The Good Stuff in Petoskey

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote about my disastrous return from Petoskey, and I really should talk about the actual Jane Thornley workshop/retreat, which was wonderful. Upon arrival at the historic Perry Hotel, I checked in and went to our workshop room where I was greeted with the sight of 3 long tables loaded with Mango Moon yarns to choose for our projects. What an embarrassment of riches.

After looking at the samples of Jane's designs, I decided on the Raj Vest, and began choosing yarns accordingly. Other participants were making various versions of the Feather & Fan Organic Wrap, as well as other Jane Thornley designs.  After a lovely buffet dinner, most of us went back to the workroom to wind our yarns into balls, aided by Jane's husband John (dubbed by Jane "the Hairy Legged Swift" because he willingly and very ably can transform a hank of yarn into a usable ball).


The following 3 days were filled with knitting, learning, and socializing, not to mention eating well, which we did a lot of: Breakfasts and Lunches provided on site at the hotel, and Dinners out at a different restaurant every night. It was a fabulous experience, one which most of us are planning on repeating; it's just a question of when - September 2011 or 2012.

Many of the women there (BTW, did I mention that some spouses were also in attendance, they went their own way while we were knitting, but joined us for meals) actually finished or were close to finishing the projects they started there. Not I; I'm a slow worker, but here are pictures of one front and the back of my vest. You will note that they appear somewhat different, I've been testing 2 different sets of ribbons threading through the openwork. I've already decided which I'll use, but what do you think?