DYSFUNKTIONAL KNITTER

Just another knitting blog with a little bit of quilting thrown in!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Wee-A-Wok-A




Last weekend was a weekend of fun, gourmet food, new friends and maybe a drink or two! I attended a knitting retreat at The Wiawaka Holiday House, a 60-acre retreat for women located on Lake George. Katherine Wardle was the organizer and chef for the event. I can't even describe in words how delicious the meals were along with the desserts and handmade chocolates. The weather and scenery were beautiful, but forming new friendships was the highlight of all!

Have you ever met someone and for whatever reason, you just click? Susan (Needles and Stash) from my hometown was there and we met some awesome ladies: Suzanne (Knitting Knirvana), and Jude and Marybeth, both of whom are blogless. I felt like I have known these ladies (and I use the term loosely) for years. We laughed, ate and drank the entire weekend. Oh, a knitting retreat, you say.... well we did a little of that, too.

Susan was the Cast On Queen for the weekend, as she worked on a shawl and, I believe, she recasted on 541 stitches after deciding to frog on row 6. Her goal is to finish the shawl by the next knitting retreat in September.

I knitted shit!!! And I believe, I was the Frog Queen for the weekend. I am so fricken dysfunctional it is pathetic. I casted on for Cinxia and when I printed the pattern from Knitty, about an inch of the right margin was cutoff, leaving me with a guessing game. With yarn in ...... WTF? Should I put the yarn in front or back and what should I do with the last three stitches? I tried it several ways and frogged the damn thing. So I casted on for the second time and called Mr. Effer to look up the pattern on Knitty.com to read it to me. He was a good sport and tried to help me out after I promised him a few things.... However, he was a bad boy and screwed up, reading me the WRONG directions. And, like a fool, I believed him for six or seven rows and then decided it was wrong, wrong, wrong and frogged the damn thing for a second time.

So my frogged Cinxia became the old, moldy bush of Wiawaka..... Yep, this is bad, really bad. I threw it across the room and look where it landed....
In the lap of a yarn ho!!!!

And there were some women there with clap fever, working on Clapotis. Suzanne, Marybeth and Jude. I think they were somewhat successful, but I heard them stressing in hope that they would be able to drop stitches at some point in the pattern. Crap, I have no problem dropping stitches, so I think that pattern is in my near knitting future!

And the entire time I was at Wiawaka, I never noticed that my camera was on the night setting, so my pictures are really, really dark and look like crap! And essentially non-postable.

I was so tuckered out by the end of the weekend, you know... from all the knitting frogging that on my drive home, I stopped at a rest area and fell asleep in my car for two hours. My car windows were closed and, with the green house effect, I almost died of heat stroke!! I was completely soaked when I woke up... like a horse... rode hard and put away wet!!! Even though I felt exhausted from all the fun, I'm going back for more in September. Woo-hoo!!!

11 comments:

Sheepish Annie said...

Sounds like a wonderful time even if you didn't get much knit. I am, of course, going to be saying, "Wee-A-Wok-A" all day tomorrow. Repeatedly. Until my co-workers and students beg me to stop. Then I will say it ten more times. Keep an eye on the national news...there may be some sort of "incident." :)

Dudleyspinner's Tie Dye Rovings said...

What a blast, even frogging is tolerable with friends!
Sounds like just the perfect escape.
Deb

The_Add_Knitter said...

Ok, you are so damn funny and that yarn ho picture has me in stitches! (hehe)

KnittingKnirvana said...

Wasn't it the best???? :) :) :)

I can not wait until September!!!

By the way . . . Jude, MaryBeth and I continued our yarn obsession on Monday with a trip to the 50% off sale. We got some amazing deals! But, it just wasn't the same without you and Susan.

MaryBeth said...

What a wonderful weekend! It was so great meeting you and Susan. We just seemed to click immediately and to know that there are other demented knitters out there brings a peace to my world.

So many memories - Concert by the lake, George driving it in hard (garden stakes I mean). Can't wait for September and I will remember to bring a razor this time. Damn Wiawaka bush.

Laurie said...

It looks and sounds like you had a blast! And that "lap" photo. OMG! I almost did a spit take onto my computer!

Mia said...

Frog Queen?? No wonder you liked the frog pic I posted :)

And yeah, what Sheepish says about that name.. now I can't stop saying Wiawaka.....

Dipsy said...

Ohhh! Now, this sounds like the absolutely perfect way to spend a weekend - good food, like-minded people, new friends, beautiful surroundings and knitting (even frogging ;) - yes, perfect indeed! And that "lap"-photo cracks me up big time - thanks for sharing ;)))

kim said...

OMG, the yarn picture is freaking hilarious!!

I am so, so covetous of your weekend. Sounds SO amazing.

LisaB said...

I am about to bust a gut over that yarn ho picture! Hilarious!

Sounds like a wonderful weekend with the 2 best things in the world: knitting and eating. :)

jackie said...

Sounds like a blast!