Report from last weekend's retreat

I’m late reporting on it as usual, but we had a great retreat at Rosie’s in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, weekend before last. I really enjoy these knitting getaways, and though it’s really only been a couple of years and we only manage it two or three times a year, it feels like I’ve known my knitting retreat buddies for ages. Amazing how comfortable I’ve come to feel with them; at least it amazes me, since it often takes me a while to warm up to people.

And, bonus, it was my birthday on Friday, so I decided not to feel guilty for indulging in a sundae at Friendly’s Friday night. Now don’t ask me what excuse I used for all the noshing I did on Sat and Sun, or all the Girl Scout Cookies I’ve been eating since. (Drat the clever co-worker who actually brings the boxes into work with the “pay as you eat” envelope on the side. Because I can resist the order forms with the little pictures, no matter how politely worded, but the actual boxes full of actual cookies, actually sitting on the actual counter? Make me run to my actual purse to see if I can actually scrape up $3.50 for a box of thin mints….sigh…..)

But I digress. In the effort to help the retail-willpower—challenged among us (and yes, I am talking about myself; how did you guess?) who are trying to a) save a bit of money and b) avoid having to move out of our houses to make more room for the stash, we decided not to go out at all Saturday. The lovely Sarah brought soup and cheese for lunch, and I even managed to contribute more cheese and bread.

I’d planned to bring homemade (sorta) bread from my usually trusty bread-maker, but unfortunately, my yeast must have been too old. Despite the nice bread smell that filled the house on Thursday night, when I opened the bread-maker I found not a light and fluffy loaf of honey-wheat berry bread, as I’d hoped and the package promised, but an unlovely, hard round substitute cannonball. Not having a cannon handy, I tossed it and vowed to just buy some. Rick, Rosie’s husband, gallantly braved the snow to pick me up at the train station (because my car is old and I’m a coward) and stopped with me at the local Dutchway. He even bought a new package of yeast (because I really need to learn to get to the point of my stories quicker!).

Then for Saturday dinner, Pam made yummy lasagna, and Pat made brachiole (steak rolls; I eat them much better than I spell them). And of course, Rosie made her wonderful French toast for Sat breakfast and eggs and potato casserole for Sunday’s breakfast.

And we did knit. I don’t want to make it seem that we only ate. Of course we knit! I also spun a little and finished a little felted purse that I’d made for Pam as a thank you for spinning supplies she’d given me at our last retreat. I was pretty proud of it, since I’d spun the yarn for it from some Romney roving that she’d given me. And no, I didn’t get a picture of it.

Sadly, I forgot my camera for the weekend, but I do have some pictures from a retreat last year, when the backyard was covered in snow, very much like it was this time. I've scattered them through this post. oh, and of course Angel (Rosie and Rick's one indoor kitty) taking a nap. Cause what good is a snowy day without a cat nap?