Knitting Camp 2009

I've just spent a wonderful weekend at Knitting Camp at Mt Keira - just outside Wollongong. When I told people about my plans to attend, mostly they burst into spontaneous laughter - as much at the thought that I would voluntarily go anywhere with 'camp' in the title as at the notion of knitters getting together for a weekend. Knitters immediately understand the attraction of spending a weekend with other knitters; non-knitters seem mystified by the idea.

I spent almost all the daylight hours of the camp sitting in the sun with this stunning view in front of me; knitting.



The greatest pleasure, as a number of knitters remarked, was knitting to the end of the row, beginning to think 'I really must go and....', and then realising 'I don't have to do anything other than knitting'. Such a pleasure.

There were other great pleasures: glancing down at the array of handknitted socks on feet propped on a beautiful low stone wall; watching the extraordinary knitting speed of those participating in the beanie speed-knitting competition; being able to ask endless questions about yarns and patterns; planning future projects; meeting fellow knit-bloggers for the first time; being part of the winning (yes, winning) team for the trivia quiz. (As an aside - I like to think of myself as non-competitive, but by the second round of the trivia quiz, when it was clear we had a chance of winning, our whole team developed a very keen competitive edge).

My major knitting achievement was finishing my 'Baktus' scarf - a very simple garter-stitch project in two-row stripes that shows off the not so subtle colour variations in the yarn (Grignasco Solid Print) to perfection.



I marveled at the generosity and energy of Christine, Kerry and Rae from CRK Daisy Designs who organised the camp. They managed a perfect combination of organisation and informality - a rare achievement.

I loved the 'knitting' component of knitting camp, and coped better than I had expected with the 'camp' component. And I spent the whole weekend not thinking about any of the things I would otherwise have been obsessing about. A great gift.

Others have already blogged about the event. They're clearly better able to multi-task than I am. They've taken photos as well as knitting and chatting and eating and drinking.