Come join in the fun ...

Give a spiritual twist to your holiday knitting with this weekend retreat. Presentations will include an overview of the knitting design process, as well as practical instruction on fiber choice, stitches, texture, ethnic influences and lots of ideas for getting the look you want from your hand knits. A resource packet will be distributed at the retreat. There will also be time for retreatants to join in the liturgical life of the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey, including the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass.

Retreatants should have an understanding of the basics of knitting, but need not be experts. Be sure to bring your knitting projects, ideas and questions so that we can all share and knit and learn together.

The fee of $160 per person includes the program cost, private room with shared bath, and meals from Friday supper through Sunday breakfast. A $40 deposit is requested to secure your reservation. Please contact the Abbey for reservations or telephone the retreat office at: 970-484-1887 during retreat office business hours (M-Sat 9:30-11:30 a.m. or 2:30-4:30 p.m.) The retreat office is closed on Sundays and major holidays. If the Sisters are not available to answer your call, please leave a message and they will be happy to return your call as soon as possible.

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Mary Gildersleeve began designing shortly after teaching herself to knit at the age of 8. In 1997 she established By Hand, With Heart: hand-knit designs, where she creates designs for knitting publications (such as Knitters, INKnitters, and Knitting Digest) , custom knits original designs for purchase, and self-publishes her patterns. She is a writer, reviewer, teacher, and most importantly, talker about knitting whenever anyone will listen. She is currently working on a book of original designs linked to great family read-alouds – scheduled for publication Spring 2008. She can usually be found doing something knitterly, even when she’s homeschooling her younger three children.

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The Abbey of St. Walburga is a Benedictine abbey located in the small village of Virginia Dale, Colorado, at 32109 North US Highway 287. It’s about 35 miles north of Fort Collins and 30 miles south of Laramie, WY. Please note that the Retreat House is a simple facility designed to offer a time of quiet withdrawal from the busy noise of the ordinary home and work world. Individual rooms are not equipped with telephones or modem connections. The single telephone line that serves the Retreat House cannot be used to download e-mail. Television and radio reception are extremely poor in the valley, and cell phones and pagers will not work here. Retreatants are asked to use headsets if they wish to listen to tapes.