What do you do at a knitting retreat, anyway?

I found out this week that I got in off the wait list for the Super Summer Knitogether 2014 (hereafter referred to as SSK 2014)! It's a five day knitting retreat held in my hometown, so how could I resist? But what do you do at a five day knitting retreat? Sure, there will be classes, but that doesn't seem to be the main focus. Unless I'm very wrong, I think you mostly sit and knit. For five days. With people you almost certainly didn't know before you arrived.

This has caused me to re-evaluate my knitting projects of course. When you go to something like this, you want to bring something slightly impressive to work on, yet simple enough that you won't mess it up. I think I'll have to start something new - surprise!

It has helped with UILI already, even though I only found out a couple of days ago. Last night I got all my knitting projects out and looked them over; sure enough, I had no interest in finishing six of them so into the frog pond they go! That leaves me with four knitting projects still on the go. Next, I have to decide what I'm going to start so I can be working on it at the retreat. :-) Vanilla socks are a possibility, a simple shawl, or maybe a sockhead hat. Who am I kidding, I'll almost certainly start all three.

UILI is coming along (there was another post describing some progress but it seems to disappeared), and several projects have seen good progress. "Party Cakes", which I'm making for my sister, has become my go-to project for craft group stitching since it only has about six colors and no scatter stitching. It's on 40-count linen so people are still impressed! The last cake is almost done and then I'll move on to the bottom border.

There are several big projects I haven't so much as touched this year because I never seem to have the mental capacity to set them up and get going. :-( There is something to be said for having a 'stitching corner' where the floor stand is always set up with a big project ready to be worked on. I don't have that right now, and I need to figure something out.

That's about it for today. I'll be making soap this morning, and probably knitting while it's cooking. It's a nice spring day!