IKEA to the Rescue

Finally a winding station.

I saw on the Ravelry Ikea group a winding station that a lady had made from a trestle desk leg. I happened to be in IKEA and found a trestle leg in the "AS IS" section for $7.00. Took it home but could not figure out how to get my winding station to look like the one in the IKEA group photo. Turned out I had purchased a different one.

My son-in-law came to the rescue. He had wood from his remodeling project that he said would work, he then cut and counter sinked the wood for me and told me how to get the station I wanted. I can only say I love, love it. I can sit or stand to wind balls. I put a piece of wood on the bottom and made a shelf. My IKEA basket fits perfectly there so that I can put my unwind skeins in it ready to be wound, at my leisure. I have a giant skein ball winder but I do not like the way it makes balls. Do you think my son-in-law will take a look at it. Hint, Hint.

I really had no good place to put the ball winder and the swift. Those days are over.

Spinning Bunny Knitaway 2009

The anticipation is over. It seems like the day would never arrive. Susan and Cathy kept sending teasers that only made matters worse.

The event, officially named, The Pamper Yourself Knitting Getaway, was perfect. My daughter, her husband and I arrived the night before on July 30. The Getaway began on July 31 when we introduced ourselves and got to use the "rainbow lady" to show us how measure each other. We got to use the Ragla Rula Tula(tm), invented by Susan and Cathy, to get the correct distance from neckline to under arm. Ann-Marie and Michelle (two sisters from Canada) loved it so much that they wrote a song called the "Ragla Rula Tula(tm)". Just click the arrow to play.

And now, may I present our fearless leader, Susan Sarabasha, the owner of Spinning Bunny.

Both her and Cathy truly kept us entertained as well as taught us new knitting tricks, the entire weekend.

One of the first things we had to do was make a name tag. We could not just write our names with a felt tip pen on a sticky paper. Oh no....we were given all kinds of items to truly personalize our name tags. We also had to chose a word that described us and later tell why we chose that word. For everyone that knows me, I think that I chose the right word, "Adventurous".

I am sorry to say that while we were laughing and eating at the Moosewood Restaurant, Cathy was slaving over her computer, correcting our math errors and making sure that everyone had a personalized cardigan and pullover pattern.

Bright and early at 9AM, everyone was in their seats ready to begin another fun filled learning day. Today we would actually start our creations. After our personalized knitting a top down seamless pullover or cardigan sweater patterns were handed out, Cathy and Susan helped everyone to get started. The design elements and styling are all up to us. My daughter and I ordered the Harmony guides so that we could decide whether we want lace, cables, etc., Cathy provided us with patterns that would work nicely with our creations but encouraged us to use whatever we liked to achieve our perfect sweater.

After a delicious catered lunch from the Ithaca Bakery, we went to see Susan's shop, The Spinning Bunny, to knit, learn to spin and in my case get a plying lesson. Okay, I did buy some yarn and roving. Did you really think I would go to a knitting shop and not shop.

This is my sweater so far. I decided to get some of Susan's yarn . I got the Knit Away Pend Orielle yarn in Velvet Merlot. It is so soft and this picture does not do the color justice. I am quite aways from dividing for the sleeves but I will keep on chugging along until I get there.

That evening most of us went to dinner at The Boatyard Grill. I left my camera in the car so I do not have any pictures. Just take my word for it, the food was delicious, the company was great and the atmosphere was perfect.


On Sunday, my daughter, son-in-law and I met Susan at the Ithaca Farmer's Market. That was a real treat. Hopefully, there will be a Getaway 2, if so , we are going to build in more time in our trip to spend at the market.


















After we left Susan at the market, we went wine tasting. My son-in-law had talked to Jim, Susan's husband, to get some ideas of the best wineries to try.

On Monday, we went to the Watkins Glen State Park to see the waterfalls. That was a beautiful mile walk. I would suggest anyone in the area to go.






















I can only say that this was a perfect weekend.












Check out the Chicks with Sticks blog to see more pictures and comments about our great weekend.

I have another link for you about our wonderous weekend. From the mouth of the creator
Susan of Spinning Bunny.