Thursday, January 26, 2012

SANTA FE/TAOS RETREAT SEPTEMBER 1 -7, 2012

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SANTA FE/ TAOS KNITTING RETREAT SEPT 1ST -7th, 2012

Mark your calendars! Details to follow!

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The Santa Fe/ Taos area is one of my favorite regions anywhere. It's colorful, spiritual, arty and scenic with more yarn stores per square mile than most places have coffe shops. And the shopping! here's a place where you can stroll down the street wearing your most colorful knitwear and, well, BLEND. People wear color in Santa Fe. Self-expression is the norm rather than the exception. In all ways, it is one of the most inspirational places to visit without crossing an ocean.

My first Santa Fe/Taos knitting excursion was such a success that I've been eager to do another ever since. Now I'm ready. Will you join me? Spaces are limited to 15, scaled to fit the luxurious inn I've chosen for our Taos stay, a place once graced by Mabel and Tony Luhan (Don't know the Mabel Dodge, Chief Tony Luhan story about the weathy woman and the chief of the Taos pueblo? Well worth the read, my friends). Our knitting project will be a short row color flow shawlet, something you'll actually finish during your trip. Read on for details:

September 1, 2012, ARRIVAL DAY: Arrive at the Hotel Santa Fe, one of the few totally Native American owned hotels in Santa Fe and THE most accomodating anywhere. The rooms are lovely, there's a spa on location, a fabulous shopping area with a shoe shop across the street and the concierge knits!  This is arrival day so the main thing here is to arrive, settle in and aclimatize. You'll be 8,000 ft above sea level here so ease into the climate. A little shopping works, a massage even better. That night, we'll meet for supper in the hotel restaurant so everone can rest up for the days to come.

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Shop Window

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September 2, Day 2: Today after breakfast we're off on a yarn crawl! Yes, my favorite yarn stores are on the route including Oodles, Miriam's Well, and the Looking Glass. You will have received your starter kit consisting of a combination of lovely yarns by Santa Fe yarn company, Dyelot (more on this, including color choices, to follow), so the foraging will be to augment this tasty collection. We'll stop by for lunch at a local Santa Fe eatery. Our shuttle bus will either drop you off in town for more shopping or you can carry on back to the hotel to rest. That night, we're off to sample more New Mexican cuisine. 

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 Miriam's Well

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Santa Fe Style

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 Cadre of kindred spirits

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September 3rd: Workshop Day. Now that have yarn and are a bit more acclimatized, it's time to carry on to a lovel Santa Fe home to begin our workshop on the Landscape Short Row shawlette. a beautiful location, a cadre of kindred spirits, this is what knitting in Santa Fe is all about. We'll stay at Ricki's from 10:00 until 3:00 when we'll shuttle you back to the town Plaza to stroll the arts & crafts market unfolding that day. We'll all meet for supper at the Hotel Fonda's fairy-light dining room before returning to our hotel. Try the tortilla soup and guacamole!

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 Throughout the day, there are manyplaces to knit at Ricki's…like the patio

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Day 4, Taos. It's time to head for the hills, the mountains actually. Today we check out of the Hotel Santa Fe and take our bus up to Taos, that lovely, evocative, funky and totally unique town tucked in the mountains by Taos Pueblo. Cit Carson lived here. This is the land of Mabel Dodge Luhan and Chief Tony Luhan, as fasinating a romance as any I've heard. Mabel was a knitter as well as being a fabulously rich hieress. The story goes that she met tony while teaching the pueblo girls how to knit. In the early 1920's, Mabel's passion for writing and art drew Georgia O'keefe, DHLawrence, and others to Taos. Taos inspired them all as it will you.

Our bead breakfast is the gorgeous Hicienda Del Sol that just happens to encompass Mabel and Tony's original adobe home. Not only are the rooms gorgeous but when we're not knitting, we can book private time in the outdoor hot tub. The places to knit are bountiful but perhaps the loveliest will be the garden overlooking the sacred Taos mountain. On the afternoon of our arrival, we'll settle in for knitting and communing with nature and one another and later, walk to a nearby fabulous restaurant.

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Guest room Hicienda del Sol

DAY 5: Following our delicious breakfast, we'll head out for a morning of Taos perusing including a visit to the artisan shops of Bent Street and environs for free strolling and shopping time. We'll meet after lunch to return to the Hicienda for afternoon knitting with a metal shawl pin-making demonstration by RIcki. Everyone will receive their own pin as a memento. 

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Shopping on Bent Street, Taos

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Day 6: Knitting, Eating, Cooking…not necessarily in that order. Today, we'll most likely finish our landscape wraps and begin thinking of embellishing or pieces but we also have multiple options for outings and activities, on which I will consult with the registrants. An opportunity to take a cooking class with our host, a noted chef, and participate in creating a 4-course meal is one option for an addiional $50 per person with a 10-person minimum necessary. Among the other hand, there's the Millicent Rodgers museum to visit, a cruise on out to the Gorge Bridge, a possible visit to a mineral spring spa. So, details on all these will unfold as people register.

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The beautiful Northern New Mexico countryside

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 Milicent Rogers Museum

Day 7: Return to Santa Fe. After breakfast, our bus will take us back to Santa Fe and our hotel where the town will be yours for an afternoon of exploration. Craving to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum, the galleries of Canyon Road? The hotel shuttle zips about to many different locations within the town and the range of museums and art galleries may leave you a little breathless. We'll meet that evening for our fairwell supper. Tomorrow is check out time.

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a Santa fe Art Gallery

LOGISTICS:

• Visitors to Santa Fe generally fly into Albuquerque where the airport shuttle will deliver you directly to the Hotel Santa Fe. I will provide the information to purchase your return tickets.
• The Hotel Santa Fe has a shuttle service to the main Plaza, which is in walking distance but may seem a bit of a hike to the jet-lagged.