Knit Wear Love Retreat

Last weekend I traveled to the Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg, ME to attend the Make Wear Love Retreat hosted by Amy Herzog.  It was an amazing weekend!

When we checked in we received an amazing goodie bag that was filled with swatch size samples of some top notch yarns plus some fun accessories.

The first day for me was a full-day class on Knit to Flatter.  If you don't have this book in your library yet, you should get it.  It's full of helpful information on how to identify your body shape and then how to choose sweaters to best flatter it.  It also has some great patterns included.

The next two days were filled with classes on modifications with Amy, fabric with Clara Parkes, and color with Mary Jane Mucklestone. Yeah.  It was awesome :-)

Mary Jane designed a cowl for us so that we could experiment with color. I chose grey,white and red for mine so that I can wear it with my winter jacket.

 I picked colors that I would wear.  Other people just picked 3 or 6 colors of scraps they had in their stash.  You can see some of the results here.

There was of course some "camp" fun too. There was a scavenger hunt that I did a miserable job completing.  Some of the campers really got into it though and had fantastic pictures of their finds.  Saturday night we had a show and tell of our good and bad sweaters, got to try on Amy's samples, and had a lobster bake.

What knitting retreat would be complete without some fabulous vendors?  We had beautiful yarns from String Theory, Indigodragonfly, and The Woolen Rabbit.  I also stopped at Purl Diva and Halcyon Yarns along the way to the retreat.  I gave myself permission to buy whatever inspired me so I came home with 2 sweater quantities, 6 hats, 1 sock yarn and a skein of true lace weight.

I have already swatched with the Indigodragonfly MCN Worsted I bought.  I'm going to make Birch Bark with it, which is one of the 3 sweaters that Amy designed for the retreat.  I know the patterns are exclusive to the retreat for now.  I'm not sure when, or if, they will be released to the public.

I love the names Indigodragonfly gives their colors.  This is Curse Your Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal (Firefly).

So that's the nuts and bolts of the retreat, but I also have to say that I met some wonderful people too!  I know it's been said many times before, but I have to repeat it.  Knitters are some of the best people on earth!  What other group of people has such instant comraderie and friendship?  All it takes is sticks and string to have something to discuss.