Rejuvenated

Happy March everyone!  I was on a knitting retreat last weekend that I hosted here in San Antonio and got much knitting done.  Unfortunately, it was not much knitting done on my Sedgemoore.  One of my knitting buddies is doing the Masterclass with me and she did finish her Sedgemoore while on the retreat.  She seamed her cardi and showed it off sans buttons.  That was her next adventure, finding the perfect buttons to go along with her Knit Pick's City Tweed in a lovely almost charcoal grey color.  Well done Akaemi!

The 1st San Antonio Fiber Retreat (SAFR for short) was very sucessful!  I learned a lot about organizing the retreat, what needs wrinkles ironed out and what to continue to do that went right.  I've asked my retreat group on Ravelry for their feed back via polls, private messages, and opinions in the threads.  The responses I've gotten have been useful and helpful as well as insightful.  There will certainly be a 2nd Annual SAFR in 2015 and the owners of our site asked if I'd consider doing a fall retreat using their site.  The Fall Retreat is going to have to take some long consideration because we have 2 major fiber events close to San Antonio that go on during October and November and then there's the holidays shortly thereafter.  Much thinking to do on holding the retreat 2 times a year.

The weekend was beautiful.  The weather cooperated and we had warm, sunny days so we could sit outside knitting and chatting.  The evenings were cool and Saturday night we sat around the fire pit knitting, chatting, and having s'mores.  It was wonderful for me to be "Unplugged" for a little over 48 hours.  From about noon on Friday, all day Saturday, and until about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, I was sans internet, Facebook, television, and for the most part, phone service.  And you know what?  I really didn't miss being plugged into everything.  It was relaxing and rejuvenating.  It was a good time sharing the fellowship 16 other women who share the love of the fiber arts.  It didn't matter if we were spinners, knitters, crocheters, or weavers; the tie that held us together was our love for fibers slipping between our fingers and creating something wonderful from those various threads.  It is a metaphor for the circle of life, only in the case, the circle is more like a spider's web, all lacey and intricately woven of wool, bamboo, cotton, alpaca, mohair, angora, or anyone of a multitude of other fibers that we choose to work with.  To paraphrase Frank Herbert in his novel Dune, "Fiber is Life.  Fiber must flow."

While I'm not working on Sedgemoore, I am knitting and honing my skills.  I must be crazy because I've cast on 2 lace shawls in one day.  This past Tuesday evening I sat in my knitting chair and cast on 2 lace projects while catching up on my DVR'd shows from the 3 day technology hiatus.  One is the Mystery Knit along (MKAL) hosted by one of my favorite shawl designers, SusannaIC, who is also a good friend and attended the retreat last weekend.  The other is the Leaf Lace Shawl (LLS) which is a wedding gift for a dear friend.  Since the MKAL has clues released weekly, it's possible to knit on that for only a short time, then pick up LLS and work on it.  I have a month to finish LLS, but I'm pretty confident I can do that.

Sedgemoore is going to languish while I finish LLS, then I'll pick it back up and work on it some more.  I'm in no hurry to finish my Masterclass on a strict schedule.  I want to learn at my own pace and rushing to a finish line is not my style.  So until the next post...

Knit on, knit lots, knit well and always, keep smiling because it makes people wonder what you're up to!

XO, Peg