Dance With Me

Visit 1976 with me, won’t you?

I recently reloaded the songs on my iPod and was unexpectedly taken on a trip down memory lane today when I heard a song from my high school years: Dance With Me, by Orleans. Do you remember that one? My first boyfriend and I met at a dance in the summer before I started high school, and he later said this should be our song because if he hadn’t asked me to dance we wouldn’t have met. Wasn’t that cute? We both got copies of the 45 record (yes, I’m that old), and considered it a rule of our relationship that we had to listen to it every day. At night when we talked on the phone we’d ask about it. “How many times did you listen to it today?” “I listened to it 5 times!” Probably drove our parents nuts with that song. (OMG, teenagers are so silly, aren’t they?) But when I hear that song now, 34 years later, I still smile.

Ok, back to 2010….

Yesterday when Clara Parkes published her report on the Knitter’s Review Retreat, I discovered that there was indeed photographic proof that I had been there. In the only two hours I spent not being sick in bed, Clara the ubiquitous photographer managed to capture me in a picture of knitters standing in line for the marketplace to open. (I’m in the orange cardigan with the brown bag, on the left.)  Since I wasn’t able to make it downstairs for the group photo I’m so glad to see that I was indeed there, and it wasn’t all a bad dream.

Wanna see what was in my retreat goodie bag? I thought you would.

(Click to enlarge)

There was a box of note cards from Clara, a Schulana pattern book, a pattern leaflet from Pam Allen (the Barcelona Scarflet), Soak samples, a little stitch marker (I don’t know who that was from since I didn’t save the packaging), and, of course, there was yarn. My yarn included Berroco Blackstone Tweed, Filatura di Crosa Zara (color: pale yellow), Socks That Rock lightweight (color: limestone), and Dirty Water DyeWorks “Julia”.

I had never heard of Dirty Water DyeWorks before, have you? But when I pulled the yarn out to take a look at it today, I discovered that it’s the same fiber composition as the Briar Rose Fibers yarn I’ve been knitting with for the past couple of weeks, Sea Pearl. They’re both lightweight blends of merino and tencel, and coincidentally both beautifully dyed in shades of brown. It’ll be fun to knit the Julia and see if I like it as much as the Sea Pearl.

By the way, here’s what I’m knitting with the Briar Rose Sea Pearl:

It’s the “Summer Flies” shawlette, a free pattern on Ravelry by Donna Griffin. My friend Elaine made one of these and wore it to our weekly knitting group a couple weeks ago. I loved it so much I started one the next day. It’s supposed to use worsted weight yarn, but I’m using 2 strands of the Sea Pearl instead. Sea Pearl is a fingering weight yarn, so I’m prepared for it to be smaller than the designer intended. But that shouldn’t matter, since I’m planning to wear it scrunched up as a scarf rather than a shawlette anyway. This picture only shows the first few inches — I’m actually about 75% done now. Hopefully I’ll be able to post pictures of it next week after I get it blocked. It’s very pretty, and this yarn is really a joy to work with.

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Tags: knitting retreat, KRR 2010, yarn

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