The Inspirational Umbria Workshop/Activity Schedule

Here's what we'll be doing in Todi, Italy, from May 24-30, 2015. Won't you come and join us? The registration and info links are to the upper right of the main blog page. We are going to have such an amazing time!

And in case you don't feel like clicking to enlarge, here's the text:

Sunday May 24 

Arrival: Unpack, relax, nap, soak in the beauty of the Hotel Bramante, and Todi 
Welcome Dinner: Meet your fellow traveling designers

Monday May 25

Morning Workshop Open Your Eyes: How to see the designs around us, tools to use in translating those designs, design and chart making exercises 
Afternoon Excursion to Assisi: Observe, sketch, take notes and photos for original knitting designs 
Evening: Free Time

Tuesday May 26

Morning Workshop Translating Inspiration: Turning our observations, ideas, sketches and photos into usable stranded knitting charts 
Afternoon Todi Yarn Crawl: Purchase yarns for your original projects 
Evening: Wine Tasting

Wednesday May 27

Morning Workshop Finalizing Original Design Charts: Choosing colors for your designs, and adding your new designs to provided charts for hats, mittens, and/or sweaters 
Afternoon: Free Time for Knitting or Relaxing, or an Optional Guided Tour of Todi 
Evening: Cooking Class, Pizza/Pasta

Thursday May 28

Morning Workshop A No-Pucker, No-Twisted Yarns, Stranded Knitting Tutorial: Begin knitting your original design 
Afternoon: Free Time for Knitting or Relaxing. Kathleen will be available for design or knitting troubleshooting 
Evening: Medieval Dinner with Archery Demonstration

Friday May 29

Morning Workshop Finishing Techniques: A discussion of finishing techniques, including steeking, which isn’t as scary as it sounds 
Afternoon: Free Time for Knitting or Relaxing. Kathleen will be available for design or knitting troubleshooting 
Evening: Short Presentation: Moving Forward with Your Original Designs

Saturday May 30

Departure: Saying good-bye to new friends, and old

Inspirational Umbria, Todi Italy, May 24-30 2015!!!! IT'S ON!!!!!!

I am about to hyperventilate here- the dates have been set for a week-long knitwear design workshop in Todi, Italy. And I will be teaching! In Italy! In May 2015.

The focus of the in-depth workshop will be on translating landscape and architectural features and details and impressions into charts for stranded and Fair Isle knitting. Every student will go home with an original, and completely unique, pattern of his or her own design. Not only will we use the beautiful town of Todi as inspiration, we'll be taking excursions to Assisi, and surrounding areas. Classes will be in the morning, excursions in the afternoon (including a yarn crawl- there are three yarn stores in Todi, wine tasting, a cooking class, and a Medieval archery demo), and great food in the evening. Friendship and laughter all day, every day. It's going to be fun, lemee tellya.

Prices for the retreat have not been set yet, but here's the flyer:

Feel free to copy and distribute this flyer anywhere you like. I also have a PDF file- e-mail me if you'd like it as well.

As if the above wasn't enough of an incentive- take a gander at the hotel where we'll be staying:

 I was rendered speechless (a rare and wonderful thing) when I went to the Hotel Bramante website. *Amazing* doesn't begin to cover it. Be sure to watch the video.

And if you need a little more incentive, the workshop facilitator Alexandra Hook, sent me this picture of Todi itself:

As the rest of the details are settled, I'll let you all know. Come and join us for the adventure of a lifetime!

Edited to add: I just started a Ravelry group called Inspiring Umbria- come and join us!

Anyone up for a trip to Italy?

Okay, nothing is set in stone yet, even the dates, but... there's a very real possibility that I might teach a week long course in using landscape, local color, and architecture to design knitwear in Umbria, Italy. Maybe next spring. The course would take place in Todi, Italy, with classes in the morning and afternoon trips to assorted visually stunning locations for inspiration (including to Assisi). We'd be staying in a hotel that used to be a monastery. The classes would be in English (since I don't speak Italian), and it would be marketed strongly to UK and European knitters.

That sounds pretty amazing, no?

Without knowing any more about it, and certainly not committing yourselves to an overseas trip, the planners wanted to know if any US or Canadian knitters might also be interested. As I said, we have no firm info yet, this is just a general question. All comments welcome.

So, anyone up for a trip to the Italian countryside for an intensive week of knitwear design classes?


Here are a few pictures to pique your interest (note: all of these pictures came from Yahoo and Google search- none had attributions. If you know who took them, please let me now so I can add that info).

The general location:

Todi

 Todi

 Todi

Assisi

 Assisi

 Assisi