July 22, 2016

Sip Sip Knit Retreat 2016!

Last weekend 4 teachers, 55 knitters, and 10 bottles of wine got together for one AMAZINGLY fun weekend of knitting, sipping, learning, and laughing.

I was so honored to join Melissa Leapman, Carol Sulcoski and Brooke Nico in our very first

Sip Sip Knit Retreat 2016!

The idea was born one day in early spring, when the four of us were texting and wishing we could see each other more often. We thought, since we have been teaching for so many years, that we might be able to put together a knitting retreat. Of course we wanted it to have, not only wonderful classes, not only wonderful shopping, but to include fun, laughter, and . . . let’s be honest . . . another element that was important to us, a bit of wine :).

Thus, Sip Sip Knit Retreat was born.

Let the planning begin . . .

One thing that we all agreed early on was important to us, was to make it VERY reasonably priced. We also wanted to honor all the local fans. Since we were going to do our first retreat in St Louis, home of Brooke Nico and Kirkwood Knittery, we knew that some knitters would want to come by for the party and take one or two classes, but wouldn’t need to stay at the hotel. So, in addition to the “all in” Magnum package, we offered smaller packages (Flight and Split). This allowed folks to come for part of the event. We were SOOOO thrilled to have so many locals join us, in addition to the third of our attendees who flew in from all over the country!

The other thing we knew we could provide our knitters (since we are all designers), were exclusive SSK pattern kits. We all go to knit with Carol’s amazingly beautiful, hand dyed Black Bunny Fibers Yarns and created a few wine inspired patterns: Bacchus Cowl, Clos Grapevine Scarf, Chambourein Wrap, Siduri, and Pendelbogen (now available as individual pattern downloads.)

As the event got closer, we started to get really excited and Carol created all this wonderful images that really nailed the spirit of the event.

It’s hard to explain how wonderful the weekend truly was. We got to spend time with over 50 of the brightest, most talented, funniest, and most delightful knitters you’d ever want to meet.

THANK YOU to all who joined us and a big thank you to all our generous sponsors for contributing to our pretty amazing goodie bags!

Stay tuned for information on our next one (think March 2017!). Until then, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.