Virginia is for (Fiber) Lovers

Good bye March!  March has left us like a lamb...thank goodness!!  It's been a miserably long winter for most of us in various parts of the country and I for one and really glad to be sending Winter on it's way.  I was able to have the sunroof open on the car yesterday AND today.  The weather reminded me I had not completed my little missive about the Virginia Beach Yarn Getaway.  So without further procrastination.... Come with me to the Virginia Coast!

Virginia Beach Yarn Getaway weekend, aka VBYG was held at the SpringHill Suites VA Beach Oceanfront February 20-23, 2014.  If you are looking for a yarn-y winter escape, this retreat is a great option:
   - intimate (about 25 attendees)
   - relaxed schedule with lots of knitting/spinning time
   - Food ranging from $-$$, free hotel continental breakfast
   - 2 lovely LYSs a short driving distance from the hotel

View from my hotel room balcony
  

VBYG is the brainchild of Martha Hulse (aka knitcrit on Ravelry), avid knitter, spinner and Virginia resident.  I first met Martha in November, 2013 at the Knitting Pipeline Retreat held in Portland, Maine ( aka KPMainer - future blog fodder!).  As with most successful gatherings, talk turned to "when are we going to see each other again? We don't want to wait a whole year!"  This lead to several of us tossing around the idea of another east coast retreat - maybe something to break up the winter.  Martha took the idea and ran with it! In December she sent out an email saying she was gathering information for a possible retreat and by January it was a done deal. Links were posted in threads on Ravelry for retreat and hotel registrations and VBGY was born!

I was met at the Norfolk Airport by two friends from the KPMainer retreat, Erin (blog) and Julie (blog) and from there we headed to the hotel to complete registration and pick up our swag bags !  My roommate, Sue from PA had already arrived, having stopped at the grocers to stock up on snacks & beverages (terrific roomie I must add! and thanks for the spirits! LOL).

Night one was great; casual dinner on our own.  We  opted to eat at a pizza place across the street from the hotel.  One thing:  February in VA Beach, because it's the off season, not much is open.  But what we did find open was well worth the trip: Planet Pizza! We didn't try the pizza that visit but ordered salads and the best artichoke dip any of us had ever had!  It was so good we went back for another meal and ordered the artichoke dip plus another to go!  We decided to save the pizza for our return next year.  However, while leaving from our second visit,  I picked up one of their t-shirts for one of my sons...tagline:  "You Bet Uranus Our Pizza's Great!"  LOL

Day 2 was pretty unstructured.  Breakfast was provided by the hotel - typical continental style .  Following breakfast, we all met in the gathering room to meet other arriving attendees and go over the planned activities for the weekend.

Martha had arranged to have a Yarn & Wine Tasting friday night, Yarn Crawl and luncheon at the Leaping Lizard Cafe Saturday and depart on Sunday following breakfast.  We had all day Friday to hang out and get to know each other, knit/spin/crochet, see the sights, whatever.  Taking advantage of Julie's rental car, a few of us slipped away after the group meet up to do some exploring.   We ended up at a LYS called KnitWits.

 KnitWits  in Virginia Beach was a delightful find.  Extremely helpful, knowledgeable staff (Corrine was my "go to gal"!) but not the hovering type.  All kinds of accessory items (project bags, needles, etc.) and a lovely selection of yarns including one called Island Yarn that I'd not seen in other LYSs.  I bought the "Pagoda" fingering weight in Spring Green to use in the the Phoebe Scarf pattern.  We saw the sample on display, fell in  love and decided this had to be our retreat KAL.  The pattern called for KnitOne CrochetToo Kettle Tweed and Elfin.  I bought the Kettle Tweed but opted to replace the Elfin with the Island Yarn.  Will let you know what I think of it.

Back at the hotel....

The Yarn & Wine Tasting was fun.  I'd never been to one of these before.  Martha's husband handled the wine part (so sorry Martha I can't remember DH's name! ugh) and Andrea, owner of The Yarn Club, brought a sampling of yarns carried in her shop (which we would be visiting the following day).  Wine, red & white, was very good and Martha's DH was very knowledgeable.

While we sipped wines, Andrea gave us some history on her shop, the types of yarns, fibers & accessories she carries and answered any questions we might have had.   All in all it was a very informative, low-key presentation - no hard sell.  And it was  fun to see, touch and knit with the yarns Andrea brought - got us all really jazzed about our visit the following day.

Saturday's lunch at the The Leaping Lizard Cafe was delightful.  The weather cooperated and we were able to dine al fresco on their deck.  Very nice menu, wines and lucious desserts!  But enough about food...on to the  yarn crawl!!                                                                    

Sue, Erin, Me and Julie

First stop:  The Yarn Club!
Andrea was true to her description: the shop was PACKED with yarns! Malabrigo, Anzula, Cascade and Fiberspates to name a few.  She had brought in extra staff to take care of our needs as well.  I had to make three rounds through the shop just to get my bearings!  The stock was displayed by yarn weight then within that category, by company. Once I figured the layout, it was pretty intuitive for  me.  I had no problem finding things I couldn't live without!
Overall impression:   It was a wonderful shopping experience.  Location is a little tricky to find so have an extra set of eyes with you to be on the look out.  Also, the shop has a FBC (frequent buyer's card).  It wasn't offered at the time of our visit and we found out about it the following day.  But with the chaos of our visit, I'm sure it was just an oversight so be sure to ask about it.

Second stop: Knit Wits!
Coming back to this shop was like returning to an old friend.  We were greeted with smiles and laughter that we were "back again already?!  Welcome!!" Having some knowledge of the store layout gave us a slight advantage over the rest of the group, so we split up and went about our mission.  Since I had already found some yarns the previous day I didn't think there was anything more I needed.  Wrong! I found some beautiful Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk in a OOAK of reds, roses and purples which I matched up with Green Dragon Yarns Infinity in the "Strawberry Fields" color way.  I'm anxious to try the Green Dragon and was tickled to discover the company is based out of Christiansburg, VA, making it local color!  ;)
Overall Impression: Adding to what I already mentioned way up the page in this post, this is a terrific little shop.  The staff is so friendly and helpful.  The inventory is more than adequate with everything from novelty to bulky and in-between.  In with the general needlecraft accessories they also carry a line of local handmade needle/notions cases by Lawre's Laine.  I picked one up for interchangeable needles and am loving it.  It's my new travel case!

Back at the hotel to free time and just knitting and relaxing for the remainder of our time together.  Another day done and now it's departure time...How did the time pass so quickly?  Well, spending it with friends old and new, sharing fiber love and feeding off one another's creativity, guess that would explain it.

So my fellow fiber enthusiasts if you're looking for a getaway to recharge your creativity, meet some talented friendly people, and chase away the winter doldrums on the seashore, sign up for VBYG2015!  You won't regret your decision to attend.

Till our next Fiber Junket...

Julie

March-ing Onward!

Hello!

I'm so glad you dropped by for my very first post.  I imagine you're wondering why I want to join in the blogging madness.  Well,  In the coming weeks and months I will be writing about yarn, knitting, fiber, spinning, fiber retreats, festivals... all things fiber related that I have experienced.  You will also hear about my family and the friends I meet and visit while I seek out the best this industry has to offer the fiber enthusiast. So c'mon with me and hop aboard the Fiber Junket!

A little about me. I'm Julia, a permanent resident of Northwest Indiana, sometime resident of Cudjoe Key (17 miles north of Key West, FL). I was a SAHM (stay at home mom) for the past 25 years.  I say was because my youngest of 7 children took off for college in August 2013, leaving me with no job!  I view myself as retired  however, my husband, Jim  still works. I have 3 married children - two of which live out of state.  Of the remaining four, two are away at college and the last two are still at home commuting to work and school. This setup leaves me with quite a bit of spare time which I have managed to fill with various forays into the art/craft world.   I've tried my hand at many different mediums - pastel paining, oil painting, watercolor, cross-stitch, needlepoint, sculpting, quilting, ceramics - which all became boring to me once I understood the basics and accumulated the required tools & equipment.  I have a kiln in my basement to this day, which I'm sure I'll use again...  But I digress.  All of the former dabbling finally led me to where I am today: knitting and spinning.  And now blogging about it.

In the mid-1970s, my mother knitted me this wonderful, cream, knee-length cardigan/coat.  It was covered with seed stitch, buttoned up the front, had fitted cuffs and these full poet/leg-o-mutton sleeves.  The sweater had a fitted waist that Mom had lined with an ivory satin ribbon to hold its shape.  I remember wearing that sweater to work and feeling so chic at the time.  Note:  I was living in the Midwest, working in Elkhart, IN at a bank in 1978 - this was considered chic.  Anyway, I didn't really do much with knitting at that time, just scarves and simple accessory items...really just scarves.

My first project of any substance was a baby blanket I crocheted for my first child.  I was married and living in Heilbronn, West Germany, attached to the 237th Engr. Battalion.  I went to the library on base where I found a book, Learn to Crochet, bought some yarn and a hook at the Post Exchange and proceeded to create. The blanket was supposed to be square and after several failed attempts to achieve squareness, I resigned myself to the rectangularity of the finished piece.  Upon returning home to the US several months later, I showed my Grandmother the pattern (NO, I did not steal the book! I had made a handwritten copy - it was before the age of downloading & printing remember!) and asked for her advice.  Grandma worked up the pattern a couple times then called me with the verdict.  I had done the pattern correctly she said, however "the pattern is written wrong!" Where were the tech editors and test knitters that I have come to rely so heavily upon today!?  That blanket was the last thing I worked with yarn and hook for many years. 

Childrearing and housekeeping took over my life for several decades.  It wasn't until sometime in 2005 that I became aware of the new wave of fiber enthusiasts which had emerged while I was otherwise occupied.  My dear friend, Gayle, introduced me to "novelty" yarns (she was a beginner knitter herself at that time, obsessed with scarves as we all are in the beginning) and a new-to-me yarn shop which had opened up in our community called "A Stitch In Time".  One visit and I was hooked! one might say.  (Thank you Gayle for your expert enabling.)

Things had certainly changed in the retail world of fiber craft.  So many fiber bases, blends, colors, textures...so many projects and ideas just waiting to be born!  I became a regular visitor to the shop and was devastated when it closed its doors after ten years in business.  I had only just found them!!! What was I going to do?  I needed to find other supply sources and in my search for LYSs in the area, I began running across postings for retreats, fiber festivals and workshops.  I had no idea this sub-culture existed!  A whole new world had opened up for me.

Some time ago my husband was watching me frog back a section of a sweater I was working on, for the  THIRD TIME that evening!! He couldn't understand why I would put myself through the stress and frustration.  Why didn't just go out and buy that sweater??  I explained it to my husband like this:

"You know how you go out on your boat and fish for Salmon/Grouper/Bass when you could just buy it at the Market?  Well, that's how it is with me and knitting - I could go buy that hat/scarf/shawl/sweater at the Mall, but it is the act of creating (or catching if you will) that is what I need.  Not the "thing" that I've ended up with... it's the process of seeing the item come to life that keeps me motivated."  He totally understood it.

So here I am in the present, writing to you about what I love best - knitting and spinning and all that goes along with it.  I love the colors, the textures, the peacefulness I get when I place fiber in my hands.  I love the community that has welcomed me so generously and made me feel part of something bigger than myself.  I love the relationships that are formed at gatherings like retreats and informal knit groups.  I am finally content, happy and finding my way in the creative world with a confidence I have not known in other mediums.  I wanted to share my experiences with you hoping that maybe something I have written about will help guide you along your fiber journey.

I hope you will join me on the next Fiber Junket as I share with you my most recent fiber retreat: Virginia Beach Yarn Getaway.  If you're on Instagram, you can see pictures from the retreat by searching:  #VBYG2014

                                                                        

Till next time,

Julia