Seattle- West Coast Men's Fall Knitting Retreat- Day 1

wild blackberries on the side of the street

Shoppes of Bainbridge

Streets of Bainbridge Island

Another view of the Grounds at Dumas Bay.  This could be seen from the window of our conference room.

The grounds at Dumas Bay

View of  Seattle from Ferry

Churchmouse

Another view from the Ferry

So I arrived in Seattle the day before the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat (MFKR) began.  It was a very long day as I had a 2.5 hour drive to the Airport, then about 7 hours on the plane.  I had a great deal of time to knit that day.  I knit in the truck with my dad driving to the airport, while I waited for the first leg of the flight, during the 2 hour layover in Charlotte, and on the 5 hour flight to Seattle.  I was so tired when I got to Seattle that I had to decline an invitation for dinner and company from some of the other men who were attending.  I got a great night's sleep and a little exercise the next morning.  Kerry picked me up from the hotel and we got breakfast before we picked up Kurt at the airport.  Then we all went to Bainbridge Island for a couple of hours.  Churchmouse was the most awesome yarn shop I have had the opportunity in which to shop in several years.  I got some beaded silk yarn (for my lovely wife), cotton bamboo for a baby hat, and knitting needles that I needed for my own hat project.  Kurt got a bite to eat at an organic food store and then we headed off to All Points Yarn.  We visited with Morgan for about an hour then headed to Dumas Bay Retreat Center for a weekend of fun.  Dinner was great and then I had Spinning Class with Michael (not stationary biking).  It was great to learn the in's and out's of making my own yarn.  I brought back about  8 ounces of wool top to practice spinning.   After I spun I went downstairs to check out my swag bag.  It was a drawstring backpack from Skacel that was loaded with yarn,  a men's pattern book from Noro yarns, the brand new "Entre to Entrelac" book from XRX, inc. (who sponsored the scholarship my wife won for me), and a notebook full of patterns by up and coming designers I have admired for quite some time.  And I forgot, after dinner we had a raffle and I won a huge hank of lace weight alpaca from Briar Rose.  It is in dark natural masculine colors.  What a great evening.  I sat up and knit with several of the guys while another class was going on.  Then it was off to bed.  More to come on day 2 tomorrow.  Stay tuned.