Knitting At the Retreat

Last weekend was the annual retreat for South Bay Knitters (that's south of SF Bay for those not in Northern California) which is  held in the Santa Cruz mountains and always held the first weekend after New Year's,  pretty much insuring damp, cold misty weather and the wearing of lots of wooly warm sweaters, socks and shawls.  It's just our cup of tea!  Speaking of,  there was lots of talk about Downton Abbey and anticipation of the start of the third season and, if I say so myself,  it did not disappoint!  Mary looked lovely in her wedding gown and it was fun to see Shirley McLaine in the cast.

Here's a picture of our cast of characters:

It's amazing how we manage to knit all weekend and never get bored.  Lots of good company and always someone to help with a problem project:

                                                                           

We swapped yarn and patterns and Lisa brought homemade soap and jam:

                                                                           

 Of course there was lots of beautiful knitting to admire.  Here's Jocelyn in her Mavis sweater made with Noro Silk Garden:

   

Here's Donna in her beautiful Aristida shawl made with Cascade Pima cotton:

Marina knit this gorgeous sweater called The Rayleigh Tee and these pictures don't do justice to all the interesting details:

                                                                         

                                                                               

               

     

   More pictures and some yarn crawling to talk about in a future post but for now it's back to my retreat project, the Ruffled and Ruched Scarf by Pam Powers:

                                                                       

Isn't this a beauty?  Execept for the provisional cast on it's just garter and stockinette;  a perfect mindless knitting project when you are spending more time talking and less time keeping an eye on what you are working on.  I'm almost done and here's a picture where I picked up the provisional cast on stitches and starting knitting in the other direction:

                                                                           

     The sample project was knit in Malabrigo but I am knitting this with Cascade 220 Heathers.

Have a good week and  check out Tami's blog to see what others are working on this week.