The Small Wool Gathering

Forgive me for the silence since completing the Right As Rainbow baby cardi KAL.  It was such fun being part of the KAL but at times a little frustrating having to hitch a ride on the wifi in cafes and bars while on holiday.  That sort of wifi, while fine for checking facebook and e mail is not really powerful enough to do lots of uploading.  However I did continue to upload photographs to Blipfoto so if you would like to see more pictures of Paxos, have a look here.

Ancient terraces where vines used to grow and a tiny secluded beach where (in days when the sexes were strictly segregated) the girls could go and bathe

Kathleen has blogged about the end of the KAL and prize winners over here.  Sally won the prize for the most creative interpretation of the pattern with this zingy coloured cardi

Meanwhile, although not blogging I have been knitting.  In particular preparing for A Very Exciting New Project.  This may need a little explanation. 

If you have ever read my biography here on the blog you may have noticed that I am a lawyer by day and a knitter by evenings (and on trains!). Well big changes happened at the end of July when I became a retired lawyer and changed my occupation on LinkedIn to 'Independent craft consultant' - they don't have any occupation described by anything as simple as 'knitter' .  What this actually means is that in future I shall be:-

• Knitting more
• Practising my spinning - I aim to spin up the coats of the Kingsclere four and knit a coat! Ambitious? Moi.
• Move all my crafting work, multiple stashes and equipment to my (soon to be) converted garage
• Run small crafting courses in same
• Launch The Small Crafters

The last action is already up and running in prototype form and this is what I want to tell you about today.  The Small... Is a partnership with my friend Jenny.  We plan to run weekend retreats for crafters, knitters, spinners, sewists and even would be artists. And the first weekend is the 11-14 October (that's in 9 days time - eeeep!)

We are not doing this alone, we have the help of Fabulous Alli and Wonderful Kathleen and essentially we are a bunch of friends, alumni of the Welsh knitting retreat P3/Gwlana.   We have even secured the Amazing Amy Singer, editor of Knitty magazine to give three seriously interesting classes.  So it's no wonder we booked out in less than a week of announcing that we had found the perfect venue in the lovely Peddington Manor.

However despite the full house (with others sleeping at local B&Bs and  joining us daily at the Manor for all the fun) life being what it is, one amazing woman who was flying all the way from Texas to be with us has had to cancel.

So we have a double room at the Manor vacant for one person or two sharing.

You can read all about the weekend, which we are calling The Small Wool Gathering HERE . All the details, including pictures of the beautiful Manor inside and out, cost and how to contact us if you would like to come (or even be on our mailing list for future events) are there.

We would love you to join us.

And on the needles? Well there is a dress code for The Small Wool Gathering Saturday night dinner and its 'wear something glamorous and hand knitted'. I have made Citron in Tilly Thomas beaded silk mohair . 

That's not 'ON' the needles I hear you cry it's 'OFF'.  So it is!  I also have this to show you, it's a WW2 inspired cardigan.

it's in Juno merino sock

I've swatched!  The cable pattern runs up the centre back

the button holes are neatly hidden within the cable button band

And am away! knitting fronts and back together in one piece until I reach the armholesI intend it to be the key item on which I base my all handmade winter wardrobe. 

But for now it's set aside as I prepare for The Small..  Today was wine tasting day (ordering it by the case)  then Jenny and I hit the supermarket with a massive shopping list and I spend much of next week baking cake and biscuits to fuel the knitters at every break!  I'll be reporting back on how it goes in a little over a week

isn't this the perfect place for a knitters retreat?

there are quiet place to sit and knit

and a cosy Aga in the kitchen

and much more besides.  It would be wonderful if one or two people who read this want to join us but even if you are only just vaguely interested please let me know in the comments and I will include you in our mailing list for future events.

xx

C