2007 Knitter's Review Retreat
Seven Hills Inn
Lenox, MA
November 9-11, 2007
Pricing and nitty gritty details
Registration Form
NEWS FLASH: As of August 19th, the 2007 retreat is completely sold out. At this point we're accepting registrations for the waiting list only. Thank you!
We're celebrating our sixth year of bringing like-spirited people together to relax, gain knitterly inspiration, share ideas, and form lasting friendships. This year we leave New York's Hudson Valley and head northeast to the idyllic Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.
Our new home is the Seven Hills Inn, an historic mansion that was one of the original Berkshire Cottages. Over its lifetime, the mansion has hosted such inspirations as Leonard Bernstein, Isadora Duncan, and Beverly Sills. Today, with a few upgrades and the addition of a motel building, the building is an inn housing such creative people as...us!
Who'll Be There
Hosted by yours truly (your Knitter-in-Chief Clara Parkes), the retreat is truly about sharing our collective skills and experiences with one another in a relaxed, low-pressure environment.
We're delighted to have three special friends join us this year and add their skills and experience to the mix: Pam Allen, past Editor of Interweave Knits and now Creative Director of Classic Elite Yarns; Barbara Parry, the fiber artist, farmer, and creative vision behind Foxfire Fiber & Designs; and longtime Retreatee Shelia January, whose designs are featured in Clara's book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn.
Where We'll Be
We'll be staying at the Seven Hills Inn, a Tudor mansion set on 27 parklike acres in Lenox, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Hills region. The town of Lenox is approximately a two-hour drive from Boston and New York City.
We'll have free reign of the entire compound all weekend, which offers abundant space for meetings, classes, stash swapping, and the marketplace—not to mention enjoying three home-cooked meals and afternoon tea.
Outdoors you can stroll along the inn's sweeping terraces and private gardens (and Edith Wharton's estate is just next door if you have a hankering for literary history). If it's chilly, migrate indoors for a warm cup of tea in one of the common sitting rooms.
What We'll Do Friday night show and tell, with a fun new format that'll help us get to know one another without staying up until 2am. |
A choice of Saturday morning workshops:
Plus...
A marketplace featuring special guests Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Foxfire Fiber & Designs, with more to come. Clara will also be offering signed copies of her new book.
A visual presentation by Barbara Parry about her life as a shepherdess, from surviving lambing season to painting and playing with her beautiful yarns. If you've ever dreamed of raising your own fiber animals, you won't want to miss this!
A special Sunday morning program designed to set our knitterly sails for the year to come.
Thursday Extension
The Thursday extension has already sold out. If you'd like to be put on the waiting list, please indicate this on your registration form. You will not be billed for the Extension until your place has been confirmed.
The extension features a much more in-depth look at stranded colorwork in the Swedish Bohus style, including a headband kit and instructions on how to expand the headband into a hat.
Clean Your Stash
A favorite retreat tradition is the stash swap area, dubbed the Stash Lounge last year. Attendees bring extra items from their own stash (perhaps a bag of yarn you intended to use for a sweater but never did) and pick up something new from another person's stash. It's a great way to clean out your stash and know that it's going to an appreciative knitter—and you pick up some great new finds in the process.
Knit for Others
Every year we invite attendees to knit an item (or two) for charity and bring it to the retreat. Last year we collected 212 items for the Dulaan Project. We'll be sending out information about this year's charity project in your registration packets.
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The Details | ||
| Weekend | This year we are able to offer both single and double accommodations. Lodging is located in a modern, motel-style building adjacent to the manor house. Each guest room overlooks the Seven Hills Inn park and is simple, quiet, clean, light-filled, and equipped with telephones, air conditioning, cable television, and personal amenities such as irons and hair dryers. Cost for the weekend is $380 per person double occupancy, $500 single occupancy. You can either let us choose your roommate or specify a roommate on your registration form. Please make sure your intended roommate sends in his/her form at the same time as yours—we are unable to hold rooms for missing roommates. This rate covers everything: all classes and activities, two nights' lodging, all your meals, afternoon tea, and all taxes and gratuities. | |
Thursday Extension | The Thursday extension is competely sold out but we are keeping a waiting list. The cost is an additional $180. If sharing a room, both roommates will need to be registered for the extension—we cannot split single/double occupancy over the weekend. The fee covers everything—meals, lodging, snacks, and materials for the workshop. | |
Day Visitors | We have an extremely limited number of slots open for nearby residents who would like to join us just for the day on Saturday. The fee is $90 and includes the morning workshop, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and the after-dinner activities. | |
Bringing Family | Space for a non-knitting partner, spouse, friend, or child is limited and will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. We regret we are not able to accommodate children under 12 without a non-participating adult caregiver, as child-care is not available. We will make case-by-case exceptions for babies, but once the child reaches toddlerdom, it will need a non-participating caregiver. The cost for adult non-knitting companions sharing a room with a participant is $350 for the weekend, or $450 with the Thursday extension. This includes lodging, meals, snacks, and all taxes and gratuities. | |
NEWS FLASH: As of August 19th, the 2007 retreat is completely sold out. At this point we're accepting registrations for the waiting list only. Thank you! The registration form is here. Simply print out the above form, fill it out, and return it to us with your payment. The registration form is in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format. Most computers already have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, but if you don't, you can download a free version.
You may return the registration form by fax (866-969-9222—start transmission when the voicemail message begins) or by mail to: We will make every effort to send you email confirmation of your registration status within 14 days. Space is expected to fill quickly. Waitlisted registrations will be assigned a priority based on their postmark or date/time of fax received by us. Once your space has been confirmed, your credit card will be charged for the full registration fee on August 30th. | ||
| Cancellations | Cancellations are fully refundable until September 1st, at which point they will be subject to a $100 cancellation fee. After September 30, all cancellations are non-refundable. | |
| Getting There | The Seven Hills Inn is approximately a two-hour drive from Boston and New York City. The region is served by major airports in Boston (Logan), New York (LaGuardia, Kennedy, Newark, and Albany), and Connecticut (Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks). The closest airport is Albany International (1 hour away), while Manchester Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, is approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes away. We are not able to provide event transportation from area airports to the inn, but most participants have been able to coordinate carpools and ride-sharing from airports through the Forum in the past and we will do all we can to help coordinate this. | |
| Questions? Comments? | ||
