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
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| 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!!
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| Sue, Erin, Me and Julie |
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
