Our Stitch 'N' Bitch Weekend: Part One

We managed to fit a lot in to our two day knitting retreat. As a result I am splitting the blog post into parts. Otherwise it would be one very large blog post. Also I won't be posting all the photo's here. You will be able to see them on our flickr page which I will update soon and post a link to that particular set of photo's to the side of the blog.

We were immediately welcomed upon arrival at Gartmore. Tea or coffee with cake and biscuits were all set out for us while Ginnie got us all organised. We were given a large room with lots of sunlight, tables and comfortable sofa's.

As we settled the first thing we did was show off some of our finishes. The above photo's show Janette's white on white pram quilt. You can see all the detail that has went into it. The other side of the quilt is exactly the same. We were all stunned by how lovely it is.


Magdalena managed to finish her shawl on time for the weekend. She wore it most of the weekend and who can blame her. It truly is lovely.

The rest of the morning was spent working on our own projects. Janette could be heard whizzing away on her sewing machine. She was working on her kimono's. Laura was working on a crochet blanket. The yarn she is using is self striping and each row is in a different colour. Ginnie was knitting up some squares for our charity. You can see Aileen and Sheena working on some cross stitch.

Our lunch was lovely and we probably wouldn't have been able to move had it not been for most of us looking forward to Donna's crochet class.

I don't think poor Donna knew what she was getting herself into when she offered to teach this class. She may have mentioned that we were worse than the kids she teaches (although that probably had more to do with all the innuendo's flying around).

Still, look at the concentration on the faces of Elaine and Linda. Despite the hard time we gave Donna we were determined to learn and she had the patience of a saint.

Whilst we were doing that the others worked away on their own projects. Helen was knitting a pair of fingerless gloves using Regia Hand-Dye Effect yarn. Magdalena was working on a cardigan for her daughter using cotton.

Janette had moved on to yet another project. It's a pity you can't see the detail but there are stitched snowflakes on the quilt which was what she was working on.

Everyone managed to finish a square but Val and Margaret were finished quite quickly as did Roberta. After much grumbling of not being able to do it their determination payed off.

Aileen here is so proud of her 'free style' square. Although she did try again and managed a square but decided she preferred crocheting in straight lines.