Nov 5-8: Yoga + Knitting Retreat in the Western NC Mountains
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED FOR 2015. HOPE TO SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
Thursday, November 5 – Sunday, November 8, 2015
The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center, Highlands, North Carolina
Jump-start your holiday knitting and replenish your body and soul with this fall retreat in the beautiful Western North Carolina Mountains combining daily yoga practice and knitting workshops.
Download .pdf Flyer
Activities include
- Daily yoga instruction with the talented Atlanta-based Iyengar yoga teacher Kquvien Deweese
- Daily knitting instruction for all levels with Allison Adams and Knitty techniques columnist Theresa Vinson Stenersen (possible topics include fixing mistakes, casting on/off, getting started with stranded colorwork, knitting 101 for beginners, and others. Be sure to complete the online survey we will send after you’ve registered!)
- Field trips to yarn shop and fiber farm
- Free time to explore on your own, take naps, or knit and do more yoga!
- Whiskey tastings after dinner
Beginners and advanced practitioners at both yoga and knitting are welcome and encouraged! The schedule is designed so that you may be as involved in the activities as much or as little as you wish.
Location
The Mountain Retreat is located at an elevation of 4200 feet in western North Carolina, a little more than a two-hour drive from Atlanta. The Mountain provides breathtaking views, old growth forest, and 94 acres that include rare oaks, a labyrinth and lake, hiking trails and beautiful foliage and granite rock outcroppings. Our rooms will be simple yet comfortable, circling around the top of Little Scaly Mountain with rocking chairs porches to enjoy the 100 mile view. The Mountain furnishes linens and towels. Dining services, with seasonal produce grown on The Mountain’s organic farm, has gained an excellent reputation with healthy choices to please omnivores and vegetarians alike.
Instructors
Kquvien DeWeese has been practicing yoga for 15 years and taken three month-long trips to study in India at the Iyengar Center. She began teaching in 2002 and is now an Intermediate Junior III Certified Instructor, who also mentors aspiring teachers. Having come from a very physical background including dance, martial arts, and weightlifting, she offers a unique teaching style that can motivate even the most-accomplished couch potato among us. She challenges her students, leaving them with a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and inner peace. Working to accommodate each individual’s specific needs and physical challenges, she encourages her students to work to their potential. With disarming candor and compassion, she has helped people in all stages of life–children, adults, senior citizens, pregnant women, athletes, former athletes and self-proclaimed stiffs–to experience the physical and mental benefits of Iyengar yoga.
Theresa Vinson Stenersen is a knitting designer and longtime columnist for the online magazine Knitty (“Techniques with Theresa”). She is well known for the illuminating lucidity of her instruction on methods and techniques often thought to be “advanced” and “challenging.” Theresa learned to knit first from her aunts with whom she grew up in the Southern Appalachians and later while living in Norway for many years. She also learned much about creating fiber dyes from natural sources such as mushrooms. Theresa now lives in Western North Carolina on a farm with her family, including several humans, alpacas, sheep, chickens, cats, and a marvelous dog named Audrey.
Allison Adams, retreat organizer, has been knitting for seven years and has helped many beginning knitters get started on their first projects. She has also studied stranded colorwork design and Fair Isle knitting techniques in Shetland. An experienced music teacher, she excels at one-on-one beginner level instruction. She focuses on making the learning project rewarding and encouraging, with clear, simple, step-by-step instruction that is geared toward what the knitter wishes to accomplish.
Field Trips
Merritt Farm (Suri Alpacas, Fiber Goats, Bunnies, More – Otto, NC)
In 2002 Liza McArthur founded this 10-acre farm centered around a 200-year-old log cabin that serves as a store offering raw fiber, battings, rovings, yarns and apparel. Liza keeps alpacas, fiber goats, bunnies, and more. Read about Allison’s first visit to Merritt Farm in 2011 here.
Silver Threads and Golden Needles (Yarn Shop – Franklin, NC)
This wonderful LYS is a friendly and fiber obsessed yarn shop owned by a mother and daughter duo, Virginia and Kristin, along with their best friend, Amy. Located in the Historic Downtown shopping area of Franklin, North Carolina, they have everything you need to launch yourself into a fiber frenzy! Allison’s mother, also a knitter, practically lives in this store.
Particulars
Click here to view the full schedule.
The all-inclusive price for this four-day retreat is only $527.21 per person (shared room) or $639.30 (private room). This amount includes three nights of accommodations; three breakfasts, two lunches, and three dinners; 6 yoga classes; 6 knitting workshop sessions; and additional activities (whiskey tasting and field trips). Payment to secure your place is due September 30, 2015. There are only ten slots available in this intimate retreat, so make your payment early!
Contact Allison Adams at aoapoplar@gmail.com or 404.373.1106 if you have any questions.
Is it possible for local residents (who don’t need accommodations) to attend the workshops and seminars?
I’m so sorry, but our contract with The Mountain, which is providing the facilities, accommodations, and meals, prevents that option.
Please put me on a mailing list for 2016 knitting retreat. Betsy
Hi Betsy. You’re on the mailing list for next year. Thank you!
Please put me on mailing list for next year
Sure thing!
Please put me on you mailing list. Thnak you
You’re added, Kathy. Thanks!
Could you add me to the mailing list for this retreat, too? Thanks very much!
Hi Jessi — done! Thank you!
Please place me on the mailing list for the 2016 retreat. Thanks.
Done! Thank you!
Please add me to that same mailing list. Sounds like the perfect retreat!
Thanks!
We’ve got you down, Jan. Thanks so much–look for some news and announcements in early 2016!
Are there any private rooms available for the June 2016 retreat?
Hi Susan: Yes, there are. Four slots currently available, two of which are private rooms. We’d love to have you join us!
Please add me to mailing list. Found you through the WSJ but live in Atlanta.
Done! Happy new year!
I also read about your retreat in WSJ and would like to be on the list for next year’s opportunity.
You are added. Thank you and happy new year!