I don’t know how I heard about it but I had on my calendar back in July to check it out and I did.

It’s sort of a knitting retreat/conference with classes on Friday night and Saturday during the day near Mechanicsburg, Pa. I had never been there before but it’s under 2 hrs away so figured it was worth trying! It’s been going on since the mid-eighties so I figured it would be well run.

I drove up Friday morning and even though it was raining (Hurricane Helene) I spent the day going to the Mechanicsburg museums, went to Mr Sticky’s for a sticky bun, bought some local food at a local supermarket, went to a witchy crafty store, the PA Fly Fishing Museum and a kitchen store.

My first class was log cabin knitting. My mom and I made a lot of log cabin quilts when I was kid so it was fun to knit squares! It was pretty easy to do but great to be taught exactly what to do. We really don’t know any knitters so everything is on our own so it’s nice to learn all the tricks and be on the same page right away!

That class was 6-9 pm so I grabbed dinner after.

The next morning at 8:30 I took a stranded knitting class and we made a hat. Who knew that was so easy? This is why I wish I knew some knitters!

I honestly don’t know I needed a whole three hour class in it but it was nice to get some tips on holding the yarn and how to get started/catch floats. We all got a lot of knitting done on the hat. I’m glad I took the class because I didn’t think I would have tried it on my own.

The instructor was very nice and helpful and gave us some ideas about what to make with the leftover yarn.

My last class was making Dorset buttons. I was excited about that because I’m actually taking a German wrapped button class this fall and I’m not sure when or if we are doing ring buttons. I think the class was too big. She really didn’t have the ability to remember or check in on students and oddly geared everything to the one person who was the fastest and not the bulk of the group. She made the rounds but never seemed to keep who anyone was straight or what they were doing.

She told us about getting yarn samples for free for the class by repeatedly going to the same indie yarn producer booth giving out samples at an event. That was really strange and off putting.

I did manage to make a jumbo button but the kit she provided for $5 didn’t have quite enough yarn so there are gaps. The yarn was also very splitty. I think there are other cotton yarns that would have worked better for beginners but she said she wanted to use up her own scraps.

The instructions were printed out from another person’s website and were helpful.

The group rate at the hotel was great. I only stayed one night so it was a bit of a whirlwind trip. I’d go again!