Annual Fall Knitting Retreat

My knitting group has gone on a knitting weekend the past 2 years. In my mind that means it's an annual thing and we'll be doing it "forever". We have fun. We have a lot of fun. Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon with nothing to think about but enjoying friend's company; knitting and eating incredibly good (and surprisingly healthy) food.

This year 11 of us headed an hour south to Red Wing Minnesota. We rented a house thru vrbo.com and were really pleased with our weekend home. It was just over on the Wisconsin side with a beautiful view and lots of room to spread out.

Knitters need lots of room to spread out because they have lots of projects going at the same time.

We had wonderful food. Being a house we could bring our own food and not worry about going out to restaurants. This group knows how to cook! Homemade butternut squash soup - chili - vegetable lasagna - and so much more. YUM!

Saturday we headed out to Riverside Suri Alpacas. A farm in Lake City. Dana has 36 alpacas and a few cows. We had free run of the pasture and had a ball bonding with the alpaca.

They all have their own personality. This little girl reminded me of a meerkat

Cute Alpaca

Meerkat

Some of the alpacas had incredibly huge teeth. Dana told us the teeth keep growing and they are trimmed every year. That just sounds painful to me. Back when I was an avid swimmer I dove a bit too deep in the pool and hit bottom. I chipped a tooth (and luckily didn't break my neck!) But my dentist filed the tooth down to even it out. That tooth was so sensitive for a long time, I really feel for the alpacas.

From what I've found out these teeth get long in the males. They're the fighting teeth so they can "prevent" the other males from being competition for the females. (think about it, you'll figure it out!)

 Then there was Sarah. We bonded. I stood and scratched her ears while she snuggled her head into the crook of my arm for about 5-10 minutes.After a bit Sarah decided to sit down and Rosie got in the act.

According to Dana, Sarah is so sweet that she let Rosie nurse from her even though Rosie isn't her baby. While we were there, Rosie decided she was hungry and she would not leave Sarah alone. Sweet Sarah just sat and let Rosie crawl all over her but wasn't about to be on the dinner menu.

Saturday night ended with more excitement then we planned. About midnight we heard a crackle and thought nothing of it. A few minutes later we decided maybe we should figure out what it was. One of the ladies got up and checked the other room. After making a few rounds she noticed the ceiling fan was on fire! Yup! we had an electrical fire.

The power to the light was turned off along with the fire going down to just smoke. A couple of the ladies headed downstairs to find the circuit breaker and we woke up the few that were sleeping in case we needed to leave. Circuit breaker found - doors opened to deal with the smoke fumes - the really bad smoke fumes. The owner was called and a message left cause he didn't answer and we discussed whether or not to call the fire dept. Better safe than sorry so we gave them a call and 20 minutes later we had many- many fire fighters in full gear with masks on and 2 policemen at the door. They checked out the fan with a heat sensor and declared it safe. Meanwhile the owner said he was on his way but about 1 hour to get there.

Rumors have it we giggled a lot with the firemen and the policeman said something about not wanting to come back because of a rowdy party (he was laughing at the time so we weren't worried). Everyone left around 1:00 am which meant we didn't get to bed until after 2 cause it took a while to calm down from the unplanned party.

So, we had fun. I always have fun with these ladies. They talk my language - knit. I can't wait till next year's retreat. Lucky, I don't have to wait that long to see everyone, knit night is Thursday!

Knitting + Food + Goats + Friends= a Great Time

I'm a little slow in posting this but - a couple weekends ago my local knitting group headed out of town to Lanesboro, MN and the Cottage House Inn. We spent Friday afternoon to Sunday morning thinking about nothing but knitting and friendship. It's something all groups should do at some point and we plan on making it a regular event.

The people at the Inn were wonderful. They gave us the meeting room to camp out in for no additional cost. This room had tables to sit at and several comfy places to sit - couches and chairs. It also included a refrigerator/freezer, microwave, sink, and several plug ins for crock pots on a counter. We took advantage of all these things.

We didn't plan any meals but all brought food. The shocking thing about this was - it was probably the healthiest retreat I've ever been to. Fresh fruit and veg, salads, yummy soup and meat dishes. Everything was wonderful.

After staying up way too late Friday night (past midnight) we all headed to our rooms and planned to meet for breakfast at the local Pastry Shop cafe. Again the food was great. They had Vegetable scrams that were a ton of fresh vegetables with scrambled eggs and homemade toast and grapes. All for $4.00. You gotta love small town cafes!

Back at the Inn we sat around and knit. Early afternoon some of us headed over to the local Mohair Goat farm to pet the goats and buy some yarn. Austin's Mohair's is a fun place just outside Harmony, MN. The whole farm is purple which made PurpleKathy (one of our group) very happy.

There was a purple shop, a purple barn, purple fences, purple everywhere. Inside we met Ada. What a character! She is the Old Goat Lady and worth the trip just to meet her. Many things in the shop are made from yarn from her goats by local ladies. Ada helps ladies around the area who have ended up in welfare and can't make ends meet.

There's also mohair yarn to buy. Yup - there's purple yarn with PurpleKathy (note the purple turtleneck and sweatshirt) zooming in on it -some did go home with her.



The other side of the shop had items from the local ladies and other fiber goodies.

Once we made our purchases we headed out to the barn to say HI to the local critters.

These guys looked pretty tired and the one of the left reminded me of Lee Marvin in the movie "Cat Ballou. OK I admit that's a pretty old reference but- there's a famous scene where he's on his horse drunk leaning against the side of the building. Ya gotta give me this one!

This cute little guy loved getting pet, especially his horns. I never noticed before but goat horns are warm and they have the silliest grin on their faces.

Meanwhile - we headed back to the Inn and got back to some serious knitting....

and eating with knitting.......

Our final morning we headed back to the Pastry Shop cafe and had their Sunday morning special - Spinach, Swiss Cheese, and Ham stuffed Crepes. Huge serving, tasted great and only $5. Then back to the Inn and home.

This was the weekend after my Dad's funeral and was such a great way to get back into things and start a new life. I suddenly don't have any parents to have to look after. There won't be any calls from a nurse telling me I need to head over to the hospital or Dad needs some special care item. I spent the entire weekend just enjoying my friends and not worrying about anything. It will take time to get used to this but I know Mom & Dad would be happy I'm able to do things now.