Well, I hope you weren't holding your breath waiting for my next post. If you were, my condolences to your family.Andrea Everts, of Prairie Needles in Battle Lake, and I finally worked up the nerve and found some time to organize a retreat. Andrea had been to Weslake Resort for other retreats, so she was in charge of lining up our accommodations. And what accommodations they were! We stayed in one of the mini-lodges - 4 bedrooms, each with 3 twin beds, 2.5 baths, lots of light (I never plugged in my Ott Lite all weekend), great kitchen, heated floors, and lots of comfy seating space both in the main living area and the fully enclosed and heated porch on the lakeside of the lodge. Somebody, pinch me!
Andrea was there at noon on Friday, Feb 29, to greet our first participants. I didn't get there until about 7 as I had my shop open until 5:30. But let me tell you, those doors were locked at 5:30 and I was outta there! It's an easy drive from Perham to the resort, even with the blowing snow that was happening at the time.
When I arrived at the resort, Joanne was patiently waiting in her car because she didn't know which building we were in, so next year we'll have a nice big flag or sign to direct people to the lodge. We'll also have the resort phone listed so those of you who might take a wrong turn (Ruthie), can call for directions. Cell phone service isn't very good there (at least my Sprint phone didn't work until I walked to the top of the hill and stood just there...no, no, wait a minute...just there!
Supper was hash brown hot dish, a glass of wine, and ice cream sundaes, then back to spinning, knitting, weaving, and relaxing!
The beds were comfy - three twin beds to a room, and each room had a sink. There were two full baths by the bedrooms and a half-bath by the kitchen. And the kitchen! Double ovens, microwave, dishwasher, fridge (second fridge on the enclosed 4-season porch- great for wine or beer). I brought ALMOST all the parts to my espresso machine, so unfortunately is was just a counter ornament all weekend :-( but the IKEA coffee saved the day. I just made it good and STRONG!
Saturday arrived and we rolled out of and into our beds whenever we felt like it. No dogs or cats to let out and in and out, no errands to run, no laundry to do, no bathrooms to clean...aaaah! Continental breakfast--no espresso--whenever you felt like eating.
We all worked on projects and/or sat an visited. Karen spun up and plied a whole bag of fiber that she bought from the At Loose Ends "satellite store" set up in the entryway. Jane was our only "day camper". We watched some videos - both entertaining and educational - like Monty Python, How To Make An American Quilt (open-minded of us), and a great sock video by Lucy Neatby. I finished three projects, and forgot yarn to finish a fourth. Andrea and I demonstrated the horizontal knitting stance for everyone (see pix).
Joanne and I took a walk around the resort where the snow depth woul
d allow us to go. There's lots of improvements going on, and by fall, there should be new living quarters for the owners, a new office and meeting area all in one building. Next spring, if there's snow, I'm going to bring my cross-country skis. It looks like it would be fun to take a tour along the shoreline.Lunch - There was fixin's for sandwiches and we had two kinds of homemade soup. Andrea brought her famous Funeral Soup, and I made Chicken Wild Rice Soup. (I left half of it at home on the entry rug when the handle of my crockpot just broke off as I was heading out to the garage to put it in the car. Way to go Rival!)
Supper - Ruthie brought lasagna to cook, salad fixin's and croutons, homemade garlic toast, and homemade mocha ice cream. Yummm! Unfortunately, she wasn't there to enjoy it as she felt ill in the middle of the night and decided to head home to recoup. She didn't want to risk missing her upcoming flight to Arizona with her sister-in-law. (Update: She felt better after 24 hours
. She figures it was an allergic reaction to the anchovies in the very 'sassy' Bloody Mary mix she bought at the Fergus Falls liquor store during her roundabout trip to the resort.)
Saturday evening - more knitting, spinning, weaving, luceting (Sara has volunteered to teach the ins and outs of luceting - pun intended - at our next retreat.) She and Anna brought some fun card games, like Dutch Blitz and Apples to Apples, and we ended the evening with a few rounds of each.
Sunday - kinda like Saturday morning, just with the little cloud of knowledge that we would have to leave that afternoon. Continental breakfast, coffee--no espresso.
Then back to our projects. Andrea and Sara tried their hand at weaving on my Knitter's loom. There's nothing like getting a little help finishing those projects that have been on your loom too long. ;-)
Lunch was a smorgasbord of leftovers. Then packing up and heading out. But not before Andrea and I reserved the lodge for next fall. We're excited to do this again, and again. We'll just be a little better organized and not forget things like the espresso filter and filter holder, dish towels, baggies, can opener, etc, etc., AND be better able to plan some fiber activities for us all now that we know "the lay of the land".
SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR NOVEMBER 7-9. We want to give you lots of time to prepare for a wonderful retreat at the lake in Otter Tail County next fall.
Keep playing with fiber!
