A breather

Well hello there! It’s nice to see you again.

I travel a lot — mostly to events where I get to teach knitters about sweaters. (Related: I love my job.)

I enjoy the travel, and I have a pretty good system for it at this point! But somehow, the coming home part is much harder than the traveling part. When I returned from our west coast retreat last week, jet-lag from three cross-country trips in three weeks hit. It sometimes takes me a few days to figure out what time zone it is! I woke up on Saturday morning wondering where I was and how I got there.

My camera was unfortunately under-used while we were in Monterey, but the event itself was utterly magical. The setting helped, of course:

And Asilomar itself is stunning, too – this was our main meeting hall:

But more than the beautiful views around us, the knitters were the truly magical piece. 90 avid, curious, engaged, interested, happy knitters. We had three incredibly amazing instructors, and a perfect mix of formal and more-relaxed learning times. Magical. I have no other word for it.

I wish every day was filled with such celebration of our craft.

(Want to see more candids of the retreat experience? Check these out!.)

*****

And now I’m home! And I’m slowly catching up on everything I couldn’t get to during the last month while I’ve been away.

I have lots to share with you this week! More about Knitter’s Toolbox, the brochure & registration details for the fall make, wear, love retreat in Maine, and at least three new designs. I’ve also got some in-depth posts on the silhouettes I explored in Knit Wear Love on deck, and some teasers for the next book, which I’ve just started writing.

But just for the moment, let me share something non-knitting. A breather, if you will.

When we bought our first home, a condo back in Boston, we got the advice: “Purchase the ugliest house in the nicest neighborhood you can afford.” That went really well for us the first time, so when we moved last summer we did it again.

The bones of our house and yard are great… …and it was all pretty ugly when we moved in, honestly. I spent all non-working hours last summer painting the interior, and this year it was the yard’s turn. Until now, we’ve had a single (dying) tree and 50 plain green hostas. Back in March, when I thought I just couldn’t take another snow storm, I spent my whole life a little bit of time on nursery websites, ordering plants to ship after danger of last frost.

They were all waiting for me when I got home from my travel, and I spent the weekend getting good and dirty. And now we have this:

And I couldn’t be happier. We all need a bit of a breather now and again, right?

What did you spend your weekend doing?