I know – it seems like Spring Fling was ages ago! (April 21-25). And here we are, just getting to the recap and contest. Life has been a little a lot crazy for the past few months. But we loved having so many of you here for the Fling and we sure appreciate all of the lovely notes and emails you have sent since you arrived back home! Here’s a little recap, with a contest (and a reminder) at the end:
Although the Fling starts on Thursday, quite a few Flingers arrive a day earlier. We had Franklin Habit do his B is for Purl talk about historic knitting patterns on Wednesday night for anyone (Flingers or locals) who wanted to attend. I left wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to tackle knitting an antique knitting pattern. (Seriously. ????)
Both Wednesday and Thursday during the day we had fun hosting some of the Flingers for shopping and knitting on the red couches. (And I had fun doing color consults for several people!)
Thursday evening we had a lovely lovely dessert reception with delicious choices and no photos. sigh. And Franklin did his Five Women, Five Shawls talk, about shawls he had designed in honor of five women in his life. Interesting talk and beautiful shawls.
Friday brought the beginning of classes and shopping trips to Loopy. We had Franklin, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Joanna Johnson and Marilyn King as our Fling teachers this year, and had great feedback from all of the classes. They did an amazing job.
I like to go on the Loopy trips (even though I am always sorely tempted to sign up for the great classes that are going on at the hotel.) It’s SO fun to have everyone wandering the aisles, helping each other with color choices, and then hanging out and knitting on the red couches until the shuttle bus returns.
Friday night is dinner on your own and then knitting in the knitting lounge – always fun! And at the end of that evening, that’s where my part of the story ends. I woke up during the night with such a pain in my lower back that I thought I must have kidney stones. (I have never had them, but I have heard they “are more painful than anything else” and that’s what this felt like. I could barely get out of bed.) A quick trip to the ER on Saturday morning showed no kidney stones, but my sciatic nerve causing the pain and numbness down one leg. (Never had that before either. Never ever ever want it again.) Since I couldn’t sit up or walk, I was sidelined for the rest of the weekend. And I was SO SAD!!!! But the fun went on just fine without me. 🙂 More classes and Loopy shopping trips on Saturday during the day.
Loopy Elf Michael went above and beyond the call of duty by heading to the hotel to take the group photo on Saturday late afternoon. It looks like almost everyone made it to the photo shoot. It’s always hard to get everyone looking up at the same time, though.
Fortunately, Web Guy and Knitting Daughter did a grand job (from what you all tell me) with the doorprizes and wrapup on Saturday night, with a little help from Claudia for prize distribution to the different winners. (That means running the prizes to the different tables. She’s quick!) We had such lovely donations from many wonderful companies, and it was fun to give all of that away.
A huge shout-out and thank you to Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Dream in Color, Cascade, Malabrigo, Soak, Lorna’s Laces, Shalimar, HiyaHiya, George Sichterman Woodwork, Atenti, Appalachian Baby, Kelbourne Woolens and Blue Sky Alpacas for their generous donations! And to my friends Sheryl (who takes off work to help at the Fling) and Janice (who flies in from Iowa to help at the Fling) for being on-location at the hotel, making sure everyone was happy and everything ran smoothly each day! And to my friends Claudia and Maria for popping over from Germany to help and hang out with us all weekend as well. So wonderful to have them all here!
And that brings us to the contest. I have one Goody Bag that I saved for a blog drawing. It even includes the special Loopy coffee mug that we gave out to all in attendance on Saturday night. Who would like it? Leave a comment below and we’ll do the drawing next week and will ship the whole thing off to some lucky person!
Our next Fling is scheduled for October 5-8, 2017. (All of the September weekends are already booked there for 2017. FPS.) We will have more wonderful teachers, fun classes, happy shopping trips, and another great goody bag for you, and we hope you all can attend!
One last thing – Camp Store Week One ends tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18th) so if you’d like a discount on Project One Yarn or Fabric, get those final orders in. And if you signed up for Camp Club, be sure to check out with your first month’s kit, which is in your shopping cart.
Sheri anxiousforthenextFlingtoarrivesinceImissedoutonhalfofthisone!
These look like such fun events! I need to get more social with my knitting interests!
WOW! The fling sounds like a lot of fun. I will have to see about scheduling a trip! The goodie bag looks amazing! Hope you are feeling better. Take care!
I am retired now and also have a Fling trip on my bucket list … just so many things on that damn bucket list though!
I hope to attend a Fling some time, looks like a good time!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend. Would love to participate one day. But I’m so far away . . .
What a nice recap. Sorry you had to miss some of the fun, but hope you are feeling much improved now!
I’ve never attended a knitting retreat. Fling sounds like such a lot of fun!
Oh how I wish I could go to a fling someday! The schedule just isn’t right for a teacher who has to be in school in September, October, and April. It will all work out someday! 🙂
A knitting goodie bag sounds delightful!
The Fling sounds like amazing fun. So sorry you were laid up. The goodie bag looks amazing.
I hope to attend a Fling some time, looks like a good time!
Since Fling always happens during school time (german school) , I have to wait until I retire to attend 🙂
One day I hope to get to a Fling. It looks such fun!
I would love to attend a Fling sometime.
oh how I hope to attend the Fling sometime in the future. It looks wonderful!!!
I am so sorry to have missed the Fling. Ailing 13-year-old Golden Retriever. Hope to make the fling next time.
Everlasting is one of my faves. Hope you are feeling better.
I am so sad I missed it. Seeing the pictures makes me even more sad but I’m glad everyone had a grand time and so sorry about your sciatica. Hope you are doing much better!
I wouldn’t mind free stuff; draw my name, please!
(And sorry, I can’t come to the fling, but Colorado is WAY too far for me to come.)
Always a wonderful time at Spring Fling!
What a fabulous fling!!! I have to figure out how to work that into my schedule some day.
Looks like so much fun! Hope to attend one day. Sheri hope your feeling better.
The Fling looks like so much fun! Maybe one day I can attend. In the meantime, the giveaway looks fabulous!!!
I hope to attend the Fling one year. Amazing goodie bag!
It looks like so much fun.Hope I can make it to one .
So sorry about your back pain.Hope you are feeling a lot better !
Oh my Gosh, Hippos! Yes please!
This looks like so much fun!! Someday I will get to visit Loopy Ewe in person and hopefully attend a Spring Fling!!
Looks like so much fun. Wish I was able to attend. Thank you for the chance to win a Goody Bag. So sorry to hear about the bout of sciatica. So painful. Hope you are fully mended.
always love seeing the Fling recap and dreaming of getting there someday.
Loopy’s Spring Fling was the Best! I hope I get to go to the next one!
What a dream come true it would be to someday be able to attend Spring Fling. Meanwhile, love the photos and the blog post. My favourite photo is the one showing all the cubbies/aisles of yarn at the shop… heaven!
Someday I hope I’ll be able to come to a Fling – they sound amazing!!
So sorry to hear of your sciatic nerve problems. Been there, done that so unfortunately know that pain. Some day would love to come to the Spring Fling. A friend and I were able to shop the Loopy Ewe several years ago on our way through Colorado and we loved it.
Oh I’d love to go on a trip like this!
I am so sorry to hear about your back – awful timing. But it seems that all went well nonetheless.
Oh Sheri – I’m so sorry to hear about your back pain and that you missed part of the Fling! Hopefully you’re all recovered by now.
I’m not the least bit surprised to hear that Loopy Elf Michael, Knitting Daughter, Web Guy, Sheryl, Janice and all the others stepped up to help cover for you not being there. They’re a great group! Hugs to all!!
Hope you are feeling much better Sheri. My mom has suffered from the same thing so I’ve been it up close. I was lucky enough to attend a couple of Flings while you were in St. Louis so hopefully soon I’ll be able to attend in CO as well.
I would love to attend a Loopy Fling one day. Looks like a great time!
Would love to win this! I’m afraid Spring Fling is just something I won’t be able to participate in until I retire!
So sorry to hear about your sciatic pain – I have had both that and kidney stones and NEVER want either one again! The Fling looks and sounds like so much fun! Of course I would love to win the goodie bag!
I hope you’re feeling better!
WOW – I would love a chance to win that Loopy goody bag – it’s so cool! I’m excited about CL this year. See you on the high seas ! Mel
This is an awesome goodie bag. I would love to win one. So sorry to hear that you missed some of Fling!
Sounds like an awesome event!! Would love to join y’all next year. Hope you’re feeling better, sheri! Would love to win the goodie bag…
Wow what a great yummy looking gift , looks like everyone had a lot of fun !
The weekend sounds like lots of fun. Sorry you were sidelined for the event
I do want to do Fling sometime. Sounds like great fun.
I never win any fun yarn drawings/contests and I would love to win this package! Thanks for the opportunity!
What a nice prize this would be to win!!
I hope I can make it to a future Fling. In the meantime, winning that awesome goodie bag would be a great alternative! Thanks for running the giveaway!
I need to attend one of these events, maybe 2017. Looks like a great prize, too.