Well! The Purple Sock Fibre Arts Retreat is behind us, but what a time we had!!! Everything went great, from checking in to our comfy rooms to having a great "Meet & Greet"in our private lounge, with wine and cheese and treats, and of course! Goodie Bags!! Check out my new Purple Sock bags next time you are in...my favourite colour with gorgeous bright lime green printing...very cool! My vendors were very generous and the ladies "oohed" and "aahed" over al the little treats in there, yarns, needles, measuring tapes, needle holders, pattern books, all kinds of treats and treasures to welcome them to the Fibre Arts Retreat!
It was wonderful meeting everyone and seeing how people just went up and introduced themselves to the ladies they hadn't met yet. Then we headed down for supper...WOW! All I can say is that the food was fantastic! And I just love the fact that there was no shopping for food, bringing it home, cooking it, serving it or cleaning up, YUP! That worked for all of us!!We had heard that Geneva Park had terrific food....and they really do!
After supper we headed back to our private lounge and and settled into our first workshop...see the photos below! Gayle had put together an awesome kit and I bought tons of roving and embellishments and we wore our name tags throughout the whole event...it was fabulous seeing how everyone's name tag was different and how creative everyone was...I will post some more name tag photos later....
Monday morning brought more workshops, Debbe taught a hooked sunflower basket top
Tori kept her students busy with new toe up class
and I was busy teaching a lovely lace shawl...sorry, no pictures of that one!
Then came lunch, another great meal.....and workshops followed in the afternoon. Jessie taught the Tunisian crochet (photo above),and I had great fun with the girls who took the 'Learn to Spin" class...while Jan's "Body Building" class complete with duct tape brought lots of laughs to the ladies who took it....
And in between all of this, if we weren't teaching or taking a workshop, the private lounge facing the lake was there for us to sit quietly and knit or hook or just chat with new friends...and oh, the snacks! We had great dinners with two entrees each night and then as we settled into the evening, up came terrific trays of grapes and strawberries, veggies and hummus and dips....a girl could get used to this!
One of the wonderful things about hosting this "Fibre Arts Retreat" was that for "Show & Tell" on Monday night, the ladies brought the most amazing pieces! Quilts, weaving, dyed skeins of silk and cotton, knitted sweaters, felted pieces, Nuno felting, you name it, it was there! Below are just a few of the fabulous pieces that were shown:
So that was Monday evening and, all too quickly, it was Tuesday!! But more was yet to come!!
I had purchased lots of wool sweaters and felted them and Tuesdays workshop( after a luscious breakfast!) was to take a sweater and so whatever you wanted to it...create whatever! And boy did they ever! We had brought some sewing machines and Jen tucked in and used her machine to help out some of the ladies with their sewing...and Debbe and I had brought some samples of things we have made from felted sweaters and they were off to the races...out came bags and purses, a Christmas stocking, wristlets, a stuffed bunny, a hot pad, tote bags, you name it..it was created on Tuesday...check out some of the results below!
So, there you have it!! A good time was had by all, and I am thrilled with the First Annual Fibre Arts Retreat...some of the ladies are already emphasizing the "ANNUAL" part of the title, so we shall see...but thanks to one and all for signing up, for coming and for enjoying yourselves..we had a blast!!
See you soon,
Happy Knitting ( and felting and crocheting and hooking and quilting and spinning and weaving, whew...we are a busy and talented bunch!)
Lynn
