Wooly Weekend Retreat is back for Year 12!
Please save the date for our 2024 event, located at the Brown County Inn in Nashville IN. We’ll see you February 7-9. We can’t wait to see your smiling faces!
(This is a picture of a prior Goodybag- our 2025 Goodybag is still top secret!)
Registration opens in October!
Stay tuned for updates! Fiber artists that attended the 2024 will have 2 weeks to register before registration opens to everyone.
There will be 2 registration options:
Brown County (in person) and Wooly To Go (you get the goodybag and class videos, but we are unable to live stream classes for 2025. Please consider coming in person!)
Note about meals: Traditionally, meals were included in the Winter Wooly Retreat package, but now you are able to opt out of meals if you prefer to go to the restaurant at the Brown County Inn or explore the wonderful restaurants of Nashville!
Registration closes January 1st, please make plans to have your registration and payment in Paige’s hands by January 1st. We order supplies January 2nd.
If you would like to be added to the email list for notifications, please email PaigeShipleyDesigns@gmail.com.
Happy crafting!
-Paige
2024 Classes
Welcomer Dinner: Soup & Salad Buffet
Friday Night Welcome Craft!
It’s a surprise! You’ll want an apron or old shirt- something you don’t mind getting messy!
*We aren’t able to include Virtuwoolies in this very hands-on craft but you are welcome to Zoom in and chat with us!
Breakfast: Sunrise Buffet
Saturday Morning Classes (Pick One)
Dayhoff Cowl
Let’s give a big wooly welcome to Helena, one of our new teachers! She will be teaching us the very fun Dayhoff Cowl.
This unisex cowl is a modular knit, worked seamlessly in sections that build upon each other. Make the most of this class by coming ready to knit in the round (with magic loop or DPNs), purl, increase, and decrease. You’ll learn how to use a provisional cast on and pick up stitches with Dayhoff’s unusual garment construction.
Needles and Notions: Size 6 circulars and size 5 DPNs, one stitch marker, waste yarn.
Heart Pillow
Mary will be our pillow-talk leader for this fun class! This pillow works up quickly and is a great introduction to shaping. You’ll learn two kinds of increases and decreases and have a set of fun new pillows before you know it (and just in time for Valentine’s Day)!
Needles and Notions: Size 8 DPNs.
Entrelac Cowl
Is it knitted? Is it woven? Yes?
Melissa will be teaching us a very fun technique- Entrelac! We’ll be using 2 colors to make a very fun cowl (if you prefer to turn it into a pillowcase or a book cover- you are welcome to do so). You’ll love this deceptively easy project even more if you come ready to knit, purl, pick up stitches and decrease.
While we love Melissa’s colors in this sample, we’re working on a special color combo just for Winter Woolies!
Lunch: Asian Fusion Buffet
Saturday Afternoon Classes (Pick One)
Brioche Scarf
Ready for something tangy? Sarah will be leading one of our more advanced classes as we learn to knit brioche in one color. This fast-paced workshop will cover a lot of technical elements, including Kitchener grafting. To make the most of this class, you should come with a confident knowledge of knitting and purling, how to slip stitches, how to increase and decrease, and Kitchener grafting. Bonus points for knowing the Magic Cast On! See Judy's Magic Cast On here!
Needles Used: size 4 circular
Power Up Shawl - a Crash Course in Chart Reading
Mary will be this teaching clever shawl as a crash course for those wanting to become more confident reading knitting charts. We’ll be using her pattern “Power up Shawl” and some of her delicious hand-dyed yarn.
Needles and Notions: Size 6 Circular- 24” or longer suggested.
Fair Isle Tea Cozy - FULL
This class will keep your teapot warm and your knitting skills hot!
We’ll kick off with some corrugated ribbing before we get in to Fair Isle/Stranded Colorwork. We’ll cover some basic modfications on how to make this cozy fit your favorite teapot- so you may want to bring your teapot to class! Previous colorwork experience is recommended, as well as chart reading knowledge. You’ll have the option to work back and forth in Fair Isle (tangy!) or work in the round and cut a steek to finish your teapot (extra tangy!)
Needles and Notions: Size 6 24” circulars and Size 6 DPNs. 5 stitch markers, one of them clearly different from the others. For steeking- crochet hook or sewing machine to reinforce stitches prior to steeking. (Paige will bring her sewing machine to Winter Wooly)
Helpful Skills: Knitting, purling, Fair Isle, corrugated ribbing. reading charts. Steeking experience is a plus!
Note: Class supplies will still be included if you select the Teacher’s Pet package, but space in the class on Saturday afternoon is full.
Dinner: Tex Mex Buffet
After Dinner: Pajama Party!!!
Sunday Breakfast: Sunrise Buffet
Social Crafting Sunday
There are no official events on Sunday. It’s a great day to catch up with friends, get last-minute assistance from teachers or shop! Breakfast is served and we recommend grabbing a friend and enjoying lunch in beautiful Nashville.
Meet the Teachers!
Sarah Roth
quilts, (occasionally) crochets, and is a rare left-handed knitter—but not to worry, she loves teaching according to whichever way YOU prefer to knit. Her handknits have won top prizes at the Indiana State Fair in two consecutive years, and her illusion knitting patterns have thousands of downloads on Ravely. She loves puzzles, “mental gymnastics,” learning new techniques and tackling complicated patterns. Her favorite things to knit are anything with interesting texture and shape. During non-crafting (aka working) hours, Sarah is a clinical research coordinator and wrangler of her 7-year-old boy—who is a budding crafter too! She also volunteers as a community educator raising awareness about Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia.
Helena Bristow
has been Vice Pigmentologist at Oink Pigments since its inception in 2010. She learned to crochet at age 4, and taught herself to knit when she started graduate school for the first time. She often jokes that “knitting stuck; grad school did not” -- Helena has now dropped out of two different graduate programs because she would rather be playing with yarn. Helena can usually be found driving all over the country in her yarn van, to fiber festivals and local yarn stores.
Mary Ramsay
is the owner of Rebel Purl in Bloomington and one of our new teachers! She lives in Bloomington with her person and her puppies, but misses Seattle like crazy. Her obsession with yarn began with a library book and a temp gig with quiet evenings, and now wouldn’t know what to do without her yarny friends! Much of her knitting is done with watching horror, sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies. She dyes yarn to podcasts and audiobooks or while practicing her dance moves. Her favorite color is All Of Them, and her favorite word is Schpadoinkle.
Margo Vallone
has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and enjoys painting, drawing, knitting and crocheting. You can find her earning art supply money by working in the lab at a dermatologist office helping clear patients of skin cancer. She enjoys time with her husband and English Bulldog, loves anything from the eighties, and can’t turn down a delicious margarita.
Melissa Ilgen
is a lover of yarn and crafts and enjoys sharing that love with others. She enjoys cross stitch, reading, and collecting all things knitting and crochet related (much to the detriment of her husband and house). She has 3 kids, a foreigner husband, and used to sail around the world working on costumes on cruise ships.
Paige Shipley
knits, crochets, spins and sews as often as possible. She began Good For Ewe Yarn in 2012 and designed, dyed, and distributed until 2021, when she decided it was much more fun to run retreats and teach classes. She will talk about Fair Isle knitting until you make her stop. When she’s not knitting, she’s working as an office manager for a tech company and pursuing a masters in Environmental Policy, and every once in a while getting a little sleep. She has a boisterous 6-year-old daughter, a very patient husband, most of a cat, and entirely too many plants.
Vendors:
The Clay Purl - Brown County, IN yarn shop
BaH (Brenda and Heather) Yarns - dyers of gradient and self-striping yarns
Oink Pigments - lovers of pigs and puns, dyers of over 160 bright and playful colorways on over a dozen bases
Rebel Purl - Bloomington’s newest yarn shop and one of our newest teachers!
Wooly Weekend Merchandise Table - leftovers from the goodybags, all proceeds go to booking the conference rooms for the following year
Virtual Vendor- Nomad on Toast