KKQ2013

No, that is not a secret code or a license plate number or a password: it is the key to a little piece of heaven! The Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Conference for 2013 was held a little over a week ago, and I have yet to come down from the mountain. There is just something (here and here)about that place...

With my daughter as Chaplain (and wonderful homilies based on the 23rd Psalm,) an energetic coordinator, talented teachers, and old and new friends, about 80 of us spent some kairos time in the mountains, doing things we love: knitting, quilting, laughing, eating dry toast, learning, worshiping, hiking, watching Downton Abby (on one of the few TVs), and mostly just being.

Mother Nature offered us the stark linear lines of winter, which were contrasted by the panoply of dancing colors in the knitting and quilting projects.

By our final worship service, we had the beginning of the Great Wall of Textiles (more were added after this photo was taken.) Our projects and time together were blessed.

We even had some multi-talented participants who came together with a variety of musical instruments, weaving them into beautiful harmonies.

There's no place like home.
Like going to Narnia...

Home again

I went home again. Not to the place where I was born (I still live in my hometown) but to that place in North Carolina called Kanuga. The people were different (new friends and old,) the weather was different (but still cold,) but the feelings (and the toast) were the same. It is a place where kairos, not chronos, determines the time (except for the bugle calls to meals.)

I was there for the 2012 Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Conference. We had the gift of being able to begin each day with Holy Eucharist and end each day with Evening Prayer/Compline. My daughter served as chaplain, and her homilies knit together the lessons for the day both with our journey through our knitting/quilting lives and with our own personal journey through life. What a blessing!

The technique I chose to learn was Fair Isle knitting. I have always been fascinated by the juxtaposition of colors and enjoy intarsia knitting. I had tried Fair Isle in the past, but my fingers kept getting in the way of each other! My instructor was an accomplished knitter/designer (and all-around wonderful person) who taught my fingers to work properly. Here is my completed project:

The pattern gave the option to keep knitting another motif and make a hat, but I wanted to make sure I finished it while there, so I settled with the headband. Obviously, I will wear it without the blocking pins!

When I was resting my brain, and after I finished the headband, I worked on my current prayer shawl. How appropriate!

The Homespun colorway is "Shaker."

Much of our learning came though sharing (knitting tips and lives) with each other as we sat around the fireplace after the classes. My daughter was intrigued with someone using a drop spindle, and in no time that spinner was showing her how to use it. She was a fast learner!

Leaving Kanuga is difficult. Leaving my daughter is difficult. Combine the two, and it is really difficult! Probably I will see her again this summer, but it will be another whole year before I get to Kanuga for KKQ 2013. In the meantime, I have the memories. For me, it is a bit like being in Narnia must be.

A home called Kanuga

There's no place like home. There's no place like Kanuga. Here we are fed and nurtured and loved. We may receive (and give) those same gifts at the place we call "home" for 361 days a year, but the grocery list and carpools and jobs and cooking and cleaning all disappear at Kanuga for 4 glorious days.

Spending 4 days with 80 (including my daughter) knitters and quilters is a feast for all the senses: hearing the laughter and conversations of old and new friends; seeing the pile of completed, almost completed, and just begun projects that were blessed at our closing Eucharist; smelling the food for our bodies; tasting the bread and wine of the Eucharist for the soul; touching the softness of yarns and fabric... but perhaps the most wonderful sense is that all-encompassing sense of just being- being together in community and love and learning and sharing.

(Notice the sweaters on the knitters as they take photos of the creations of the quilters.)

 We had classes in rooms with fireplaces (some fires roared better than others), road trips were available to yarn and fabric shops and to a sheep farm, there were times to just sit and knit and talk, times to enjoy the snow covered trails, and daily services and meditations.

From the challenging list of classes, I chose to make the Swirl Shawl. It was a small class, so the instrustor was able to give us all the personal attention we needed. She was clear and patient, and even though I frogged and tinked a zillion times, I was able to complete almost 7 hexagons. Since I have been at my other "home" for a week now, I have managed to just about double that number. I believe the pattern calls for 82...

This is my current swirl catepillar:

We were invited to "come and see."  We are challenged to "go and tell."