Men's Spring Knitting Retreat

Wow. Although I could try, there aren't enough accurate, descriptive words to encompass the feelings and emotions I have from attending the retreat this past weekend. Others may try, but they will fail! Seriously, check out a couple of these blogs Sean's Soapbox (boston sean), Kenny from Houston, for other recaps and some feelings about the weekend. I'll add more links and pics later on as they appear.

Condensed short path: Kyle from CA led me to Ravelry, which led me to line A: the Vt. Knitters Group, which led me to meeting 4 other Vermont gay guys who knit, which led to a Vermont Men's Knit Group (no real group name exists at this time); at the same time, line B (from rav) led to the Men Who Knit group, and the development of the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat which was held at Easton Mountain Resort in Easton, New York. Please check out their website and learn more about them. Let me say, it was a great location, the staff was great, the food was good-to-great, and, as their website states, it was a "haven where people can explore the integration of body, mind, heart and spirit." That is an understatement.

Special thanks to Joe and Ted for all their hard work, time and energy, and love and sharing! Monday was like an e-mail lovefest! Between the dozens of e-mails just on my end, and all the posts on Rav, I think many of us were suffering from knitting and male knitting/spinning camaraderie withdrawal! I agree.

I'll post more later. I just wanted to get something up, with some pics. Note: as always, click on the pics to go to the larger view.

Top pic: One of the lovely green mountains surrounding the retreat.
Second from top: day old baby alpaca! So soft and warm. I.love.pacas!
Third from top: Kate from Alpacas of Easton, baby paca and mommy paca.
Fourth from top: Kate, mommy, and baby, again...
Fifth from top: Two of my many new BFF's: Left, Kenny from Houston, me in the center, and right is Jim from Hudson, New York. Both soooo sweet and lovable! (Yes, my partner was there too.)

I wanted to make sure I included enough pics of the Alpaca trip, because Ted did not get to go and missed out on seeing these cuties! (the pacas....)

Pics of the retreat:
(Below at right) These pics are from the night of the "fashion" show. Note, lower case F in fashion, and light use of the concept of show! Seriously, just kidding. There were lots of super nice designs and great work by many of the guys. It was our attempt at mocking such lovelies as Miss Banks and such.

Sorry the pics are so dark. It was a kind of dark location. Some of the pics I took across the room and in the center and they turned out dark, others I took from right in front of me and they came out much better.

The pic at right is a partial group shot of the circle. I can't tell who all of them are from this shot, but I think they are Bob from Tampa, I know Joe and Sean are in there, can't quite make out the others.

I'll have to add more tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this recap. I, as most of the other guys, am looking forward to continuing to develop these wonderful relationships formed at the retreat. As I said earlier, I am blessed, humbled and enriched by meeting these fabulous guys!

Happy knitting!