How can I begin to describe the 3rd annual Magical Moebius Festival?

It was perfect. Cat Bordhi is a wonderful teacher, and the nicest person imaginable. Nancy and Bob of Colorsong Yarn did a marvelous job organizing the event. There was really cool learning experiences, followed by lots of time to knit and try stuff out. And yarn. Luscious, incredible yarns piled high and just waiting for knitters to take them home.

The picture shows Cat demonstrating — with Nancy playing the part of stitch — how to tell which direction a stitch is mounted on the needle, and how to knit it in either case.

Be sure to click on the pictures to biggy-size them.

Cat kept trying to knit Nancy all weekend. Fortunately Nancy seemed none the worse for wear.

I may as well flash a little yarn pr0n while I’m at it. See all of the yarn? This wasn’t even all of it. There was more. And every time I wandered out into this room, there was new yarn, and yarn I hadn’t seen before, and yarn I just had to have. Nancy and Bob brought many wonderful yarns. And Michele from Fiber Nooks & Crannys also brought wonderful and tempting things.

There were books, too! All of Cat’s books (although not the new one that isn’t published yet – go figure) and Ann & Kay’s book, and other cool books.

Nancy helpfully ran a tab for me. (yeah… big help… I started calling Nancy my pusher)

And there was also Addi Lace needles — Skacel gave everyone at the workshop one US#2 Addi Lace needle, and I won another US#2 as a door prize. And maybe I acquired a couple more in other sizes in a more mundane way through my pusher.

Also note the corner of the table in the lower left of the picture. See how it’s nicely set for some meal or another? It was always set for a meal, and it seemed like we were always eating. Three really good meals, plus two big snacks lest we become faint from hunger.

This was our classroom. It was right next to the yarn & food room. See the big windows? They looked right out over the ocean. The Shilo Inn is on a bluff over the beach, so the view was wonderful. One morning I saw a whale.

We had a lot of fun in this room, knitting and learning and knitting and learning and knitting some more. And maybe just a touch of wine drinking. But just a touch, because there was so much knitting going on. I knit the moebius-from-hell, which I will tell you about later.

We were not the only event at the Shilo last weekend. There was also a wedding reception. A very loud wedding reception, with many guests who looked to be having a great time. I could tell there were many muggles amongst them by the strange looks they gave us as they filed past the room where we ate dinner surrounded by yarn. But one of the wedding guests came in and asked what we were doing and said she’d rather be with us. She had taken a class from Cat some time ago, and wanted to knit. But her husband insisted she stick with the wedding reception. So some of the knitters visited her later. Knitters crashing a wedding reception. I think the muggles were not amused. 😆

We not only knit moebii, we also knit socks. Lots of little socks knit in many mysterious but very, very cool ways. This is the best picture I can show you of the socks because I am sworn to secrecy. But Cat has a strange and devious mind and many cool and wonderful things come pouring out of it. And I was totally blown away and would still be knitting socks had I not become enmeshed in the before-mentioned moebius-from-hell.

Cat’s new book: New Pathways For Sock Knitters will be out soon. You can preorder it now from Bob and Nancy at Knitters Bookshelf. Check out all of the other great books they have while you’re browsing!

I left my window open Saturday night. The sound of the surf drowned out the sound of the wedding reception, which went into the wee hours of the morning, I think. I’m getting too old to last that long.

It was really hard to tear myself away on Sunday.

I loved all of the knitters that were there, and Cat, and Nancy & Bob, and Michelle, and the staff of the Shilo who made sure that we had all we needed.

The weather on Sunday was just glorious, as it had been on Thursday. It made for a very pleasant drive home.

I stopped in Lincoln City and snapped this picture on Siletz Bay. I love how the rocks look like a dragon sleeping in the water. There were tons of people out on the beach because it was the last day of spring break for Oregon schools and the first weekend of spring break for Washington schools.

Strangely enough the traffic wasn’t all that bad, and I arrived home safe and sound after an uneventful journey. The fur kids were glad to have me home, and I was glad to be home.

Sleeping to surf is very nice, but there’s something about having a couple of purring cats curled up next to you that makes for some very fine sleeping.

Next: Why gauge is important, or how I learned to love swatching.