Well, I did not foresee this, but one of the events I originally planned to talk about in this new Craftlands series has taken a personal turn! Have you heard about Knitting with Company? It’s a newer arrival on the fiber-camp scene, and one I’ve been dying to go to. Company (the company behind Knitting with Company) was formed by designers Julie Hoover and Catherine Lowe to offer an alternative sort of retreat. Instead of a jam-packed schedule of classes to choose from, it’s just a few languorous days in a scenic place where you get to simply hang out and knit with other knitters and pick the brains of Julie, Catherine and their featured guests. There have just been two events so far — one in the upper midwest featuring Olga Buraya-Kefelian and Michele Wang, and one last month on Bainbridge Island WA with guests Jared Flood and Michele. The next one will be October 6-9 in Detroit Lakes MN, and I’m pretty stunned to tell you that the guests are the highly credentialed and revered Norah Gaughan and … er … yours truly. (blink, blink, blinkblink) I don’t know what they were thinking asking me, but I’m honored and excited to be going!

It’s a roving event with different yarn stores around the country hosting in their area and providing the pop-up shop for the event, so you never know where future instances might turn up. But this next one opens up for general registration next Monday, the 13th — more details on their website.

BONUS EVENT: I may write more about this one at some future date, but another event worth knowing about is the Nordic Knitting Conference, which takes place in Seattle every other year. This year it’s Oct 8-10 at the Nordic Heritage Museum, and I’ll be traveling from Company straight to Nordic, so perhaps I’ll see you at one or the other!

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PREVIOUSLY in Craftlands: Estonian Craft Camp

Photos © Julie Hoover, used with permission