Opps forgot the group picture, L to R Dorothy, Carol, Holly, JorJan, me & sitting JoAn

What did I bring home on my fall vaction? Part Two

After we finally unloaded the car, we went our separate way, only because Katie stays on the top floor and I'm down on the second floor. When I walked in the building an old feeling comes over me, kind of like coming home, because there sat my friends of twenty years already there and waiting for me. There was Dorothy, who's birthday it was, and Carol, JoAn, Holly & Jan, my partners in knitting crime (if there is such a thing). We've been sharing this area together for a few years with another group. Now, you have to know there have been up to one hundred and fifty of us knitters at this retreat, and allot of them have been coming for as long as we have. So I get my chair all set up, and by the way I got this really nice new chair too, it has a table on the side and a bunch of pockets, I'm styling. Holly brought some home made soup, so we all decided to stay and eat that for dinner so we could catch up on the last year. I promised Lonny I would take care of my self, rest when I needed to and all that, well I told him when Dorothy says she going to bed then I will too. So when Dorothy said she was going to bed, I soon followed. In the morning, well let me not bore you with to many details, but we do get many of our meals there at the forts fairly new and very nice building were they have a restaurant feeling help your self cafeteria. Some of the most laughs we have have been there. As the days go on, and we have hit some new knit shops and some familiar ones, we continue to enjoy each others company, as we do every year and will continue to. When it's time to pack up and leave and take that group picture as we always do. I'm standing at the railing waving goodbye to my long time friends, all the emotions come and I'm thinking how lucky I am to be able to continue doing this every year. Crying comes easy, because I know it's going to a whole year before we do this again. So what did I bring home from my vacation? The sense of being cared for and loved, and knowing that because of something we have in common, knitting this will continue to bring us together year after year. Diana

What did I bring home on my fall vacation

Beautiful hand dyed yarns, by Heidi.

Port Gamble Wa.

What did I bring home on my fall vacation? Well lets start from the beginning. My vacation is, every year at the same time, same place, and I love it that way, because I have learned that I am most definitely a creature of habit. This has been a habit now for twenty years, some people smoke, or fix cars etc, I go to my knitting retreat at Fort Warden. Now this was the first year in some time I have broken a tradition, I usually drive to Everett and pick up my friend Carol, and we have our routine. Well since I've moved this routine has become difficult because of the long hours of driving. So it only made good sense to change that and make a different plan. Well a year ago Katie moved here, and lives only a half mile from me. I originally knew of Katie from going to Knitting retreat, she had her friends there that she hung out with, and she lived in Seattle. Over the years when we were working on this house, I would run into her at the Saturday Market in Twisp, she told me she was also planning on moving here. Well long story short she did move and I'm grateful she did for many reasons, but one being she and I can drive to retreat together. Change can be good sometimes, and this has been good in that Katie knows and goes to many different places then I've ever been. So our route this year was to travel over the North Cascades highway, take I-5 to Edmond's and drive to Port Gamble, because there is a new spinning and knitting shop right in the beautiful down town area. The shop is called The Artful Ewe. The shop is owned by Heidi Parra, and she dyes beautiful yarns and spinning fiber and I came home with some. Then we were off to Bainbridge, well Katie has her trusty map with her and as Katie will be Katie we took a back road and found our way there just fine and pass up all the heavy traffic areas. The yarn store we were to visit is called Church Mouse, and its a very trendy yarn store. The store was having a display of Fair Isle knitted items, being Katie is prolific at this style of knitting she had plenty to offer them. So I believe I found the prefect cup of Espresso coffee I've ever had, after we went to Church Mouse we decided to get a snack so we went to a coffee shop called Black Birds Bakery, very awesome. So then it was time to go back up island to get to our destination, Fort Warden. We arrived about four thirty and unloaded and headed to our rooms and to see our friends. To be continued! Diana