Epic Retreat

Back in August, Audrey of the St. Cloud Knitters group suggested we all take a class together with Sharon, the fiber artist behind Three Irish Girls. After Audrey got it all set up for us, Sharon M (of our knitting group) suggested we make a weekend out of it and stay overnight in Duluth. Well, I got back from the retreat last night and it was totally amazing! Lots of pics over on Flickr, but here's a few special selections:

 Here's 3IG Sharon and I - she even made us pumpkin bread and brownies! What an awesome teacher, artist, and hostess.

Audrey and I - she has been working on a CRAZY project at work and still was able to coordinate the class with Sharon for us. Thank you!

Three Irish Girls studio - the "yarn graveyard" of less-than-perfect skeins

The class was excellent. It was all about how to use hand-painted yarns to get the effect you want. We even did some swatching to identify in the wild the dreaded "pooling" effect.

SWATCH!!!! No pooling here.

One of the things that made the retreat so awesome is that we have an amazing group of knitters that all went. I love our knitting group!

Staying up late Friday night at the hotel - Sarah K and Rachel

Kelly and me - duck lips!

Lisa, Sarah K, & Cathi

 We even ventured up the shore for some yarn shopping. I came home with something special from Three Irish Girls -

This is far from my usual colors, but this one of a kind colorway called Castle Danger could not be passed up. I married Husbeast Hotpants at the Grand Superior Lodge in Castle Danger, MN on November 8, 2008. Awww!

Enough of this mushy stuff, I hope you're getting your sticks and string ready for the start of NaKniSweMo tomorrow!