The Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat is happening in Tacoma this weekend, and I went down yesterday to take a few classes and do a little shopping. I woke up early to beat traffic and get there in time for a 9 AM class. I’m not a morning person and was kind of dreading it, but it was such a good class that I have no regrets. I took Carson Demers’s Knitting Happily Ever After class which was on knitting ergonomics, and I got so much out of it. I haven’t had any serious knitting injuries yet, and I’d like to keep it that way! I learned a few things I could improve on, but I also learned that I’m already doing a lot right. After that class, I had some tasty treats at Corina Bakery, a place I loved going to when I was in college, and then I had another class on designing lace with decreases. That one was taught by Evelyn Clark, and it was a lot of fun and gave me quite a bit to think about.
Outside of class, there was shopping in the marketplace! Madrona has an interesting marketplace because they have more of an even mixture of knitting and spinning than you often see at fiber events.
Quite a few of the vendors are from local places like The Artful Ewe. I loved how they managed to make their booth look a lot like their shop.
There were vendors from outside of Washington, too, like Sincere Sheep. I always get drawn into Sincere Sheep’s colorful booth when I see it at shows.
I ended up picking up a few skeins of yarn. The plan is to do something using both colors together, possibly a new version of my Penelope sweater so I can get a pattern put together. I have a few more projects to get through before I can start playing with this yarn, so we’ll see what happens!
P.S. Madrona is still going on, so if you’re local and not busy this weekend, you should go check it out.
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