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Original Patterns: Understated, with Beeswax Knitter Extraordinaire: Shannon (Ravelry Profile) Mods: Added the honeycomb textured stitch from Beeswax to the bottom of the Understated pullover. Shannon also adjusted the neckline, and made great notes on her modifications on her project page, here. What Makes This Awesome: So many amazing things to love about this sweater-

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My Favourite Articles and Links This Week The only question you need to ask yourself when trying to figure out if you want to take (or stay) in a job. These crocheted shoes are mind blowing. A very interesting read- a christian man writing about how men need to support women in fighting for their

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As some of you know, a record-breaking 15 tornadoes hit this region on Memorial Day. Winds up to 170 mph caused such extensive damage, some areas were completely decimated. 

If you've never experienced a tornado or seen the aftermath, it's difficult to imagine. In a matter of minutes, people are injured or dead. Homes, apartments, businesses, shopping centers, eateries, schools, government facilities, and houses of worship are leveled. Roads are blocked with trees and debris. Power lines are down. Cell towers are gone. In our area, the primary water distribution system was so damaged, it was shut down. 

To add insult to injury, a week of rain and storms contributed to the damage and caused significant delays. Cleanup is underway, but recovery and rebuilding are going to be long, drawn out and grueling. 

To help with that effort, I'm running a quick sale to fund a donation for tornado relief. All you have to do is purchase one or more patterns in my shop. You'll save 25% and do some good at the same time, since all proceeds will go to local agencies assisting families with recovery and rebuilding. This offer lasts through Saturday, June 8 (EDT).


If you want to browse patterns or read more about them before you buy, click here to go to the Patterns page.

If you want to buy now, click the link below and it will take you directly to my Ravelry pattern shop: 

   Pattern Sale | Save 25% on any pattern through Saturday, June 8 (EDT).
   No coupon required. Sale price will automatically be applied at checkout.
   All proceeds will be donated for tornado relief efforts.

My family and friends were lucky, everyone emerged shaken but unscathed. Many others weren't so lucky, so let me thank you in advance, your support is greatly appreciated. 


PS: It's true. An approaching tornado sounds exactly like a runaway train heading straight for you at top speed.

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Original Pattern: Enchanted Mesa Knitter Extraordinaire: 1sunnygrl (Ravelry profile) Mods: Adjusted the customizable pattern to make it longer, using short rows before the brioche border to create a high-low headline. I made it longer than the pattern and I used short rows before the brioche border to give a high-low hemline. Details on her project

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My Favourite Articles and Links This Week Why you should start binge reading right now. I have to agree, binge reading, especially books that tend to fall into the ‘beach read’s category are a snap to read in a day. Time travelling to the future is exhausting – why big projects feel so BIG. How

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Gosh it’s been awhile! How has your May been? I can’t believe that the end of school is coming up soon. In just a few more weeks the kid will be graduating from junior high. Right now we are busy with field trips & other end of school celebrations, plus transition meetings for high school. High school!!! I am so not ready!!! Can’t wait until summer vacation starts & we can sleep in a little. I love the slower pace of summertime here on the island.

I have already started making some fun knitting plans for the summer. This year has seen a major focus on using up the stash. I’ve been knitting up a storm on the garment front but will wait to share that with you on the next post. Today I want to talk about my newest obsession: shortie socks! They are such great projects for leftover partial skeins of fingering weight yarn. All of the following were knit on 2.25mm needles & 64 stitches:

Design line by Arne & Carlos :: summer night
The above pair was my first attempt. I wasn’t sure how long to knit the cuff/leg so I went with 10 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 10 rounds of stockinette before knitting the fish lips kiss heel. Not bad for the first go round.

West Yorkshire Spinners :: peacock
I decided to increase the cuff length on the next pair: 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 10 rounds of stockinette. Better fit but still not perfect.

Knitpicks Felici :: jamboree
Third time’s a charm! 15 rounds of 2x2 ribbing followed by 15 rounds of stockinette. The fit is just the way I like it. Now that I’ve hit on my perfect shortie formula, there’s a bunch of colorful felici sock yarn in the stash just waiting to be cast on!

Before I sign off today, I want to thank you for visiting! I really appreciate the fact that you take time out of your busy lives to read my oftentimes jumbled ramblings. Have a wonderful start to your summer!

Warning: I have tried to make this shorter. It didn’t work.  Hi. It’s me.

Over the last two years, I’ve made a commitment to PWA and the Bike Rally, that amongst other things, has meant that I was the Co-Chair last year, and (in a stunning turn of events) made me the sole Chair this year.  There’s been a lot of fallout from that – not the least of which is that my house has never been more trashed, my blog never more neglected, my friends and family have never needed to be more steadfast in their support as I’ve needed more handholding (both literal and figurative) as I’ve tried so hard to move forward through this challenge. It’s been difficult for everyone – especially Joe, as he’s needed to work extra hard to make up for the shortfall in my income as I’ve essentially taken a leave of absence to direct my energy towards the Rally and its success, and dude has done more dishes than he really bargained for. (Thanks buddy. You’re the best.)

I couldn’t have predicted that it would be like this. I knew a lot about what challenges lay ahead when I decided to take it on, but I didn’t know that destiny had a few curve balls to throw my way – who could have guessed, for example, that my Mum, my biggest help, supporter and longtime lightpost would be forced out of existence just a few days after I took it on, and that I’d navigate this whole thing while trying to manage my grief, the grief of my family, that it would be compounded by the loss of Susan shortly after, or the reconfiguration of everything that followed.  It has been complicated.

I will no longer be the Chair of the Bike Rally in 80 days. Increasingly, I find myself doubling down, working even harder, saying to myself that if you’re going to make a commitment, a sacrifice, that it should be absolutely worth it,  and that if this hard thing was worth doing, it is worth doing well, and so every day I send emails and wrangle a hardworking Steering Committee and navigate the Board and volunteers and worry about training rides for everyone else and worry about my own 50 year old body making it through training and I am consumed with concern about whether or not  everyone is safe and worry that this effort- investing in the sustaining fundraiser for PWA will fail to sustain them if I don’t get and keep my s**t together… and Blog, I feel like I can say this to you because we are so close… it has been scary and hard and I hope I am the right person to be in charge because so many people are counting on me for their very lives and worse….

I have started a countdown. Any minute of any day you can ask me how long it is until the Bike Rally safely arrives in Montreal, and I can tell you how many days, hours and minutes it is until that happens, and WORSE I have begun thinking of that moment, the minute that the responsibility for this transfers to some other brave soul, as the moment that I get my life back.

Today I had an epiphany (which is a word that sounds like Stephanie and I have always liked it for that.)

This is my life.

I am not waiting to get it back. This is my one wild and precious trip around the earth, and I know that when my Mum died, nobody could have been more surprised than she was. I know for a fact that she thought she had more time. That she was going to clean out her junk drawer, get the basement sorted, make a more time for more people, do even better in contributing to charities, and that when she left me, she was not done. Not by a long shot- and I realized that I don’t want to keep thinking about the days that I spend on this as a weird period I’m going through that will result in my real-life coming back. This is real life.

This is a world where every day you have just that day to make a difference, and here’s what I’ve learned about the Bike Rally, and the people who take part in it – They have all decided to give a voice to those that can’t be heard loudly enough.  Increasingly, as we get a grip on HIV/AIDS, it is those that are privileged that reap the greatest benefits. Those with access to healthcare, money, homes and support are living longer and better lives. On the other side, people who don’t have those things (women, children, immigrants, indigenous people, refugees, those struggling with mental illness and addiction) fall farther under the wheel, and need our defence.  (I will quietly state that much of the current political climate does little to help these people and families and leave it there.)

So- here I am, late (because the state of my inbox means that I am late to everything right now) asking for your help. Once again, Team Knit will ride for the Rally, and for people who need us, and we’re going to ask you to do what you can. This year Team Knit is:

Me

Ken

Cameron

Pato

Once again, I’m going to try and raise a ton of money, and like last year, I have a private and deeply personal crazy-pants goal. To this end,  we’re going to do Karmic Balancing gifts again, because I think I can answer that many emails. (I hope I am not wrong.) As often as I can between now and the Rally, I’ll choose from amongst the people who’ve helped and redirect a knitterly (or spinnerly) gift from someone else who wants to help.*

It’s going to be all about the Karma – just like we try to make it every year. We’re trying to change lives here, make things better for some people, and there’s so much more to that than money, so, here’s the thing. If you donate to anyone on our little family team then please send me an email letting me know you’ve done so. Make the subject line “I helped” and send it to stephanieATyarnharlotDOTca. (Note the .ca it’s a Canada thing.) Include your name, address, and whether or not you spin.  (For the love of all things woolly, please use the subject line. It makes your email go to a specific folder and you have no idea what a difference that makes to my sanity.) You don’t need to say what you gave, or include proof. I know you’ll do your best, whatever that is, and I know you wouldn’t lie. (If you’ve already given this year, obviously you should send an email.)

Now, we know not everyone has money to help with – so we’re taking all kinds of help.  If you can figure out some other way to do that, that counts.  Maybe you can tell a friend. Maybe you can post about it to social media. Maybe you can forward the email to people in your family who will give…  There’s lots and lots of ways to help, and if you can figure out a way? Send that email, letting me know you did. No money needed. (Of course, money is always good too, and even the smallest gifts make a big difference.)

*If you want to contribute a gift, I’m trying to make it easier -I have a better shot at getting it all done if you do this: Take a picture of your gift. Email me with the subject line “Karmic Balancing” with the details, picture and a link, if you want me to use one. When one of the helpers is chosen for a gift, I’ll email you the address, and you can ship it right to them. (It’s not a bad idea to let me know if you have shipping restrictions –  I’ll keep track.) I’ll try to get through them all, though it can be overwhelming. Thank you!

Finally, I know that many of you will lovingly speak of self-care to me right now. Know that I hear you, and that I’m doing it, while knowing that self-care isn’t anything without community care, and that we all have a responsibility to create the world we want. This last weekend I didn’t just ride my bike 80km, answer a million emails and try to be a good mother and grandmother, I also gratefully watched while Joe made dinner, told Ken all about everything hard and lay helplessly on Cameron’s couch after a marathon meeting while he plied me with wine and told me what a great job I’m doing, and we worked on his knitting, and mine, and I thought about how this is my one trip. I can’t wait for when I get my life back. This is my life.

I’d love your help.

Another pair of socks finished. I tell you, this phase where I’m working all the time and on the go so much means that it’s sock-o-rama in these parts. Easy to pick up and put down, easy to plow through in meetings, no patterns, easy to knit and walk… wait, hold on, I have to make sure the baby is still asleep…

Yes. He’s still out like a light. I’ve got to keep an eye out, he’s my responsibility for a while today, and I’ve got a perfect safety record I don’t want to screw up when some flighty toddler rolls himself off a chesterfield. Anyway, as I  was saying…

All done, one pair of plain vanilla socks, another contribution to the long-range-planning box.  These ones are Gauge Dye Works again (I swear I’m only a little obsessed with that yarn) in a colourway called Azurite B. (Naturally sold out, since I’ve had this one in the stash for a bit.)

I love this style of sock yarn- it’s cabled. Not the kind of cabled knitters think of but spinner-cabled, which means that if you peer at the yarn,  it looks like a tightly plied 4-ply yarn.  Upon closer inspection, each ply is actually a 2-ply which is very exciting indeed (if you are a yarn person. I admit – after conducting several experiments that ordinary people seem less into this.) When it comes to yarn, twist is glue. In cabled yarns, the fact that each ply has two contributors to the twist pile means these yarns are stronger than you’d expect and handle abrasion really, really well.  A tightly plied 4-ply cabled yarn holds up far better than 4 tightly plied singles. (Which again, is a very interesting sentence to most of us, and I assure you isn’t anything you should bring up at neighbourhood barbecues, even if someone seems to be interested in your knitting at the outset.)  Short story – it’s a good formula for sock yarn.

In related news, there were leftovers,

so now Bunny has a skirt and sweater set, and I am only slightly concerned that this latest bunny outfit charmed me as much as the first.

There is no end in sight with the bunny stuff. I couldn’t stop if I tried.

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Right now I’m on an airplane and flying to London for work, so this seems like a good time to tell you- I went back to a full time job. This was brewing in 2018, and I referenced it in my reflection on the freelance life in this blog post, talking about what I wish

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Original Pattern: Birds and Bikes Knitter Extraordinaire: Jennie (Ravelry Profile) Mods: The original design features mostly pigeons with a few bikes in the charted design – Jennie changed that so it was ALL bikes. Details and some helpful chart mods (for those front facing bikes!) can be found on her project page, here. What Makes

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My May socks are done, done last week, actually, and it makes me feel pretty heroic that this little plan of mine is coming together so well.  I’ve been so busy lately that I’m surprised anything is working out, but I had a bunch of travel time and voila! The Self-Imposed Sock Club – May installment.  (This, of course, is not a finished sock.  I just love this picture a lot.)

Here are finished socks.  The pattern’s Saxe Point…

The yarn’s one of the amazing schemes dreamed up by Catherine at Gauge Dye Works.  (I have spoken at length for my weakness for both this person and her yarn, and this remains unchanged. She’s lovely.) The colourway was called French Beach, though it looks like it’s sold out – but it has been for ages. Things come, things go- though I wish this one would come back. It’s possible to make these socks without that yarn so I guess it’s not really tragic, just not the world as I would have it. (Catherine if you are listening I want the Saxe Point one back more if I get to choose but any of them would be good and I don’t want to seem picky ok cool.)  I knit these as written except for two things – first, I prefer to knit my socks top down, so I reversed the pattern, and mine match, because while Andrea Rangel is very nice and obviously clever, I can’t handle her wild mismatching scene. While I have grown as a person and can now tolerate mismatching socks (for other people mostly) I still love the deep satisfaction of matching socks up to the very stitch. Mine do.

I had leftovers this time, so like last time, the bunny (still genderless, still nameless, preferred pronouns, Megan has informed me are them and they) has another outfit.

I pulled out the colours I needed from the self-striping leftovers. There were more ends to weave in, but it was pretty damned satisfying.

The sweater? I can give you an update.  You know that voice you hear when there’s something wrong with your knitting, and you can feel it? It starts to tell you that something’s not right, and then we all keep knitting for another few days (or a week) while we try to ignore the voice, even though we all know the voice is right. The voice is almost always right.  Usually the voice I hear whispers about the size of things, and this time was no exception. For a few days (okay a week) the voice has told me the sweater is too small, though my washed swatch said it would be okay. “LIES” the voice screamed. “Keep the faith” the swatch told me.

This morning I couldn’t stand it anymore and washed and blocked the sweater in progress, and compared it to a sweater I like for fit, and guess what?

Plot twist, it’s completely fine. This time the voice was a skanky liar, and the swatch was telling the truth.  I tell you, I could live to be a hundred and knitting will never make total sense to me.

I’ll finish it when it’s  dry.

Our weather has been all over the place. Gray and gloomy. Violent and stormy. Cold and damp. The occasional mild, sunny and inviting days have been so rare, it's clearly time to take matters into my own hands.

When this lovely yarn (Valley Yarns Charlemont) went on sale, the cosmic timing was too perfect to resist. I'm going to knit the rainbow.

I've worked with this yarn before (Dojeling Wineberry wrap), and it has a nice hand, soft sheen and wide range of colors. It also has a healthy 439 yards per skein, so the six skeins below offer loads of options.


While I've not yet decided on a specific design or pattern, I'm certain of one thing. This yarn is destined to become a shawl or wrap, because next to fingerless mitts, they're the handknits I wear most often. In this yarn weight and fiber mix (merino, silk and nylon), the finished piece would be the ideal weight for spring, summer and fall.

Even better, when back-to-back gray days become too much to bear, I can wrap myself in a rich, vibrant rainbow and chase the gloom away. 


Want to see more posts on rainbow knits? Click here and your wish will come true.

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My Favourite Articles and Links This Week Habits of lucky people. Um, pigeons are really smart and absolutely awesome. This British orchid is under round-the-clock guard at a secret location. How to untangle your mind with a brain dump. Adorable hamster butts. My Favourite Pins This Week I love this idea for a simple but

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Original Pattern: Tecumseh Knitter Extraordinaire: Sarah (Ravelry Profile) Mods: Knitted slightly smaller sleeves, steeked the pullover into a cardigan and then added buttons! Details are on her project page, here. What Makes This Awesome: I’ve seen lots of beautiful Tecumseh sweaters, but doesn’t it look so AMAZING in cardigan form?! I love Sarah’s cardigan version,

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My Favourite Articles and Links This Week This 2D cafe in Korea is mind blowing. How to build more curiosity into your life. The antidote to armouring up is to stay curious. Here are some amazing question ideas for getting curious instead of defensive, from Brene Brown. Starbucks, Dunkin’, and McDonald’s are trying to find

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This year’s winter was long. Long and cold and snowy, and spring feels like it hasn’t bothered to arrive. Sure, the flowers are starting to bloom, there’s crocus up in my garden (though it’s snowed on the poor little things a few times) and my neighbours have scilla and in a few glorious and sheltered spots there is evan a daffodil or two, but they are blooming in chilly temperatures and grey weather, barely above freezing. Spring isn’t a warm and lovely thing this year, at least not yet. (I hear from Torontonians that the weather changed the minute I left. That feels a bit personal.)

As I was waiting for the bus last week, freezing my arse off because I’d done that spring thing where you put on a spring jacket because you can’t stand to wear a winter coat for one more day even though it’s only three degrees out… I snapped. It suddenly seemed to me that if it was still going to be cold and maybe snowing and definitely not spring or warm, that we (Joe and I, he was the willing victim of this last plan) should give up and dive in. If it is going to be winter still, then dammit, winter it shall be, so we got on a plane and headed to Banff.

It is definitely still winter here – complete with a snowstorm and perfect skiing conditions and Joe and I are working in the evenings and early mornings, but spending our days on the slopes, and maybe when we get back home, it will be *(%$^&&ing spring, but that’s not what I came to tell you. I thought you’d care more about the knitting I packed, so here’s a quick tour. I brought four (4) projects for a six (6) day trip. (Two of them are travel days though, so you know. Reasonable.)

1. My May socks. They’re Saxe Point, knit in French River from Gauge Dye Works – the yarn’s dyed just for the pattern. I knit the first one on the way here, casting off as we left the house, and grafting the toe shut as we sat down to dinner here in Banff. I’ll knit the other on the way home, I think. (I documented that knitter trip on Instagram, if anybody wants to see the blow by blow.) We leave in the morning, and I’ll cast on then and see if I can repeat the trick.

2. We’re taking the bus to the hill everyday, and I needed some plain knitting for kicking around the ski hill, so here’s another one: Just a plain vanilla pair of socks the basic pattern I keep in my head, yarn is Gauge DyeWorks again (huh, just realized I grabbed two of those) in Azurite B.

I don’t think I’ll finish these on this trip, they’ll probably kick around my bag for a few more weeks, being the socks I knit when I’ve only got a minute, or it’s dark out.

3. When I was at the Knitter’s Frolic last week, I had the strangest experience. You know, I really like to knit and wear pretty plain clothes. I like classics, my taste runs in the direction of Amish, and I like tame colours like brown so much I need to occasionally check that I’m not dressing like I work for UPS. You could have knocked me over with a feather then, when I was at the Fair at the Feisty Fibres booth, and she had some yarn that she’d worked up in collaboration with The Yarn Therapist.

Neat, right? The self-striping yokes come from The Yarn Therapist, and then Feisty Fibres makes the co-ordinating solids, and voila. They’re a lot like the self-striping sweater yarn from Gauge Dyeworks, except separate, so I really am rocking a theme this week.) I picked up those skeins there, and then was absolutely stunned when someone next to me asked who I was making a sweater for, and I said “Me.” The colours are a bit bright for me (if by “a bit” you understand that that these are a bit bright the way that Pepe Le Pew is a little bit of a poster child for sexual harassment) and I’m not sure I can wear the resulting sweater, but I’m going to try. I really love it. Since the yarn is bold, the pattern is very plain. Knitting Pure and Simple’s Neckdown Cardigan for Women. Nothing to it.

I’m at the bottom of the body, just about to do the ribbing (or maybe garter stitch, I’m a wild animal, it could be anything) and I think I’ll likely finish this sweater pretty fast. It’s all coming together. (It remains to be seen if I can wear something this bright, but it turns out I can knit it, so that’s step one.)

4. This one’s a bit of sad story. I had every intention of knitting Sea Tangles (that’s Habu’s stainless steel/wool thread) but it’s not working out. I still love it, the pattern is great and I’m still going to knit it, but I have to admit (after knitting the whole front and part of the back – knitter optimism is a terrible thing) that I am definitely not knitting the right size, and I need to start over. I brought this one along just to rip it out, but there’s one project on every trip that I never touch, and this one is it. All the attention it has had is this photo, poor thing.

Maybe next week Habu. Maybe next week.

For better or worse, my binge swatching streak has continued. It's not that swatching isn't productive, it is. But couple that with a fondness for color play and what-if scenarios, and a full-blown obsession can't be far behind.

In other words, I'm still preoccupied with the syncopated slipped rib stitch in all its forms. It handled the highly variegated Happy Feet so well, I found myself scouring the stash for similar short-print yarns. Eventually, I discovered a single skein of Panda Cotton (Crystal Palace), which rapdily cycles through several shades of blue punctuated with a stretch of black. 


Since one key to taming busy variegateds is to add a closely related solid, I first tried pairing Panda with black Tajmahal (Filatura Cervinia). This combo created interrupted stripes, a look I initially didn't care for, but it's grown on me. I can see how over the course of a larger piece, the irregular stripes could make a simple shawl or cowl dynamic and visually interesting. Working the variegated Panda with a solid blue (Zaffiro by Madril Yarns), minimized pooling but caused the vertical stripes to virtually disappear.

I could've cheerfully continued working through every variegated yarn in the stash, but decided instead to experiment with some color blocking. I've always loved purple and red together, so I combined black (Tajmahal) with violet Aspen (Baah) and burgundy Charlemont (Valley Yarns). The slipped stitches produce an interesting notched or serrated transition from one color to the next, an effect I rather like.

And therein lies the problem. From jewel tones to neutrals, my stash is filled with many lovely skeins that might lend themselves to this technique, which means my fingers are itching to start (yet another) series of swatches.

Perhaps it's time for an intervention.

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Patterns: Blue Hour Sweater and Colors for a Cloudy Day Knitter Extraordinaire: krumel (Ravelry Profile) Mods: Combined the details of the Blue Hour Sweater for the top of the dress and the cloudy day, lengthened the body and added the curved hem of Colors on a Cloudy Day, without the colours. Details can be found

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My Favourite Articles and Links This Week Gorgeous ideas for styling grocery store / corner store flowers. 11 of the most beautiful libraries in the world. These good riddance gifs are all kinds of awesome. Peggy is my fave. Every single way to cook an egg, in a single video.  My Favourite Pins This Week

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Here we are, the first of May, and last night I squeaked my April socks in under the wire.  The Self-Imposed-Sock-Club continues to go really pretty well – I stuck the landing in January, February, March and now – boom. April’s socks were finished on time too. A small confession though – I didn’t pull a bag from the Sock Club for these ones.  I’d done that, gone and gotten a bag – I wound the yarn and everything, and then I was at the DFW Fiber Fest and I was in the Must Stash Yarn Booth and I saw the Ready Player One yarn and then…

Yup. Lost it. I dropped that first yarn like it was moth-ridden trash, and these babies simply fell off the needles. I adore them, and they match my current favourite (store bought) sweater perfectly – which upsets me to no end, because I didn’t knit them in my size.  They’re too big – I have really tiny feet, and as much as I wanted these to be for me, I knew that it wasn’t a good fit. That colourway has 32 stripes, and I know I don’t have enough foot length to showcase it. They’re in the long-range planning box now, and someone will be rather happy come Christmas, I predict.

I didn’t use a pattern, just banged them out as a plain tube, with a half round of waste yarn knit in where I wanted the heel to be.  When I was done knitting the foot, I went back, unpicked the yarn, and knit a heel in. (Well, technically I knit in a toe. They’re the same.) I’d call it an Afterthought Heel, but I feel like if you plan one then maybe you can’t say that. I did rig the heels and toes a little bit, pulling out a bit of yarn here and there to keep the stripes equidistant as the number of stitches in a round changed, because I can be picky like that, and I’d rather weave in extra ends than not have them stripe perfectly, all the way to the ends.

Also, I knit the leftovers into a frock for the bunny and I love it almost as much as the socks. I don’t see this bunny clothes thing really wearing off.

That will be all.

(PS. It took almost as long to take those pictures – dashing from the camera to the chesterfield while trying to keep things in focus -as it did to knit the dress, except for the collar. That was %$&ing fiddly.)

(PPS. There’s a few spots suddenly free at our Strung Along June Retreat.  June is the one we call “Knit, Play, Cook” and it’s a day of knitting classes with me and Debbi Stone, a day of dyeing with Judith MacKenzie, and a day of cooking classes with Chef Dan and his team. There’s details here – drop us a line if you’d like to join us. This is, by the way, the only retreat we do each year that’s for knitters – no spinning skills required, and knitters (and cooks) of all levels will do just fine.)