Madrona Fiber Arts - Winter Retreat

I spent 4 glorious days last week at the Madrona Fiber Arts winter retreat held in Tacoma, WA. The annual event began 10 years ago by fiber enthusiasts who wanted to bring great knitting, spinning and weaving teachers to the Northwest. The camaraderie, creative energy, and the sharing that is generated among students and teachers is what makes it a truly unique and extremely popular event. Dozen's of classes take place from Thursday to Sunday and offer everything from Latvian Mittens, Cool Socks, Designing Self Striping Yarns to Japanese Tailored Knitting and Productive Spindling.
The annual Charity Night collected jillions of knitted items and over $6K for charities such as Doctors Without Borders and Heifer International as well as those supporting the Shetland Museum and local disadvantaged children. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was the featured speaker. Her words of wisdom coupled with frequent humor was unforgettable. She is an amazing woman with a great humility and I adored her. Friday evening brought a presentation by Cat Bordhi who must be some sort of sock knitting goddess. A gallery showcasing the Madrona's teachers' work as well as that of Nihon Vogue students, including yours truly.Saturday lunch was an opportunity for Nihon Vogue knitters in Year Two to get together with Year One students. It was fun to hear about their projects and to get to know Jan, Allison, Leslie, Donna and others better as well as learn how they are faring in the intense program. As always it was good to see fellow Nihon Vogue classmates: Arlene, Scottie, Andrea, Candace, Helen, Sarah, Caryn, Naomi, Melinda, Phyllis and Karen. I had the privilege of meeting knitters from Arkansas, Virginia, Maryland and Canada. The Saturday evening was a banquet dinner and a presentation from premier designer, Elsebeth Lavold of Sweden. She gave a fascinating presentation on the intersection of knitting and ancient Viking symbols. Her inspiration comes from the ornamentation of Viking age relics such as monumental rock carvings to runic inscriptions to small pieces of jewelry. The ingenuity in which these ancient Nordic symbols are translated to fiber is astounding. She has more than a dozen knitwear books published and a line of yarn in her name. Her work will be included in the "Knitting Along the Viking Trail" exhibit at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle from February 6 to April 5, 2009
A sampling of the instructors at the event include Ruth Sorensen from Denmark who makes the most wonderful mittens, shawls, sweaters. Her beaded wristlets are based on traditional work as well as her own designs; Sally Melville who is coming out with a new book next month in collaboration with her daughter. Unfortunately I didn't sign up for her classes at Madrona but I have taken many classes led by her in the past and enjoy her creativity, design sense and great teaching style; Jean Wong, my wonderful, patient and immensely talented Nihon Vogue instructer who teaches the extremely popular Tailored Knitting and Fine Finishing Techniques classes; Gloria Tracy's Multicolor Knitting - a class I would like to take in the future after seeing her colorful, textured designs and creative way of stacking buttons; Nancy Bush, Vivian Hoxbro, Joan Schrouder, Ann Bourgeois of Philosopher's Wool and the list of fantastic instructors goes on and on.
I signed up 4 classes: "Bead Knitting On The Edge" by Betsy Hershberg. This was her very first year teaching at Madrona and she was worth the wait! She combines my love of knitting and beading in the most exquisite jewelry creations. The second day was with the incomparable Catherine Lowe who taught a condensed version of "Foundations of Couture Knitting". I had first met her during a weekend to Portland with Arlene and Scottie. She is delightful, meticulous and thorough as anyone I have ever met. Saturday morning was "Short Row Wizardry" with the colorful, whimsical Lucy Neatby. I have many of her excellent knitting DVD's and the breadth of her knowledge and capacity to share learnings is unmatched. Sunday morning was topped off by a "Knitting for Speed" class by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. She gave an insightful presentation on why different cultures use different styles of knitting. It is dependent on what they knit since some methods are more suitable for some products than others. She uses a lever method which originated from generations of women knitting for production in order to earn a living. She knits at more than 75 stitches per minute. Blazing fast. The current world record is held by Miriam Tegels of Holland who knits at an unbelievable 118 stitches per minute. The picking method or continental is especially fast for those who knit in the round, and purl infrequently. I knit by the "throwing" or English method. I knew I was a slower knitter or euphemistically known as "deliberate" but was despondent after she timed us knitting for two minutes. Egads, I am one of the slowest knitters in the universe! No wonder I am unable to work on any projects outside of Nihon Vogue assignments! Naomi sat next to me in class and is approximately 75% faster than I am. No wonder she can turn out those fantastic lace shawls as well as finish her Nihon Vogue projects on time. I am in awe... and practice nightly the lever method of knitting. Yes I am doing that. If I don't get faster, how will I eventually knit through my stash of yarn?
The market was stocked by traditional vendors as well as some new ones: Two Swans Yarns, Acorn Street, Fancy Image Yarns, Stray Cat Woodworks, Black Water Abbey Yarns, Ernst Finely Crafted Glass etc. etc. etc. I bought some rose hued silk yarn for a shawl from Blue Moon Fiber Arts and a beaded kit for the River Run shawl from Just Our Yarn of Virginia.