I have returned!
Feb. 7th, 2005 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So, I only had to go to skip=240 on my flist to catch up. What gives? ;-)
Kripalu was *fantastic*. I'm going to try to write a coherant summation here, but for more knitting related info for those of you who are interested, see my blog where I'll be posting the workshop details shortly.
Thursday evening, my original plan was to go to Wolfe Fiber Arts and grab some last minute supplies, but they'd announced the closing of the store, so I headed to The Yarn Shop instead. That actually worked out well, because I noticed Karen Allen's name on the cover of Vogue Knitting and grabbed the magazine. There's a nice 2 page article on her, and it even mentioned that she was teaching at Kripalu that weekend! This was good because I got to actually see what sort of work she does--incredible colorwork sweaters. It scared me a bit, but I knew at least I was on the right track with the yarns I was taking. Crashed at
automat76's house so she could drive me to the airport in the morning.
I started writing these and they are long, so I'm cutting day by day, with photos
Friday morning made it to the airport with just enough time to check my bags, and walk through security and basically get right on the plane. Changed planes in Baltimore, then caught the shuttle at the Albany airport to Kripalu with six other women, one of whom was in my program. The rest were all there for yoga teacher training, but several of them were knitters as well. This would ultimately be the theme of the weekend--meeting more people who knitted than didn't. Had a great conversation on the shuttle with a yoga teacher from Baltimore about things like urban sprawl, and why there's such a resurgance in craft, and yoga, and other things. I saw her again Saturday afternoon and she was just so excited about the piece I was working on in the workshop. Cool woman, and of course, I cannot begin to remember her name.
Check in was swamped. There were about 20 people waiting to check in when our shuttle got in, so they had us stow our bags, then hang out in the lounge drinking tea until our rooms were ready. I got called fairly quickly, and went down to the dorm where I met two of my roommates. They were Midge & Pidge, the alter egos of
automat76 and I, only from Connecticut instead of Minnesota. They thought it was fabulous that I was a knitter because I was so "young." They were a hoot.
I started to realize later in the day that the vibe there was way different than last time I was there, mostly because there were just so many more people there. Last time I was there in March, in the middle of the week, and the weather was far worse. This time it was a weekend, and the beginning of several longer programs, and the weather was fantastic!
I did the afternoon gentle yoga class, then after dinner we started our first session with Karen. Some of us had an inkling that we were one of the larger programs there that weekend, and we were right. We met in the Main Chapel, which is one of the larger rooms there. (Photo)
We had 50 people, which was more than twice what Kripalu had originally expected when they printed the catalogs.
Karen is a wonderfully creative and friendly person, and she gave us a really good intro to what we'd be doing, then had us very quickly introduce ourselves. Only three people there weren't from either the Northeast or DC, and weirdly, the three of us had sat together--myself, Diane from Chicago who had been on my shuttle, and Therese from New Orleans. There were about 10 people from Long Island alone.
Breakfast was the best meal last time I went to Kripalu, but after that I started to eat a lot more hot cereals, so it's normal to me now. Lunch excelled this time.
I didn't make it up for 6 am yoga, but that's to be expected. We started the knitting program at 8 though, and this time actually got into the knitting. Basically, she teaches a colorwork technique that makes finishing a lot easier, because you don't end up with millions of little ends. More on that in the knitting blog.
It was also announced that the yarn shop in Lenox, MA (Colorful Stitches) was having their annual sale, so lots of us carpooled down into town to take a visit. They had some yarns at 70% off! I got a new Noro yarn at 50% off, and some more colors from the workshop. It was just coincidence that they have a sale Super Bowl weekend, and that we were there that weekend, but it worked out well for all parties involved I think. Looks like the sale is valid on their website too!
Ran around taking photos of the view and the melting snow buddha and such then. They are here.
I had an aromatherapy massage after the afternoon session (Sandalwood and Orange) and I think it ratcheted the migraine I'd been brewing up a notch. I did some yoga in the other chapel, then went to dinner and didn't feel so hot. I find it odd that I can do yoga by myself at home, but not push myself so hard, but doing it by myself in a dedicated space actually encouraged me to do something with it.
They let us use an empty room near the Saturday night drum concert to knit since there wasn't enough light in the chapel the concert was in. A handful of us came, and that was a lot of fun to just sit there and work on things and chat. People from other programs were wandering in as well, and were really interested in our things. It's odd because it's hard not to say "oh, it's nothing" sometimes when someone compliments you, because sometimes the easiest things look the most impressive.
At 5 am, I was out in the hallway of the dorm pacing after shooting an Imitrex up my nose, so once again, I did not make it to early yoga. However, the headache did go away after an enormous breakfast.
Sunday morning Karen did a short session on how to design a sweater pattern based on one you already own and like the fit of. Most of it was confirmation to me that I was going down the right road, but the neckline and armhole shaping ideas were really good. We did show and tell then, where we all (or at least all of us who were still around, because we ran over and several people had to run to catch shuttles and busses) put the pieces we'd been working on down on the ground and took some photos of the resulting "quilt". (Photo) (And because mine's cut out of that one, photo of mine.) The thing I am amazed by is that every single one of those pieces were done during the weekend, so there was no extensive time for planning, or anything like that. And in many cases, the yarns were just scraps that Karen had brought with her in a large basket. Even that huge one in the front was done this weekend--that woman was the fastest knitter I've ever seen--it was amazing to watch.
We had to all run then and be out of the dorms by noon, but my shuttle wasn't until 3:30, so I did one last yoga class, then one last yummy lunch (vegan cream of tomato soup and tempeh "tuna" melts) then it took me a good 1/2 hour to get my bags repacked once I'd changed back into real world clothes again and got all the yarn back into the suitcase.
I worked on the first square of my sister's wedding gift afghan on the flights there and back, and after ripping out a lot of work Friday, I have about half a square done. Photo here of that. This is a fun project.
Oh, and for anyone who might be wondering, someone did ask Karen about her role in the Indiana Jones movies at the end of the workshop Sunday, and she said that it was never planned for her to be in the second and third movies, but if the script ever gets done for the fourth, they've told her she's in it.
I also realized that I failed to take photos of any of Karen's samples of her work in my rush Sunday, but one of the other women from the workshop is supposed to be emailing out her photos to us soon, so I'll have those then.
Kripalu was *fantastic*. I'm going to try to write a coherant summation here, but for more knitting related info for those of you who are interested, see my blog where I'll be posting the workshop details shortly.
Thursday evening, my original plan was to go to Wolfe Fiber Arts and grab some last minute supplies, but they'd announced the closing of the store, so I headed to The Yarn Shop instead. That actually worked out well, because I noticed Karen Allen's name on the cover of Vogue Knitting and grabbed the magazine. There's a nice 2 page article on her, and it even mentioned that she was teaching at Kripalu that weekend! This was good because I got to actually see what sort of work she does--incredible colorwork sweaters. It scared me a bit, but I knew at least I was on the right track with the yarns I was taking. Crashed at
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
I started writing these and they are long, so I'm cutting day by day, with photos
Friday morning made it to the airport with just enough time to check my bags, and walk through security and basically get right on the plane. Changed planes in Baltimore, then caught the shuttle at the Albany airport to Kripalu with six other women, one of whom was in my program. The rest were all there for yoga teacher training, but several of them were knitters as well. This would ultimately be the theme of the weekend--meeting more people who knitted than didn't. Had a great conversation on the shuttle with a yoga teacher from Baltimore about things like urban sprawl, and why there's such a resurgance in craft, and yoga, and other things. I saw her again Saturday afternoon and she was just so excited about the piece I was working on in the workshop. Cool woman, and of course, I cannot begin to remember her name.
Check in was swamped. There were about 20 people waiting to check in when our shuttle got in, so they had us stow our bags, then hang out in the lounge drinking tea until our rooms were ready. I got called fairly quickly, and went down to the dorm where I met two of my roommates. They were Midge & Pidge, the alter egos of
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
I started to realize later in the day that the vibe there was way different than last time I was there, mostly because there were just so many more people there. Last time I was there in March, in the middle of the week, and the weather was far worse. This time it was a weekend, and the beginning of several longer programs, and the weather was fantastic!
I did the afternoon gentle yoga class, then after dinner we started our first session with Karen. Some of us had an inkling that we were one of the larger programs there that weekend, and we were right. We met in the Main Chapel, which is one of the larger rooms there. (Photo)
We had 50 people, which was more than twice what Kripalu had originally expected when they printed the catalogs.
Karen is a wonderfully creative and friendly person, and she gave us a really good intro to what we'd be doing, then had us very quickly introduce ourselves. Only three people there weren't from either the Northeast or DC, and weirdly, the three of us had sat together--myself, Diane from Chicago who had been on my shuttle, and Therese from New Orleans. There were about 10 people from Long Island alone.
Breakfast was the best meal last time I went to Kripalu, but after that I started to eat a lot more hot cereals, so it's normal to me now. Lunch excelled this time.
I didn't make it up for 6 am yoga, but that's to be expected. We started the knitting program at 8 though, and this time actually got into the knitting. Basically, she teaches a colorwork technique that makes finishing a lot easier, because you don't end up with millions of little ends. More on that in the knitting blog.
It was also announced that the yarn shop in Lenox, MA (Colorful Stitches) was having their annual sale, so lots of us carpooled down into town to take a visit. They had some yarns at 70% off! I got a new Noro yarn at 50% off, and some more colors from the workshop. It was just coincidence that they have a sale Super Bowl weekend, and that we were there that weekend, but it worked out well for all parties involved I think. Looks like the sale is valid on their website too!
Ran around taking photos of the view and the melting snow buddha and such then. They are here.
I had an aromatherapy massage after the afternoon session (Sandalwood and Orange) and I think it ratcheted the migraine I'd been brewing up a notch. I did some yoga in the other chapel, then went to dinner and didn't feel so hot. I find it odd that I can do yoga by myself at home, but not push myself so hard, but doing it by myself in a dedicated space actually encouraged me to do something with it.
They let us use an empty room near the Saturday night drum concert to knit since there wasn't enough light in the chapel the concert was in. A handful of us came, and that was a lot of fun to just sit there and work on things and chat. People from other programs were wandering in as well, and were really interested in our things. It's odd because it's hard not to say "oh, it's nothing" sometimes when someone compliments you, because sometimes the easiest things look the most impressive.
At 5 am, I was out in the hallway of the dorm pacing after shooting an Imitrex up my nose, so once again, I did not make it to early yoga. However, the headache did go away after an enormous breakfast.
Sunday morning Karen did a short session on how to design a sweater pattern based on one you already own and like the fit of. Most of it was confirmation to me that I was going down the right road, but the neckline and armhole shaping ideas were really good. We did show and tell then, where we all (or at least all of us who were still around, because we ran over and several people had to run to catch shuttles and busses) put the pieces we'd been working on down on the ground and took some photos of the resulting "quilt". (Photo) (And because mine's cut out of that one, photo of mine.) The thing I am amazed by is that every single one of those pieces were done during the weekend, so there was no extensive time for planning, or anything like that. And in many cases, the yarns were just scraps that Karen had brought with her in a large basket. Even that huge one in the front was done this weekend--that woman was the fastest knitter I've ever seen--it was amazing to watch.
We had to all run then and be out of the dorms by noon, but my shuttle wasn't until 3:30, so I did one last yoga class, then one last yummy lunch (vegan cream of tomato soup and tempeh "tuna" melts) then it took me a good 1/2 hour to get my bags repacked once I'd changed back into real world clothes again and got all the yarn back into the suitcase.
I worked on the first square of my sister's wedding gift afghan on the flights there and back, and after ripping out a lot of work Friday, I have about half a square done. Photo here of that. This is a fun project.
Oh, and for anyone who might be wondering, someone did ask Karen about her role in the Indiana Jones movies at the end of the workshop Sunday, and she said that it was never planned for her to be in the second and third movies, but if the script ever gets done for the fourth, they've told her she's in it.
I also realized that I failed to take photos of any of Karen's samples of her work in my rush Sunday, but one of the other women from the workshop is supposed to be emailing out her photos to us soon, so I'll have those then.