Retreat, Retreat, Retreat!!

I first heard about knitting retreats from our own spectacular Deb Marvin who, from time to time, likes to throw a knit-centric pajama party where attendees run away from home for a few days and focus on the most important things in life: knitting, laughing, and eating. Not sure when her next retreat is (of course I'll keep you posted as soon as I hear) but I am scheduled to head off for another retreat in a few months and people? I CAN'T WAIT!!

It's a weeklong knitting adventure on Monhegan Island, which is off the coast of Maine about twelve miles, and you get there on this rather little ferry boat. The event is put on by Knitting and Yoga Adventures. I found out about it from an ad in my Rowan mag (aside-- is everyone else as excited as I am that the new Rowan is going to be here really soon?!! Yay!!). I dropped Lisa Evans, the designer who hosts the event, a note to see if I might attend as a guest blogger. Lisa was game and so off I went and I have to tell you a week spent knitting, eating (the above picture is a whoopie pie, many of which I indulged in on my trip) and laughing has convinced me that world peace is accomplishable if only we can get everyone to go on a similar retreat at least once per year. Which is why I'm going again in September

I was so psyched about the trip that I actually wrote a piece for FiberArts magazine about residencies and retreats. Did you know that there are all sorts of travel/work/fun opportunities for crafters? Some are aimed at professionals who are awarded grants to do their work in a far off location-- say at a college where they also give lectures. Others are pay-for opportunities that sort of remind me of camp for adults. I had so much fun researching that story that as I was writing it I had this fantasy that I would spend the rest of my life traveling from residency to retreat to residency, a knitting (k)nomad. (I'm still working on making that come true.)

If you want to indulge in the fantasy, too, you can go to this FiberArts Link -- it's a supplement to the article I wrote and it's got a whole bunch of links to various residencies and retreats. So where are you going to go?