Solomons, Maryland Retreat Recap

My travel knitting for the plane.

Hi, Knitters,

First, a winner has been selected for the two Quince & Co. Doll printed pattern books: Mary, Millie & Morgan and Ben & Buddy.  And the winner is..... honeysugar (rav id)!! Congratulations. I have already contacted honeysugar via Ravelry.

Apparently the kit for the Mary Doll is sold out (remember that they are a limited offer). There are still kits for Morgan and Ben & Buddy available. However, StevenBe's purchased lots of kits for my Top-Down Seamless Doll Workshop so I know they have some available for my students and possibly to sell. There are still spots left in this class on April 26th. 

Click here for more information on the workshop and doll kits at StevenBe's!

photo from Little Skein, Pioneer Girl Shawl 

Next, I have to mention the enormous response to the Big Woods Kits through Little Skein. The kits are inspired by the book, Little House on the Prairie. I designed the shawl and bookmark patterns that are included in the kit. I was teaching and there was no wifi so when the kit went live I kept in touch with Anne Vally of Little Skein via email to check in on how things were going. 

Here's how the kits are going from a few days ago:

Anne had a record-setting day on Saturday, April 11th, for the Big Woods Kit release. She broke the previous kit release record by 3-times! That's huge. Anne has really outdone herself. To quote Anne, "I'm BLOWN away!!"

Anne sewed 100 project bags to be ready for the release and now she has over 300 more to sew since the release. Again, that's huge.

The three Plucky Knitter yarn exclusive colorways have proven to be popular as expected. The gold colorway sold out first. There were only a handful of the deep red and there were still some available in the rich green colorway available. 

Anne had 300 kits available for purchase right away and blew through almost all of them.

The Pioneer Girl shawl reached number 8 on the Hot Right Now Patterns on Ravelry. The individual pattern for the shawl and bookmark will be available for purchase in my Ravelry pattern shop in June 2015 if you are wondering.

Little Skein is giving away a kit on Instagram right now and is hosting a Knitalong for the shawl coming up so stay tuned.  Little Skein is annielightknits on Instagram. You should follow her as she always has a lot of fun things going on.

I will be giving away a Luxe Big Woods Kit worth $135 in the very near future so stay tuned for that.

Now on to today's topic. I want to share a little bit about the retreat I attended last weekend in Solomons, Maryland. The retreat is hosted by the Reston SnB group (near D.C.). This group meets every Wednesday night and usually about 20 to 30 are in attendance. Every year the group hosts a retreat at the knitting group leader's home on Solomons Island Maryland. The leader's name is Marie and if you are interested in attending (the retreat is open to everyone not just group members), Marie's Ravelry username is NiteOwl. Click here for Marie's Ravelry profile, niteowl. 

Marie's historical home is spacious and is set up like a bed & breakfast. Some attendees stayed here and others stay at a nearby bed and breakfast and others stayed at a nearby hotel. 

I had a beautiful time, it was a treat. There were a total of 17 attendees, a few were in and out, but most all were there for the entire weekend. It was the perfect number of students. We had students come from North Carolina (knittingdaddy on rav) and New Jersey (christinenj on rav), and even  from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Margaret and her daughter who now lives in Maryland. 

Click here for (Knittingdaddy.com) Greg's detailed review of the weekend and workshops! He was so much fun to have around. He is just a joy and has a great sense of humor about being the only man in attendance. I love that about him.

The entire weekend was enjoyable due to the kind, fun, enthusiastic and welcoming students and the host Marie. Marie is one of the most caring, gracious, attentive hosts I have ever met. She is outstanding and beloved by her group and I can see why. She makes the most pleasant experience for everyone. There is not a detail that isn't tended to, and I mean down to supplies for the classes, winding yarn for the kits, ordering safety eyes for everyone, cutting out felt circles for the owl project, etc. The meals were at her home (and they were beautifully presented, DELICIOUS and healthy!) except for one dinner at a nearby pier restaurant. We walked to the restaurant, ate and chatted and watched the sunset. 

Thank you to the talented and fun group of knitters and to Marie. I really will never forget this past weekend together. I hope we all meet again in the future. I will come back any time, just name the date.

Here are some photos from the retreat: 

My classroom view. I taught on a huge enclosed front porch that included fresh air and bright sunlight!

Marie's exquisite historical home where 6 attendees stayed, including me. You can see the classroom, it was the gigantic front porch.

The view from my morning runs along the boardwalk. I got 5 mile runs in each day. What is the name of this bridge again? I can't remember.

Lunch is served. Bountiful meals were prepared each day. It was so good.

The view from the restaurant on Saturday night after class.

The Quince & Co. Doll Kits and patterns await the workshop early in the morning. The Doll workshop was the highlight of the weekend for many of the students and me!

My newest workshop is Little Owl! Quite a few finished their Little Owls during the weekend. The project has loads of good toy and general knitting techniques packed in the tiny project.

 The doll workshop is awaiting the start here. All is set up and ready to go. Don't they look sweet? 

Serious work going on!

More serious work going on!

Marie is on the end chair in the back and her daughter, Jackie, is on the front left. 

The students are concentrating so hard in these photos (that's why I snapped the photos, they didn't even see me) but I assure you that this group laughed so often as did I throughout the weekend. They were light-hearted, game for anything, and their hearts were really into learning and making all of the projects. I loved them all. What a fun group.

Jinann's Little Owl was a hit with the fun color choices. 

I loved Jeanne's partially finished doll storage method! 

A special thank you to Jeanne for the 1.5 hour drive to the airport on Sunday.

teaching photos from Greg, KnittingDaddy

This is a great retreat open to everyone! You don't have to be a member of the group to attend. Mark your calendars for April 2016 if you are interested. Contact Marie, niteowl on rav for more information. 

Marie's email contact is: nofrogging@gmail.com

I'm off to Pasadena for Vogue Knitting Live this weekend. I hope to see you there!

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xo ~ susan