Sunday 1 August 2010

Different Views of Toodyay - Queen's Birthday Long Weekend (June 5-7, 2010) - Part 2

To contrast with the previous post, on the first weekend of June the lovely HelenG and AnnL of Knitting Inspirations held their annual knitting retreat at Avalon Homestead in Toodyay.  Husband Perry rode the distance to Toodyay while I took everything else in the big car with my bike in the back - a great splitting of workload I thought.  I got to spend a little longer in town doing a few things I had deferred for far too long and then a weekend knitting - no downsides there at all.

We had a number of things planned into our weekend - a workshop on top down knitting, planning a sweater - how to change yarns and deal with differing gauge, knitting with beads and finishing techniques.  We had a yarn market on Friday afternoon and a parade of FOs (Finished Objects) before dinner that evening.  Saturday night was to be a pyjama party and on Sunday, lunch was planned at Pecan Hill, a short walk from the homestead.  I had asked attendees who would be interested in a bike ride to Rivermist Alpacas, about 18km away on the Northam-Toodyay Road.  A group of six including Perry and myself were to ride.

Evenings following dinner were taken up with the knit-a-long (KAL) for Ann's new top down pattern or finishing the never-ending stream of WIPs (works in progress) that seem to accumulate around the house.  I had at least six to eight going from scarves to socks and cardigans.  Much wine was consumed and chocolate was seen at various points around the 'comfy chair' room.  The coffee machine was also well patronised.  All fibre-y things were in evidence - spinning, knitting, crochet and also tapestry plus a bit of weaving on the gotta-have-it-now miniloom.

I managed to cast on and finish a cabled beanie on the Saturday.  Also made progress on several other projects that I seem to just carry around lately.  I have become convinced that some are being unravelled as I sleep as no amount of knitting time is making any of them closer to being finished.