Postcards from the Knitting Getaway

Dear everyone,

Here we go: a glimpse of the good fun at the MDK Knitting Getaway at Shakerag Workshops last week.

For those just joining us, Shakerag Workshops hosts a gathering of knitters about 90 miles southeast of Nashville, on the campus of St. Andrews-Sewanee School.

Workshops happened each day. Our teachers this year were the Fabulous Four: Sunne Meyer, Angela Tong, Jen Geigley, and Nell Ziroli.

Knitters arrived from all over the country, and they all tested and retested and masked and took extraordinary care the whole time. We were all in it together, and it felt amazing.

Dorm sweet dorm was home for all, where winsome small vases of flowers made it pretty.

Everybody brought bags, totes, suitcases, steamer trunks, and entire vehicles stacked with the projects they were going to work on.

Each night there was a gathering. Cecilia Nelson-Hurt keynoted the heck out of Thursday night and gave us a message of inclusivity and love.

There was always dessert, here a chocolate tart that morphed into a mousse. Our chef, Caroline, didn’t miss a beat.

A spontaneous reading from The Elements of Style happened. (Good job, Mary Beth!)

An auditorium full of knitters sorted into 14 teams for Trivia Night, no problem. Even the 6s and 9s worked it out.

Trivia Night’s triumphant winners kept it humble.

Cecilia: “They ate all the bread pudding.”

Ann:

Endless conversation, comparing of notes, chitchat, gibblegabble, and solving of the world’s problems.

Merissa and Margaret, core members of the Shakerag Workshops team, were the epitome of grace under pressure.

Yeah, here’s that bread pudding. Bread pudding, we hardly knew ye!

Angela Tong’s rug-making class spawned a world of baby rugs. Or, as some called them, “trivets.”

Sublime weather meant knitters headed outdoors, all over the campus, little clumps of folks happy together.

Sunne Meyer’s stitching workshop had everybody dreaming Alabama Chanin dreams.

Beads and backstitch wow.

Jen Geigley’s colorwork class birthed all sorts of beautifulness.

Nell’s entrelac class instigated a lot of Giant Lightbulb Moments—her intro to this technique was universally declared “really great.”

The fashion show Friday night included a stupendous array of beautiful knitting. Jan’s temperature blanket includes the phases of the moon.

Pennie’s log cabin blanket is all natural plant dyes, all dyed and knitted by her. Heart eyeball emoji.

As ever, our fearless leader was Claire Reishman, founder and head of Shakerag Workshops, who pretty much embodied “Climb Every Mountain” at every step of the way. She inspired us all, from her leadership to her bicycling across campus to her willingness to hop up on a table when the moment called for it.

The iced lemon poppyseed cookies seemed bigger than ever. (We found Chef Sarah Gunn’s recipe in the vault here.)

Swimming in the Res was epic, with a lot of heroic jumping off the big rock and general lazing around.

And at the end, a campfire on a clear night.

I keep thinking about all the conversations we had, the little moments where it felt so normal, so good to be together. Everybody was so generous. There was so much gratitude in the air, to the folks at Shakerag for the tremendous work required to pull off a gathering like this. I’m feeling very tender about it all, so much fun.

Kay, we all missed you desperately!

Love,

Ann