I was pretty peeved yesterday, and was thinking (in my oh-so-mature way) "fine - I won't show them what I bought - that'll teach 'em!" (hey, I warned you about the maturity.) But Alissa politely asked, so the rest of you are spared the misery of not knowing. You may thank her as you wish.

First the magical things that came with the price of admission:
Here's Jen Claus delivering the bags of goodies to all the good little girls from the dye workshop.


And here's proof that you can fit an the 8.5 oz of dye workshop yarn on a ballwinder that's supposed to only hold 4 oz. All it takes is stubbornness borne of red hair and Scottish ancestry.


Everyone who attended got this very cool little drawstring backpack/baggy thingy.


and after a quick trip to the swap table (where to be fair, I did drop off MANY things which were quickly swept up by others), mine soon held enough lovely soft cotton for a summer sweater, pattern yet to be designed...


Saturday afternoon was Marketplace time, where our vendors set up little booths and sold to their hearts content to the masses of fiber-high knitters.

I bought a headband kit from Annie based on the sample she had out - so very fun looking, and tactile and lovely. Of course, the camera didn't want to take a picture of such shiny goodness, so you're just going to have to trust that it's attractive. You can find out how to get a kit for yourself from her website - very reasonable price and time committment for last minute gifts!

From Barbara's and Jen's

I bought these things: the fiber is the third braid of that lovely merino/silk blend I bought at Rhinebeck, and the Spinners Companion and Woolwash are from Barbara

(I was hoping the orange of the book would confuse the camera and get a more accurate picture of the braid, since it doesn't want to take a good picture of that color... it actually kind of worked, that's pretty close...)

From Carodan Farms, I bought Sock Yarn - try to pretend it's not washed out, you can at least get a feel for the tone of the colors



And from Clara's improvised boutique, I bought some gel pens, a pack of "Isle of Ewe" note cards, and a needle point kit.

(no, I don't know how to needlepoint, why do you ask?)

And one last thing, not technically retreat related, but I'm so darn proud of it. A few months ago, a group of us who met online at Knitters Review, and in person at the first retreat, were inspired by Spin Offs afghan project - where the same roving is divided up between various people who then have the task of making an afghan, and the only rule is that their squares have to be 8", anything else goes. Here's what we did with the project:

And Super Clara, who does so much more than she gets credit for - runs a warm and welcoming website filled with opportunity and encouragement for knitters of all levels, answers thousands of e-mails a day, organizes amazing retreats, and is an phenomenol friend to boot...

she deserves a cape, no?