Every year at the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat, guys are encouraged to bring items for sale at the tag sale tables…yarn, books, needles, hooks, notions, etc.

Yarn Buying For a Good Cause

Since the guys who sell yarn can allocate a portion (or all) of the proceeds for the sale of their tag sale items to the Scholarship Fund for the Men’s Knitting Retreat, we usually have a lot of guys bringing things to sell and we end up funding about a full scholarship to the retreat each year based on the tag sale donations alone.

This year, while my friend Michael wasn’t able to attend the retreat, he sent this in his place.

This is about 2,400 yards of hand-painted, superwash merino in a worsted weight yarn.

Michael has been focusing on his quilting and fabric dyeing in the last few years and his work is truly amazing.  He decided to try his hand at dyeing yarn and this fantastic batch of yarn resulted.  He has very generously donated the proceeds of the sale of this yarn to the scholarship fund this year.  I’m thinking $4.50 a hank will make these hanks fly off the table, but I’ll let you know.

Current Knitting

I raced a bit since Monday to finish the back of the Briar Rose Pullover.

The length from shoulder to waist is about 26″ and overall, I’m quite pleased with how this is turning out so far.  Here it is in reverse:

It shows off the pooling of colors a bit more without the columns of slipped stitches, but it’s still quite an amazing fabric…soft, plush and very warm.

I’m also quite excited to start designing the front neck opening.

Readers’ Comments/Questions

Concerning my ideas about Kripalu Yoga Center, The Other Kristen wrote, “Joe, you just saved me a pile of money. My partner and I have been talking about a three-day workshop at Kripalu. We have never been there, but I used to live a bit farther north in the Berkshires, and am pretty familiar with the good, the bad, and the ugly of the North Adams to Stockbridge corridor. I think we will save our money and seek out a place that is more serene.”

Three of the women from my area that attended the Breema workshop ended up renting a local AirB&B cabin about 3 miles from Kripalu for much less than the cost of lodging there.  They purchased the meal plan so they could eat with the group and not have to worry about food preparation during their stay.  So, if you want to do a program that Kripalu is hosting, this might be a good option as well.