Knitter's Review Retreat 2008

Here's one of the things I love about knitters: we greet each other not by name, but by garment. So on the line at Port Authority for the bus to Williamstown, the initial salutation was "Clapotis!" "Wavy!". It took some time to identify my bus buddies as Vicki and Jain. 5 hour bus ride from NYC, which to me meant more knitting time. The bus stopped directly in front of the Williams Inn, the very comfy locale of this year's Knitters Review Retreat.

This was my very first retreat, and first off I must apologize to all the folks I greeted with hugs and squeals and perhaps a tad too much familiarity, but encountering all my Knitters Review Forum pals in real life was akin to attending a reunion of BFFs I'd never met. If that makes any sense. I also apologize for not taking many pictures, but I pretty much lived in the moment. So I'll write about the important stuff...what I acquired and what I ate. Above, the goody bag: a sweet, soft skein of Valley Yarns Northfield from Webs, a gorgeous skein of chocolate colored Classic Elite Fresco, a pattern for a Lorna's Laces cardigan, notecards and other goodies from the KR Boutique and...be still my heart...a limited edition size 3 Addi Turbo needle. I love presents!

I also love being in a place where someone changes my sheets and lets me commandeer the remote control and feeds me. And the Williams Inn fulfilled all of those requirements in a lovely New England setting complete with a dusting of snow on Saturday morning. The food was homey and good: big breakfast buffets with pancakes and waffles and bacon and sausage and corned beef hash (mmmm....hash....garlll) and eggs; dinner the first night was really yum pot roast and the second was a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I was happy and full. And feeling a bit guilty because knitting is not much exercise, ya know?

I managed to restrain myself in the jaw-dropping Stash Lounge since I'd lightened my suitcase by bringing stuff to leave, but I couldn't resist four skeins of this purty Aracunia Patagonia Cotton.

And the Marketplace gave up this really gorgeous bag from String Theory, Clara's very own LYS.

Of course, it's not all about the hugging and the eating and the buying...the weekend's events were wonderful. Friday night's show and tell was truly inspiring, such an amazing gathering of talented, diverse and lovely knitters. Again, I wish I could have taken photos of each and every presentation. For my Saturday morning workshop, I did 2-at-a-time socks with Melissa Morgan-Oakes, some sort of genius she is (and very funny and patient and generous with her time). Good thing she wasn't grading during class because I kind of failed, but a few frogs later I think I'm getting the hang of it:

Saturday night was spent eating and drinking (again) and finally kind of collapsing in front of the cable TV in my room. Sunday morning was for saying goodbye and casting on for a new beginning. Then it was the bus and then it was home.

I leave you with a slightly blurry photo of something that epitomizes the weekend for me: only a small portion of the tons of wonderful hats the KR Retreaters contributed to Hats with Hugs. Is it next year yet?