Sticks & String 2012

The Des Moines Metro Knitters put on a retreat every year for people to come knit, crochet, or spin.  My friend Jessyca had been a faithful attendant for years along with her mother Janis and friend Kristy.  A few months back they told me about this years retreat and asked if I wanted to go, YES!  I'd never done any kind of retreat before but had always wanted too.  It was tricky with my husbands crazy schedule but we worked it out and I got to attend.  It was January 27th through the 29th. 

A few days before we were supposed to leave I got a terrible cold.  I took vitamins and drank orange juice and rested a lot but nothing seemed to help.  I decided to make a go of it anyway and had a lot of fun in spite of my sickness.  Unfortunately in the wee hours of Sunday morning I couldn't handle it anymore and just had to come home.  I had stayed Friday night and all of Saturday.  We had fun giveaways and I got A LOT of crocheting done.  At home my youngest had caught my cold and was miserable asking for his mommy and I was miserable and couldn't breathe or think so I bailed at 3:30am and made it home around 4:00.  It was worth the middle of the night drive to see the look on my husbands face when I climbed into bed with him 12 hours before I was supposed to be home.

I had so much fun I would do it again in a heartbeat!  I loved socializing with fellow crafty women, although I was quite in the minority crocheting instead of knitting.  I loved the freebies and drawings.  I loved staying up past midnight talking, laughing, and watching movies.  I LOVED not having to constantly take care of at least one other person.  I missed my four little kids from time to time but I felt like I decompressed more in those two days than I have in a year!

I wish I would have taking more but I was just too busy having fun!  I tried out a swift and winder for the first time and it was so fun!  That's what I wish I would have taken a picture of the most.  Anyway, here are some fun pictures that I took while there. 

Jessyca and I working hard.  This is right after we got there on Friday and I hadn't even gone 5 inches yet so it's a good show of what I started at.  I was working on a blanket and Jessyca made a Lucy bag.

This was the fun goodie bag that came with the registration.  There was a lot of fun stuff in there like yarn, an owl shaped gauge, some stitch markers, a water bottle, some coupons, $5 spending money and a few bags.

 

There were some venders Friday night and I brought $35 in cash plus the extra five from the goodie bag and I bought this fun yarn.  The green is Misty Alpaca and it's super soft and yummy!  I want to make a scarf out of it for my upcoming trip to New York City.  The middle one can be worked up in chains knotted together to make a necklace.  Jessyca and I saw one there and we fell in love and just had to have it.  I don't know what I'm going to do with the bulky purple one on the end but it's was so pretty and soft I couldn't pass it up.

This is what Jessyca ended up with from the venders.  We saw the green one all worked up into a shawl and it was just beautiful!  There are wood beads woven in that look like twigs and some leaves woven in as well.  It's really beautiful woven together!  The orange-ish one is to go around the edge of the shawl.  It took a while for her to find and land on what she wanted because there were so many good choices.  I think these will look great together and I'm excited to see what she comes up with.

They had drawings for prizes on Saturday and, after a bit of trading, this is what I ended up with.  Three skeins of bulky weight yarn, a sheep soap, and a bag pattern book for knitting and crocheting.  It was so fun because what I got first I couldn't image ever using, it was super fancy shawl yarn and a shawl hook.  A few other women around the table with me felt the same way and we traded around to get what we really wanted.  It was so fun and everyone ended up happy.

This is the final result of my weekend of crocheting.  I was on the bottom orange row when I got there, only four rows into my blanket and how I'm almost 35 rows in.  It's folded up so you can't see how wide it is but I'd guess a little around 48 inches wide.  It's going to be so great to snuggle under and I love the way the colors and texture are coming out.