OMG, did we have fun at CPS #3!

The lodge facility directly across from the Activities Room and Pool at Lone Oak Ranch Retreat.

The last weekend of January 2015 found me on a wonderful road trip with my friend, Wanda.  We were headed for the Chix Packin Stix Retreat about an hour north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.  I was so excited that I didn't even care that it was also Super Bowl Weekend.  That says a mouthful, if you know me well enough!

Wanda was quite excited, herself.  She was looking forward to finally learning how to knit.  You see, Wanda is left handed, and that makes it hard to learn knitting and crochet because almost all directions for everything is geared towards being right handed.  So unfair, right?!  She desperately needed help and there would be at least two left handed knitters at the Retreat!

It took us the better part of 5 hours to reach Lone Oak Ranch Retreat near Gainesville, and, I am not kidding, we talked non-stop about anything and everything.  I had to hunt for my chapstick before I left my car.  Finding it amongst the stuff in my purse was a godsend, because I was going to need it quite often during the rest of the weekend!

The fun began with the opening of the door of the Activities Room on January 30, 2015, at the Lone Oak Ranch Retreat venue and site of the 3rd Chix Packin Stix Retreat.  I could hardly wait to see who would be attending, and what projects we would be exploring.  Pictures are said to be worth a 1000 words, and I think the following photos say a lot about how much fun we had!  Enjoy!

Early arrivals found a table to call home base and got to work on a project of their own.  Hugs and screams of delight were abundant as each new attendee entered the building!

After a Friday Night Potato and Soup Bar, we started things off with a "Get Acquainted" game that

involved trading lengths of yarn with everyone.  In the end, we were each able to make a Friendship

Scarf by tying, braiding or whatever we wanted to do with our colorful strands.  It was a loud,

rambunctious and crazy way to make new friends and greet the old!

There was crocheting and weaving on a peg loom going on.

At each Retreat, we make something for a charity.  This time we brought
fleece and crocheted around the edges to make blankets for the kids at
either Parkland Hospital or Medical City Dallas.

A finished blanket ready to be loved by a child at a local hospital.

Crocheting edges to blankets and crocheting a shawl for someone special.

A colorful tower of blankets for the kids at the hospitals to enjoy!  Mine
is the plaid one on the very bottom.

Gathering beads, button, ribbons and other pretties for making our Inspiration Flags.

And the process begins!

Each Inspiration Flag was unique!

Each was beautiful!

Each was ....  inspirational!

This Retreat,several of the ladies brought their spinning wheels and set them up in a group.  I wish I had brought my Joy, but I decided at the last moment not to do so.  Next time, she will definitely accompany me on my trip to the Lone Oak Ranch!

Oh, the colors, creations and equipment!  A fiber gal's dream weekend!

Sharing is what it is all about at Chix Packin Stix Retreat.  We all learn from each other throughout the weekend.  Sometimes it is about a technique; sometimes it is about life.  But we all learn something new.

Concentration on our projects did not interfere with our visiting and sharing.

As usual, I am talking with my hands .... even while doing
some handwork on my Inspiration Flag.

Some of the ladies learned how to use a small triangle loom.

Oh, my, YES!  There were plenty of snacks to keep us going throughout the day and night!

Saturday night we had an impromptu pajama party, and a fire in the
fireplace kept us all cozy.  A perfect place to handcard some fiber!

A new spinner shows off her handspun and crocheted alpaca shawl!

Saturday night we stayed up late working on projects, making new friendships, and catching up with old friendships.  

Lots of laughter and lots of smiles!  Busy, busy, busy!

Linda J. of Wildflower Studio brought each of us a kit and gave instructions
for needle felting an Easter egg!  What fun!

The kit for the needle felted egg came complete with a bandaid ....  just in case!  I started my egg!

Some of Linda's wonderful needle felted creations!  Visit her at
ljswildflowerstudio.com

After a bit of instruction from Linda, we got started on needle felting our eggs.

Lots of concentration and creativity going on here!  Mind those sharp needles, gals!

Needle felting is not hard, you just have to get in the groove!

The special felting needles are VERY SHARP, so you must be careful as you jab the fiber into your

design.

Let me just say that there are some people that, if  you hang out with them, craziness just has to happen!  That is all I am saying.  I am not calling out any names.  You know who you are!

The lamp post outside the Activities is just screaming for a yarn bombing!

Here is the whole gang right before lunch on Sunday.  Does it look like we have had some FUN?!

Another project was card stamping.  Here are the four I made.  Mine were

made in a hurry because I was so busy visiting and talking that they were

cleaning off the table when I finally decided it was time to make mine!

I hung my Inspiration Flag on the mantel in my den.  I like it!

Me and my roomies shared a hug after Sunday lunch, before packing up and heading homeward.

And then, Wanda and I talked non-stop the 5 hours we were homeward bound!  I was, by then, on my second tube of chapstick, but it was all very well worth it!  We were almost home when we noticed the most amazing sight to the west ..... a rainbow around the setting sun within the most gorgeous sunset I have seen in a very long time!  A rainbow around the sun, folks!  It is called a solar halo.  Awesome!

Well, I haven't finished my needle felting project yet, but I am working on it.  We also received several skeins of yarn and patterns for shawls, cowls and fingerless mitts.  I haven't had a chance to play with any of those yet either.  Maybe this weekend.

Retreats like this are a place for the communion of the souls of women, a coming together to share and learn and support each other.  Sure it is about the fiber and the yarn, the knitting, crocheting and creating, but it is much much more.  I know that I always leave such a gathering of women with a sense of worth and energy that allows me to return to the Real World and go forth on my Path with more confidence and happiness than I had before arriving.

And so, I came home after this Retreat so "tired, but happy" that I accidentally wore my Wednesday shirt with my Friday jeans to work on Monday!  Oh, my!



BTW, I have joined with the organizers of the Chix Packin Stix Retreat and will be helping to come up with door prizes for our twice a  year events.  I have chosen to call myself the Goodie Goddess!  (I have some nerve, eh?!)  And, there just may be a costume involved ....  Stay tuned!

SO ..... if you have any ideas for acquiring some goodies for our door prizes, please email me at chixpackinstix@gmail.com, attn: Sara.  I am looking for some sources of interesting items that would charm a knitter, crocheter, fiberist, woman's heart.  Yarn, fiber, fabric, notions, books, chocolate, soap, etc. is what I have in mind.  So, please put on your thinking cap (hopefully a hand-knitted or crocheted one!) and help me come up with some great sources!


And, if you would like to find out more about Chix Packin Stix and to sign up for the next Retreat  (August 7 - 9, 2015), you should visit the Facebook page and sign up to "Follow" us!  There is already a registration form there on the page.  Or you can go there to find even more photos of the fun we had.  For those of you who attended, it will be a walk down Memory Lane, for sure!



Feeling better after a bout of pleurisy and a sinus infection here on HeartSong Farm.