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Knot Hysteria Colour Retreat

Knot Hysteria’s Colour Retreat

It’s that time of the year again, when the leaves start to change and people start bracing themselves for months and months of drab, colourless, freezing weather that tests human mettle and will to live.  As is becoming our tradition, we here at Knot Hysteria like to kick off that winter season with something that’s the opposite.  A whole weekend of camraderie, fun, knitting, dyeing and spinning, along with great food and more colour than you could imagine. 

That’s right, it’s almost time for our November Retreat, and our theme this time is Colour.  This year, we’ll gather from November 9th to 12th (although most people like to arrive the night before, and leave the morning after) at the most knitter friendly place in the world… The Resort at Port Ludlow. 

Spinning:

It’s been such a pleasure to have master spinner, author and all-round-genius Judith MacKenzie with us for the retreats, that we’d be mad not to have her back for this one. Judith is brilliant with colour, and in the spinning room she’s got a lot planned. Judith will show you how to spin a painted top, and how to combine a rainbow of gorgeous solids – at the carder, and at the wheel. The only bad thing about this all day intensive is that it’s not nine days.

(Judith’s teaching room seen here last year – before the chaos!)

Knitting

In the knitting room with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee there’s an all day exploration of knitting with colour. Last year the part of the day we spent on the science and art of putting colours together was a big hit, so this year you can look forward to lots of colour theory and exercises, and learning how to throw around a colour wheel like a pro. We’ll knit too, working on several different colour techniques, how to chart them, and how to make them look great when you knit them.  We provide all the yarn, you bring the knitting needles and inspiration.

Dyeing

In the dye room with Tina Newton ( yours truly), we’ll explore the colours that make us happy, the ones that don’t, and why. We’ll take a mood, memory, moment… and translate it into colour. We’ll bring your favorite hue to life and explore it’s compliments and contrasts, then we’ll play with shading and tinting by making a gradient. Be prepared though, it’s not all sweetness and light in the dye room. We’re also going to push our colour boundaries by making friends with those hues that we tend to shy away from. There are no bad colours, only misunderstood ones. We’re going to open up those lines of communication so we can see them for what they are and learn how to work with them. Incorporated throughout all of this hue brewing fun will be dye basics, especially as applied to painting, plus a smidge of colour theory and psychology.

Bring an apron or clothes you don’t mind having stained with colour and a mind that feels the same.

The weekend begins when you check in on Friday evening, and we all have an opportunity to talk, hang out (maybe have a drink) get to know each other, chat with the teachers, and you’re assigned to one of three small groups.

Saturday, the retreat proper starts, and group one goes with Tina, to a big bright room with a floor covered in plastic and loaded with dye and fiber goodies.

Meanwhile, group two goes with Stephanie to knit.

Over in the pretty room overlooking the water, group three sets up their spinning wheels (or spindles) to spend a day with Judith.

That evening, we gather to play with carders, learn how to make batts, and play with all sorts of colourful fibre.

Sunday, the groups rotate places for the day classes, and then after dinner – it’s electric carder time again!  Batt making was such a hit last year, that this year we’re doing it two evenings in a row – so you can make even more great personalized batts for spinning. 

Monday we rotate for classes again, and Monday night we have a wonderful social gathering for Q&A and talking about all we’ve learned, and then we’ll have our traditional Show and Tell.  This often turns out to be the most amazing thing, as you all bring your greatest Colour stuff.  It doesn’t have to be made by you, it doesn’t even have to be knitting… just some amazing human-made colour thing that you want to show and tell about.  When we’re done, we somehow bid you farewell, and the retreat ends that evening.

The price includes all three full day classes, evening fun, all materials, including roving, yarn and all the stuff to make batts (except wheels, spindles and needles), and breakfast, lunch and dinner Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The food is fabulous, and we promise that there will be very good vegetarian options. Our lovely Chef Dan is very excited about having colour as the retreat theme, and we’re expecting even more beautiful food from him than usual – and that’s saying something.

Accommodations are separate and you will arrange those on your own. We have negotiated special prices with Port Ludlow, and there are some shared accommodations (condos and town-homes) if you’d like to come with your friends – and Port Ludlow has improved their room-sharing capacity in recent months.

Once you’re confirmed with us, you’ll simply call Port Ludlow and tell them that you’re with Knot Hysteria and the knitters, and they will help you get sorted with the special knitter price.

They are lovely and helpful people.

Price for the three day/three class intensive with meals:

$745. (Credit card or paypal are fine) All Materials (except knitting needles and spinning wheels) included.

Gift bags, presents and surprises forthcoming.

(If you’re a vendor and you’d like to talk to us about putting a little something in the gift bags, just drop us a line. We’d love it.)

If you’d like to come and are thinking about your skills, keep in mind that you don’t have to be an expert spinner, but you do need a basic working knowledge of a spinning wheel, spinning basics and should be able to spin a continuous thread. We’re not saying that you need to do this well. An advanced beginner would be very comfortable. As a knitter, you’ll need to be able to cast on and off, knit, purl, increase and decrease easily and be comfortable with most knitting instructions. You don’t need to be experienced with colourwork. The point is to learn.

To register, simply send an email to with “Colour Retreat” in the subject line, and include your name, address and phone numbers, and the best time to call you.

We can’t wait to see you.  It’s a really nice knitter treat. 

When it rain it pours.

Literally!

It just never fails does it? The universe in it’s infinite wisdom and wicked sense of self amusement timing never fails to add fuel to the already flaming fire. Craziness.

So we had this wonderful Once in a Blue Moon sale right? And orders might have exceeded our expectations (wildest dreams) but we’re keeping within the time frame we promised and then kaboom Becky notices some weird staining on the wall in my front bathroom. So we call contractor Rick. He shows up and does some investigating and finds a leak. A bad leak.  A leak in the wall between my front bathroom and my back bathroom. After I saw what he found and the horrified look on his face I called my homeowners insurance company and ever since that phone call all hell has broken loose here.  We had no water, since you can’t fix plumbing leaks with the water on. Which means we had no water in the dye barn either. Not a drop!!

I don’t mind telling you that is one of my worst nightmares. Seriously, the no water thing, as a dyer, is some pretty bad news.

Do you know how hard it is to dye yarn with no water? It’s like kind of impossible. Water is an essential component of the dyeing endeavor. You know what else? It’s hard to rinse yarn without water!. Oh yeah, it is. So my dear knitters we did the best we could with jugs and tubs, as one does.

Creative problem solving at it’s best. I’m pretty proud of my team and the roll with it philosophy we’ve all developed this year.

So what does all this mean for you?  It means that we are a wee bit behind schedule.  What we promised on order fulfillment for the sale period was two weeks and we just hit that mark.

We expect to be caught up on this coming Thursday, barring any other unforeseen out of our control occurrences, that is. Fingers crossed dear knitters. Because as I’m writing this there are mega heaters (HUGE) and fans under my house drying out the floor boards. (I’d take pictures of them to show you but they are under the house and we all know what lives under there.)

Both of my bathrooms are ripped apart and bits and pieces of my home are scattered.

Just between you and me… it’s a bit much. I really feel like I’ve handled it all pretty well. There might have been a tearful moment where I hid in the chicken coop for a few minutes, before Debra found me, but I think that’s perfectly within reason.

We thank you for your patience and understanding with all of this. As always if you need to discuss or have a question or concern please email us at

In other Knot Hysteria type news… it’s that time of year again. November is swiftly approaching which means it’s time for Stephanie and I to announce the registration for our November Retreat.  Registration will be live on this coming Monday the 18th . We’ll be in Port Ludlow, Washington, and the retreat will begin the evening of the 9th of November, and continue until Monday night. (that’s the 12th.) We’ll be revisitng our Colour theme because, we all had such good time we want to do it again. So that makes it a Dye, Spin, Knit retreat.  There will be lots more details on Monday. Stephanie is your knitting teacher and Judith MacKenzie will be in the lovely space over the water, teaching spinning and I will be in the room next to her with they whole dyeing end of this.  For the first time ever though, we’d like to give our alumni (at retreat we call them repeat offenders) a chance to register first.  You’ve been great customers, so if you’ve been to a retreat before, and you’d like to come to this one, please email us , and we’ll try to get you in.  No promises, because we’re leaving a certain number of spots for the new kids, but you can try to beat the rush. The price is about the same as the last time, $745. 

If you’re a business, and you’d like to contribute to our goody bags, we’d be thrilled.  You can email us at that same address.

We’d love to hear from you.

It’s back to the dye barn for me.  Have a lovely weekend!

That change thing again…

I like the kind of change you get when you pay for something. You hand over paper money of some kind and usually the cashier gives you change. Sometimes it’s more paper and a wee bit of coin and other times it’s just coin. Coins are good, they make a nice sound in your pocket. Fair trade.

I like the changing of the seasons. The subtle movement form warm to cold or the other way around, which you can pretty much count on coming your way at the same time of year give or take a week or two. Although… spring never comes early enough and summer leaves way too soon here in the Pacific Northwest. Still for the most part a good consistent arrangement.

In all honesty, the times I like change best, is when it’s my idea.

I like change least of all when it not only is not my idea but it also involves people I love and care about leaving my direct vicinity. I know it happens and is kind of what life is all about. We are an ever evolving, growing, moving kind of organism.  I change, you change, we all change.

Change. Change. Change. (Chanted to the tune of Chain of Fools. It works!) Change of fools…

What all of these deep change thoughts are leading up to is that today, Tuesday September 3, is the very last day that my (Yes she’s mine. So if any of you weirdos mess with her on her travels you’ll have me to answer to) Rosie will be working with us.

Rosie has worked with me and the rest of team Blue Moon for 6 years, right out of high school. She’s been here through all kinds of changes, learning curves, and wackiness!

Quite honestly I’ve been waiting for this day, because do not think for one moment that I was under the impression that this stunningly creative, fun soul would stick around a small yarn company in the back woods of Oregon forever. The world at large should experience Rosanna Donna Richmond and in turn she should see and experience all the wonders it holds. As much as we’re all going to miss her and we seriously are, we are very excited for Rosie.

Dear Rosebud,

Thank you!  Thank you so very much for the past six years. I consider them a gift. You’ve enriched my life and Blue Moon. 

You have brightened many a day for all of us with your bottomless optimism and ability to see each moment as an opportunity, grabbed with both hands wide open and jumped into with a heart that is the same. Honestly, there were days the past two years where my own happy place was a bit hard to locate. I’d step into the barn where you were radiating yours and boom! Instant sunshine.

You’re the best yarn bundler ever. Bar none. I defy anyone planet wide to top your wicked yarn bundling skills. Both you and I know it is not a skill that is as easy as it looks.  Actually I think the yarn is going to miss you, too. When I was in the barn last night I thought I heard some woolly sniffles and they weren’t mine.

I have had so much fun with our photo shoots and “what can we do with yarn?” sessions. My only regret is that we didn’t act on some of those really wonderfully wacky ideas we had. I have them in a little book, just in case. They’re pretty good!

If you ever need a portfolio, I’m your girl!

I’m so excited and wish so much for you Rosie and I can’t wait to hear your take on the world as you waltz through it.

There a just a few things I think are important and want to share.

We are all here for you always no matter what. Unconditional!

Strangers are just friends we have not met yet. That said, friends never ask you to do things that would harm you or others. Ever!

The look both way rule that your dad taught you as a little girl? I can’t tell you how much of life that one works for. Look both ways Rosie, look up and down, in and out and just everywhere. Don’t miss a thing!  You are a smart, strong, funny, creative, stunning young woman. Don’t ever forget it!

I love you and am so very proud of you and will miss you more than I have words to convey.

tina

ps. I promise not to cry until you leave today.