair bit of advancing on the socks but I will save that for tomorrow.
The only bad thing about weekends like that is that they end. At the same time, if we did it all the time, we would forget that it was special, and we would not take such joy in it. So I will take away the weekends lessons and joys and keep those things close to my heart and soul and will look forward to doing it again next spring.
Really really looking forward to next spring. I will wait for it as eagerly as a kid waits for Christmas and with about as much patience.
No comments:
Post a Comment