How I Spent My Three-Day Weekend

What better way to turn your back on January than to head north for a couple of days with your knitting friends? So that's what we did last Friday: Steph did the legwork -- you're grand! -- and found a lakeshore 'cabin' at Boyd Lodge on the Whitefish chain of lakes. Lovely, lovely. The view looking out:




The view looking in:



Knitting requires fortification, of course. On Friday evening, that meant soup — bean with bacon. Perfect on a cold night, with wine and hearty bread on the table and a happy fire behind us. I warned everyone that I don't cook much — did you know the stove gets hot when you fiddle those knobs? — but that didn't sway anyone. Look at their optimistic faces:



No one died and no one asked me to leave, so dinner was good. Oh yes. The knitting! Looking around the room, there was a sweater in one lap, a beautiful pair of Norwegian mittens in another, a vest, a shawl, a pair of pocket linings (boring! that was me, I must confess). Hunkered next our Ott lights, we had a grand evening.

Ranks were a bit thin for awhile on Saturday:



But the others -- including myself -- soon settled in and got down to the fun at hand. Check out the crewel-work ducks on the wall:



Knitters will understand completely when I say that the day slipped into evening before we knew it ("Say, when did it get dark?"). By the time we called it a night, I had finished those tedious little pocket linings, as well as the pathetic-looking side pieces to the Jo Sharp vest. Then it time to bring this baby out of the yarn garage:



The Pine Tree Sweater, one of the shop patterns at Sisu Designs in Ely. It's from an old Vogue Knitting magazine of early '90s vintage, I believe. I'm using Cestari 3-ply, wool and yak. It is scratchy, but it shows off the patterns fabulously. And, the sweater at Sisu washed up marvelously. Since I've been home, it's become clear that I'm not the only one who thought it was time to pull it out again. I can't get her off the thing!



Thank you all for a terrific weekend -- Carolyn, Julie, Astri and Dawn -- and a round of applause to Steph for putting it all together. Next time, JudyA. and Pat have to come, too.