Arnhild's Knitting Retreat

Every February, Arnhild Hillesland has a knitting retreat in Ames, Iowa. It is such a wonderful time as I attend with my 2 daughters, daughter in law, sister, and niece. We enjoyed the weekend so much, I hardly took any pictures.

The 240 mile trip took us from 9AM to 4:30 to get there. Our first stop was at Unwind Yarn in Burnsville, MN and made a purchase.

From there, we went to Northfield, MN where I drove around the campus of St Olaf College to show my Alma mater. Northfield Yarn in historic downtown Northfield was our destination where I bought this yarn. For some reason, the copper colors are grabbing me. Lunch was in an Indian restaurant in the historic St. James Hotel.

One of the classes taught was double knitting by Christa Newhouse. This is a coat she has made showing the Chicago skyline. The coat has been appraised at $15,000! 

I only attended one class on reversible cables. Most of the time the family gathered in the lobby or our room, knit, drank some wine, and had lots of talk and giggling. This is what I produced over the weekend. It is supposed to be a leaf shaped dishcloth. Something went wrong!

Bea asked me to knit her a pair of socks. I don't think I really committed to her that I would do it but I was thinking that would solve her birthday present problem. She bought this yarn for me to use.



February in Minnesota

This has been an unusual winter in Minnesota and I love it! The pictures were taken on Valentine's Day.

What Have I Been Doing?

This is a stress  ball-pattern from Heart Strings Fiber Arts. It is just left over yarn and beads from Michael's. I knit it just because it looked like fun.

Grand daughter, Sarah, wanted mittens on a string, so I used my favorite mitten pattern from Cottage Creations and made the fuchsia mittens which match her newly painted bedroom. Sarah loves to be different!

These are the wristlets I designed and knit for Propaganda Yarn Zombie Yarn Club.

Amazing Threads wanted a sample knit of this yarn because it wasn't selling, so this is Child's Self Striping Hat-a free pattern on Ravelry, made from Bravo Jacquard Color.

This project has been taking all my time! It is a test knit for Ainn of Finland. Her designs are the most unusual, fun to knit, and unusual shaping and stitches. It is not an automatic knit.

Sharktooth

Finished Sharktooth a December shawl club pattern from Stephen West. I chose the pattern only option, so used yarn from my stash. The yarn is iLoominated Yarn Feldspar, a local yarn and size US 4 needle.

I did not have enough yarn even though I had more than the pattern called for, so I did not add the few rows of garter stitch which was supposed to be at the bottom before the twisted ridge edge. For the picot bindoff, I cast on 2 stitches instead of the 3 in the pattern.

This was fun to knit and I'm sure it will be fun to wear.