Knitting on the Coast

Every year I go on a spinning retreat in late October – early November. The last few years we went to Sunriver, but this year we were back on the coast.

This was part of our view from the house we were staying in. Of course the photo never does the ocean justice. Knitting and spinning on the coast just can’t be beat. We had a little bit of everything, sun, rain, wind, storm. Plus having a whole weekend to get so much done is fabulous. I did a ton of spinning and quite a bit of knitting.

Even though the quality of this photo isn’t great I love it. First, notice all the wine bottles? Wine drinking is always part of our retreats. There are only a few spinners/knitters in this photo, but the room is most often filled with crafty goddesses.  My wheel is the Lendrum there and the huge windows have a great view.

This cowl was the project that I started and finished while at the retreat. The pattern is the Darkside Cowl by Sara Fama. The yarn is handspun BFL. I got the fiber from Crown Mountain Farms during OFFF as part of my “expand my color pallet” project.

I know everyone has their colors that they gravitate towards. For me it tends to be blues, greens, purples and deep reds. This fall though I decided I need to introduce orange into my pallet. Now I know you orange lovers out there will look at this and say “That’s not orange!” However, for me, this is just an introduction. I have zero orange in my stash or wardrobe, so this is a step into uncomfortable territory.

I had a similar journey with red. Ten years ago if you asked me about wearing red, I would have explained that red was just not my color. Somehow, starting with maroon, then brick red, and slowly all the way to fire red, the lovely color was introduced into my comfort zone.

I have been wearing this quite a bit, and it was great to take to Colorado while traveling. So much more compact than a scarf. The stitch pattern in this cowl is the same as the Escalator Socks that I knit a year ago. It’s a very fun stitch pattern to knit and adds a nice subtle texture.

What colors do you avoid? Ever try adding them into your pallet?