Sunflower Knitter’s Guild Retreat

For a couple more weeks, I am the vice president of the Sunflower Knitter’s Guild, and one of the responsibilities of the roll is to plan a biennial retreat for the members. After about a year of on and off planning, it finally occurred last weekend! So here’s a quick look at my ideal knitting retreat:

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Our event took place at Cedar Crest Lodge in Pleasanton, Kansas. Originally built as a retreat center for furniture painting, the lodge had plenty of space for us to lounge and knit, as well as great natural light. It’s up on a hill, so the views are amazing.

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Since the weather was so perfect, most of us enjoyed it on their multiple decks and patios. This meant we also got to enjoy the company of the inn cats and dogs (pictured is Biscuit, she almost went home with a couple of us). The daffodils were nice enough to bloom for us too.

Cedar Crest provided our meals (they were delicious!), and we all brought snacks and wine, so much wine.

Our theme was color, and we had a couple of fun, on-theme offerings. Guild member Cheryl Murray designed an exclusive pattern for us, A Thousand Suns Cowl. It was a simple colorwork pattern of sunflowers, of course. When she was unveiling her design, Cheryl said it was not expected to have the cowl finished before the weekend was over. I made a joke that I looked forward to seeing Kristin Ragdale‘s at breakfast Sunday morning. She finished it before dinner on Saturday.

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My friend Alex finished hers Sunday night (pictured on the right), and mine’s just past the halfway point.

We also had Bea Bonanno from the Yarn Barn teach her class about color theory. We got the academic side of it, and then we got to play with building our own palettes from photos we like. I feel we learned a lot about ourselves through the class, and I know I had fun playing with new colors!

It was a fabulous weekend, but now I’m out of retreats for the foreseeable future! Are you participating in any upcoming retreats? How about other fibery events? Ply Away starts today, and I do have a couple of fiber trips planned for the summer, Estes Wool Fest and the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival. Let me know in the comments, I always love finding new fiber adventures!