Signature Needle Arts'10th Birthday Celebration Retreat
Signature Needle Arts will celebrate our 10th year in business this year with our first ever knitting retreat. We’ve invited knitting rock stars Susan B. Anderson, Kate Atherley, Ann Budd, and Romi Hill to join our celebration. They will each be teaching three classes of some their amazing techniques. We hope that you will come celebrate with us!
The retreat will be held at the Abbey Resort and Avani Spa in Fontana, Wisconsin; near Lake Geneva, the weekend of October 13-15, 2017. It will begin with registration and lunch on Friday, October 13th and end following classes Sunday morning, October 15. The cost for the all-inclusive event includes two night’s lodging, all meals, one class with each teacher (four classes in all), and an amazing swag bag.
Some of the things we have planned include a Friday night vendor evening, Saturday night banquet, a chance to have your knitting needles personalized and a few other surprises. We'd love for you to join us!
A little bit about Susan B. Anderson
susanbanderson.blogspot.co
Susan is the author of several best-selling books including Itty-Bitty Hats, Itty-Bitty Nursery, Itty-Bitty Toys series, Spud & Chloe at the Farm, Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out, and Kids’ Knitting Workshop. In addition to her self-published pattern line, her designs have appeared in Parents Magazine, Knit Simple, Interweave Knits, and Noro Magazine, as well as independent yarn and design companies including Quince & Co., Infinite Twist, and Little Skein in the Big Wool. Susan is also the force behind Barrett Wool which is 100% American sourced, spun, and dyed. Visit her award-winning blog susanbanderson.blogspot.com.
Sock Yarn Bunny
Grab a ball of languishing sock yarn from your stash and turn it into an adorable seamless knit bunny! This adventure in toy knitting is based on knitting a bunny, but don't be fooled by the cuteness. The class is packed full with tons of techniques that you can use in projects other than toys. You’ll learn new and innovative skills for creating seamless top-down toys, including several techniques for picking up stitches, face embroidery, stuffing techniques and tips, after-thought techniques, and much more. Choose between a regular-size and a miniature bunny and leave class a much more confident toy knitter!
Skill level: Advanced Beginner; must feel comfortable knitting in the round.
Sheep!
Join in some seriously fun sheep and toy-knitting tips. The pattern will be provided for students. Choose between a textured wrap stitch, a loopy stitch, or some simple stranded color work as you enjoy large group discussion, small group demonstrations, and individual attention. Tips and guidance on face embroidery, stuffing tricks, fiber choices, gauge information, and ways to get your toys to look great and to stand the test of time. You’ll leave class a more confident toy-knitter!
Skill level: Advanced Beginner; must feel comfortable knitting in the round.
Fair Isle Fingerless Mitts
Pull together 150-200 yards of worsted weight yarn to make a pair of beautiful color work fingerless mitts that include corrugated ribbing, Latvian braid, and two-handed color work techniques. You’ll get lots of large and small group demonstrations as well as individual attention. The general recipe will be provided for the mitts but you’ll get to create your own version based on lots of options, charts, and examples that will be shared in class. You’ll leave a much more confident color work knitter.
Skill level: Intermediate.
A little bit about Kate Atherley
kateatherley.com
Kate is Knitty.com’s Managing Technical Editor, and a seasoned designer and teacher of all things knitterly. Her book Custom Socks: Knit to Fit Your Feet was released summer 2015 to great acclaim, and her latest book Beginner’s Guide to Writing Knitting Patterns is proving very popular among both new and experienced designers. She’s known for her attention to detail in her patterns and her classes, and she regularly teaches at stores and events across North America, including Interweave YarnFest and Vogue Knitting Live. Her work has appeared in many books and magazines.
Brioche Knitting
Brioche knitting uses a simple and clever technique to create beautiful fabrics with deep ribs and fascinating color work. It’s particularly effectively in two- colors, and is an excellent way to tame a busy variegated yarn. This class covers the skills for working brioche patterns, including reading the sometimes-complicated instructions, and fixing mistakes. You’ll leave with a one-of-a-kind shawl project well underway.
Skill level: Must be very confident with knit and purl stitches.
Soxpertise
(Homework required)
Ok, you’ve worked a few socks, now it’s time to expand your skills. In this class you’ll learn how to tweak a sock for better fit, including adding a gusset to a toe-up sock and creating leg shaping. We’ll address tricky bits such as how to avoid holes at the top of the heel, how to get a tidy gusset pick up, and special cast-ons and bind-offs. We’ll talk about both toe-up and top-down constructions and different heels and toes (and when to choose one over another). We’ll talk about the best yarns for sock knitting, and we’ll provide tips for ensuring your hand-knit socks last as long as possible.
Skill level: Intermediate; must have knitted a few pairs of socks.
Sizing & Fit—or Why the Medium Never Fits Quite Right
The biggest challenge for many knitters when choosing a pattern is knowing which size to make. This class will show you how to decide and set you well on your way to a successful and flattering sweater project. Learn how to read sizing tables and schematics to understand how a garment is sized, and how it fits. Learn to measure yourself properly and how to choose the right pattern from the start. Once you’ve chosen the pattern and size, learn easy alterations to perfect the fit and look of a garment.
Skill level: All levels.
A little bit about Ann Budd
annbuddknits.com
In addition to being a fun-loving knitaholic, Ann worked for Interweave Press for more than 20 years and is now a freelance knitting editor, author, teacher, designer, and host of her own Knit for Fun Retreats. She’s authored more than a dozen books, including the Handy Book series, Getting Started Knitting Socks, Sock Knitting Master Class, New Directions in Sock Knitting, and many of the Style series. Ann lives in Boulder, Colorado, and teaches workshops across North America and beyond.
Decorative Cast-Ons
Most of us learned a single way to cast on when we learned to knit and have used that method for every project since. But there are dozens of alternatives designed for elasticity, strength, and decoration. In this class, you’ll learn an assortment of decorative cast-on techniques that will add unexpected style to the edges of whatever you knit. Techniques will include Channel Island, I-Cord, Braid, Fringe, and others as time permits. You’ll leave with a variety of cast-on techniques that will enhance your projects.
Skill level: Advanced-beginner; must be comfortable with knit and purl stitches.
Shadow Knitting
Variously called “Japanese fine knitting” and “optical knitting, “shadow knitting” is the term introduced by Vivian Høxbro to describe a technique in which purl ridges define a pattern on a two-color striped stockinette-stitch background. The right-side ridges cast a “shadow” pattern that comes and goes depending on the angle at which it is observed. When viewed straight on, the fabric resembles simple two-row stripes. When viewed at an angle, the garter ridges predominate and a completely different pattern is visible. Learn this ingenious technique by knitting a swatch with a heart motif and leave able to create your own shadow-knitted designs.
Skill level: Advanced-beginner; must be familiar with reading charts.
Fixing Mistakes
We all run into mistakes in our knitting. The mark of a master knitter is one who can fix those mistakes without unnecessarily ripping out rows and rows of knitting. In this class, you’ll learn how the basic stitches look in a piece of knitting and practice fixing common mistakes, including picking up dropped stitches in different stitch patterns (even edge stitches!), reversing the direction of a cable turn, and correcting a snag that breaks the yarn. You’ll leave knowing that you are the master of your knitting!
Skill level: Advanced-beginner; must know how to cast-on, bind-off, knit, purl, and turn a cable.
A little bit about Romi Hill
designsbyromi.com
Romi lives on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern Nevada, where the high desert nights are cool and the air is clear and crisp. A lifelong crafter and knitter, she’s inspired by the natural surroundings in her corner of the world, which give her designs an organic flow. Romi specializes in lace of all weights, as evidenced by her substantial pattern collection on Ravelry. Romi’s lace book New Lace Knitting features timeless patterns for garments and accessories. She loves dark chocolate with chili peppers, and is a sucker for a great pair of cowboy boots.
Devilish Details
A beautiful and successful project always comes down to the details! In this class, you’ll swatch to learn techniques used in New Lace Knitting, as well as the Kitchener cast-on and bind-off, provisional crochet cast-on onto a knitting needle, 3-needle bind-off, I-cord bind-off, knitted-on lace edging bind-off, grafting, picking up stitches, Russian joins, spit splicing, joining top of shoulder seams invisibly, and placing beads with a crochet hook.
Skill level: Advanced Beginner.
Lace (or Lace and Cable) Surgery
(Homework required)
In this workshop, you’ll learn techniques to avoid mishaps as well as how to rip back a section of lace (or lace and cable) and knit it up row by row without having to rip out entire rows of stitches. You’ll leave class a more confident lace (and cable) knitter.
Skill level: Advanced Beginner/Intermediate.
Shapely Shawls
Learn about a variety of shawl shapes and several ways to shape them. Learn how you can expect to increase or decrease to arrive at a particular shape, choose your shape, and then cast on for your desired shawl. You’ll leave with an understanding of how to create your own masterpiece!
Skill level: Beginner to Intermediate.
Accommodations and Cost
The retreat begins on Friday, Oct. 13, with check in beginning at 10:30 a.m. Lunch will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by classes at 1:30 p.m. The retreat will end following classes on Sunday morning. A box lunch will be provided for your trip home. The cost for the retreat includes two nights lodging, all meals, one class with each of the four teachers (four classes total), an enviable SWAG bag, and MORE FUN than anyone should be allowed to have in one weekend!
Double occupancy (2 queen beds): $1250.00
Single occupancy (1 queen bed): $1400.00
A deposit of $500.00 is required upon registration; the remaining two payments will be due May 15, 2017, and August 15, 2017.
We will contact you for the second and final payments.
You will be contacted by the Event Coordinator to fill out your class preferences in the summer.
We’re happy to match you with a roommate, or you can specify a roommate on your registration form. Please make sure your intended roommate sends in his/her form at the same time as yours—we’re unable to hold rooms for missing roommates.
Cancellation
If you find you need to cancel, the balance of your deposit will be refundable sans a $100 cancellation fee until August 1, 2017. After August 1, 2017, we regret that all cancellations are non-refundable.
If you have any questions at all please email Cindy at signatureretreat@gmail.com.
We’re very excited to present such an amazing line up and fun surprises! Sign up today to secure your spot!
