Last month, I went to a machine knitting retreat. It was AMAZING!
Five days in a beautiful house perched halfway down a steep hill (Lumb Bank) outside a quaint, tiny village (Heptonstall) outside a quaint small town (Hebden Bridge) in the Calderdale district of Yorkshire, England, with 15 like-minded knitters, 3 wonderful hosts and 2 expert instructors.
I'm still processing it.
For now, enjoy these photos.
Here is the house. It's the Ted Hughes Arvon Centre at Lumb Bank. I took this photo from across the very steep valley. The house is an 18th century millowner's house that once belonged to Ted Hughes, who was for a time the poet laureat of England and the husband of Sylvia Plath.
Another view of it from the "road" that leads to it. It's really not more than a track.
This is the view from the front lawn of the house, looking out more or less in the direction from which I took the first photo.
And here is the cat, Ted Hughes, who is not allowed in the house at all.
Our knitting room was in "the barn".
On day 1, we were introduced to a forthcoming pattern (holding a retreat seems an elaborate way of finding pattern testers LOL) and got to choose our yarn.
In four very intense days I knitted all of the pieces of my (secret project). It is now finished and this coming week, we retreaters are meeting up by Zoom to unveil our finished items to each other. Afterwards, Nic (Corrigan, founder of the Machine Knit Community) will release the pattern to the world.
How fun! And what a picturesque location! You're starting off your new life of retirement in all the right ways. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic to see all the photos that were posted in the MKC. and yours are an extra bonus.
ReplyDeleteSuperb blog post Kay - showcasing a beautiful Yorkshire, Machine Knitting and Ted the cat! Thanks for sharing 🙏
ReplyDeleteGreat to be back there again, its a great article Kay.
ReplyDelete