We had so much fun, having 140 of you in for our Fall Fling last weekend! As usual, I forgot to take many pictures, but here is a little look into a few that I did manage to take. (Click on the photos to enlarge them. Especially on the cute dragon photos!)
We always start the weekend with a dessert reception on Thursday evening. (No pictures of the dessert goodies. Why didn’t I think of that? Julia Knitting Daughter took one! Added below.) This year we also added in a talk that evening from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee called “This is Your Brain on Knitting”. It left us all feeling pretty good about choosing knitting as a hobby (or way of life).
Friday and Saturday brings knitting, classes and shopping trips to Loopy! This year, our class instructors included Susan B. Anderson, Marly Bird, Ann Budd and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
One of Susan’s classes was a Little Dragon Workshop. You’ll probably want to buy the pattern to make your own. They were all turning out so cute!
We love hosting the Flingers in the shop. They have fun seeing it in person and we have fun watching how much they enjoy wandering the aisles, finding new things that need to go home with them! After they check out, they hang out by the red couches and knit, while waiting for everyone to finish up and for the bus to come back to get them.
At each Fling, I find new patterns that I need to make. This year, I saw these Hitofude cardigans and put that pattern right on my “to make” list. (It was already in my favorites list on Ravelry, but seeing it in person moved it over to the active list. I especially liked seeing the longer version that Cindy was wearing.)
We did our group photo on Saturday afternoon. I’m not sure everyone remembers or makes it down to the lobby for the photo, but here is the shot of most of the group. After my husband took this photo, they all sang Happy Birthday to him, which was really nice. What a way to spend your birthday!
On Saturday night, we gave away door prizes (over 100 this year), which is always fun. We so appreciated the generosity of Dream in Color, Shibui, Cascade, Lorna’s Laces, Mrs. Crosby, Notions Marketing, Bryson, Shalimar, Fable Fibers, Baah! Yarns, Hunter Hammerstein, Spud and Chloe, Blue Sky Alpacas, Fairmont Fibers, Ann Budd, Universal Yarns, Westminster Fibers, Wollmeise, and George Sichterman Woodwork. There were a lot of lucky winners!
I wish I would have taken a picture of my great friends Sheryl (from here in Fort Collins) and Janice (from Iowa) who were there to help with all of the hotel details, while I traveled back and forth to the shop with the Fling shoppers. I couldn’t do the weekend without them! And of course the Loopy Elves, Knitting Daughter and Web Guy all put in extra time during the weekend as well. It takes a whole bunch of people to help it all run smoothly.
And one of my favorite friends, Claudia (the Wollmeise), was here from Germany again! I love having her visit for the Flings, and I know the Fling attendees really enjoy getting to meet the genius behind that gorgeous Wollmeise yarn. (No pictures, as Claudia is anti-photos. But she did let me take and post one a couple of years ago when she and Maria came to visit!) Claudia and Julie (from Juliespins – another creative dye genius Fling attendee) had a lot of fun talking “shop” during the Fling.
I saved three Fall Fling Goodie Bags to send out to three lucky contest winners. In the heavyweight canvas bag you’ll find a skein of Dream in Color’s Everlasting Sock, a skein of Shibui’s brand new Maai yarn, a skein of Cascade’s Luna, a Fling water bottle and nametag holder, a Lorna’s Laces post-it notepad and a Shalimar pen. (Yarn colors will vary.) Would you like to win one? Just leave a comment below and we will use the random number generator to choose the winners sometime next week! And would you like to participate in our next retreat? We will be putting our next one on in the spring of 2016. (We’ll flip flop between spring and fall retreats, every 18 months. We know some of you prefer one time of year over the other.) We’ll keep you posted on the details as it gets closer!
Sheri stillcatchinguponmissedsleep,butofcourseitwassoworthit!
Fling sounds like fun.
Thank you for sharing. It would be a dream come true to attend fling ! Glad to hear it was enjoyed by all ! Knitters Rule !
Fall Fling is on my “bucket list”! Thanks for posting the pictures so the rest of us can dream about our future treat of a retreat 🙂
Hooray! United knitters!
I love Ewe ~ Loppy Ewe! You are my go to yarn store!
What a delightful retreat you all must have had! Someday maybe I can manage to attend one!
Oh, I would love to win one of the Fall Fling Goodie Bags, it would be awesome to participate in your Spring retreat in 2016. Gonna start saving now. Hugs, molli
Y’all have the best ideas and make so many thing look like fun! Saving my pennies so I can visit your shop one day, and in the meantime, happily shopping from here!
I lovE the teacher lineup you had. I Wish I had been able to come.
Oh, how I’d love to attend Fling again. Since that isn’t in the cards, a goodie bag would be a wonderful consolation prize. 😉
It looks like everyone had a great time. Wish I could have taken advantage of my loyalty program status and joined the fun.
The fling looks like a good time.
Loving your products. Just received the September Giftables Club prezzie.
Wish I could attend one of your events, but hard to leave the Pacific Northwest.
Wish I could have come–looks like so much fun!
It looks like everyone had a lot of fun. Maybe someday I’ll be lucky enough to go.
It looks like a great time was had by all!
Thanks for the giveaway!
What a fun time! I wish I lived closer. Would love to win the bag!!
Sorry to miss out on the real Fling in person….looks like so much fun!
Would love to come to one of the flings some day. I always look for pattern suggestions and I am ordering Yarden today. Of course with the pattern will come the yarn order.
I had the pleasure of visiting The Loopy Ewe shop over the Summer during my cross-country trip and it was AWESOME! Wish I could have been there for the fling but the goodie bag would be a nice conciliation prize. 😉
Wow, that looks like it was a blast!
What a great line-up of instructors. Would love to have attended!
Thanks for the opportunity to share a little bit of the Fling even though we couldn’t be there.
Looks like it was a blast! And now I must make the dragon.
Thank you for sharing the Fling with your online fans!
I am somewhat new to knittIng. I just became a loopy groupie lol and am signed up for the fall giftables projects. How fun! Love the way you guys interact with your customers.
Wow looks like everyone had a great time!
I am definitely going to plan on Spring Fling ’16!
The fling is definitely on my “to-do” list. Thank you for sharing.
Would love info on the next retreat
Wow! It sounds like a really fun treat! I would loved to attend. Guest speakers were all my favorites!
I totally missed the announcement about the Fall Fling. Hope I can do better now that I’m no longer serving as a volunteer treasurer for a nonprofit foundation! It’s been a busy three years and much knitting has gone by the wayside.
I love all the smiles in the photos. Knitters are such a happy “tribe”!!
It sounds like a fantastic time!
I hope to someday attend Fling!
Sounds like tons of fun!!
Really cool goodie bag!
Whee! I hope I haven’t missed out on this one!
I love all the pictures! I hoping to attend the spring fling with my sister. It looks like soo much fun!!
Looks like a great time had by all. Would like to make it to a retreat.
What a wonderful way to meet other lovely knitters. I grew up in Colorado. My family is still there . What a way to have knitting friends and visit my family.
It all looks like fun!