Perfect

Dear Mom,
I am faced with a difficulty that has almost silenced me....?.!.... I Know!
I had a blissful, contented, perfect four day getaway with some knitting friends. So perfect that I am afraid I won't be able to come up with the words that will do it justice. And the four days definitely deserve the blog time.

The anticipation of our getaway had us planning projects and packing yarn for weeks in advance. We needed projects for car knitting, talking knitting, drinking wine knitting, I am in the mood for this kind of  knitting, and the delusional I can do this complicated thing anyway knitting. (That last one was me, but I did notice that GinaWhoCanParallelPark started counting stitches OUTLOUD.) Was 5 projects too many for a 4 day trip? What if I run out of knitting?

This was also a low key, we may never leave the cabin kind of weekend and CarolWho'sHouseGot StruckbyLightning confessed to planning her "sweats ensembles". I think we all did; she just admitted it first.

Yes, we wore our finest clothes and comfiest pajamas. By the second day, I had really crossed the line and combined a sweats ensemble with my pajamas. But I matched because I was wearing stripes. It was also pointed out that I had a food on my sweatshirt, just to complete the image.

On Friday, we did leave the cabin for lunch at a local restaurant. Which delivered on its promise of good food.

We then went to the most charming and probably my favorite in the whole world yarn shop, Inish Knits.

The owner, Melissa, could not be more welcoming and friendly. Her shop is thoughtful, organized, inspiring and smart. I wish I didn't have to drive 7 hours to visit.

On Saturday, we did not leave the cabin. In fact we barely moved at all, content to sit in our individual knitting nests in front of the fire, only moving to prepare and eat the next meal together. Or open a bottle of wine.

                                                                                      

                                                                                      

DebbieWhoHasthePrettyFarmHouseandthePerfectCabin planned tasty, healthy meals. Every bite was delicious. Every. Bite. And we all took alot of them to make sure. Soup and chili and lasagna, and my favorite chocolate cake that only DebbieWHtPFHatPC can make. As a hostess gift to DebbieWHtPFHatPC, the four of us created a unique pair of socks. Working in teams of two, we used Claudia's Handpainted Sock Yarn in a colorway that just looked like our hostess (colorway is Donna's Favorite) and basic sock measurements. The goal was not an identical pair of socks, but a sisterly pair she could wear and remember, and one we could all knit our  appreciation into.

Even though at some point most of us needed to abandon our ambitious and complicated projects for talking and wine-friendly ones, all that knitting time was productive with CarolWHGSbL finishing a pair of mittens to be felted and making good progress on her Parka, GinaWCPP worked on some felted slippers, DebbieWHtPFHaPC made a helmet liner for a soldier and ConnieWhoNeverHeardofBobbySherman (We are trying to forgive her for that. She is the youngest one of us. She also only watched the Mary Tyler Moore show because her babysitter watched it. Some information just makes a person feel old.) finished a baby sweater and sewed some long dormant blocks together to finish a blanket.

After knitting the same row wrong several times and having to rip back, I gave up on the black lace (can you say wine?) and switched to another project. A reasonable person would have turned to one of the 4 other projects she had packed. Althoooooough, one could argue that a reasonable person would not have believed she could continue to knit a black lace pattern while drinking wine and talking to begin with. No, Melissa's fresh handspun yarn (purchased the day before from Inish Knits) was more appealing. On Saturday night I started a hat (the pattern just sort of blossomed out of my head as I was knitting) and I finished it in the car on the way home.

Some of the best parts of the weekend have to stay there, but it was all.....well, I wouldn't change a thing.

Love,

Kim