Knitting on a Lark with Lorilee Beltman

Knitting on a Lark with Lorilee Beltman is a fantastic retreat opportunity shared with the audience of the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird. 

Lorilee Beltman’s bio (borrowed from her website) says: My experiences as a yarn shop owner taught me the value of delivering an honest answer with kindness. I learned I love helping knitters push through their roadblocks. I also learned that the knitting community is full of interesting people I really enjoy. A knitting video featuring my knitting style has over a million views on Youtube. As a result, I started hearing from knitters all around the world, deepening my attachment to yarny types everywhere.While I enjoy teaching continental to those who want to learn it, I appreciate all knitting styles. I urge my students to try projects that introduce new techniques. My articles or designs have been published in The Ultimate Hat Book (Vogue/Soho Publishing), Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockinʼ Sock Club, Interweave Knits Magazine, Interweave Sockupied eMag, Twist Collective, and Beyond Toes by Judy Becker. I am a Craft Yarn Council certified knitting instructor, and a TNNA designer/teacher member. Knitty.com is letting me serve the Knitty community as Techniques Columnist starting with the Deep Fall 2015 issue. Tent-camping with my husband and boys has brought me to over twenty National and Provincial Parks. I grew up in Pittsburgh, spent thirty years in west Michigan, and now call Seattle home.

Lorilee is making this special visit to the Yarn Thing podcast to share the Knitting On a Lark with Lorilee retreat. Taking place July 6-9 on the beautiful Bainbridge Island, in the Puget Sound of Washington State. This is a rest and relaxation retreat, not heavily scheduled with classes. Guests arrive Thursday, we have all our meals together served family style. Friday will see retreaters in either a morning or afternoon class with the Islandwood Chef on sustainable cooking. They will be visiting the kitchen garden to gather materials. On Saturday we have a real treat. Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts will be teaching a natural dye class- going for natural speckle dyes! (Lorilee is especially thrilled about this, she says ‘Tina hired my for my FIRST teaching job outside my Michigan shop for the 2009 Sock Summit’.)

We get to spend time amidst the towering fir trees of the Pacific Northwest. A bit of forest-bathing will do all our guests dome good. According to Wikipedia, Forest Bathing is the practice of taking a short, leisurely visit to a forest for health benefits. The practice originated in Japan where it is called shinrin-yoku. Interspersed will be short knitting lessons from me on topics designed to help people accomplish the retreat pattern which used some of Tina’s yarn. We also get to have s’mores and a bonfire. And we have a “De-stash, Re-stash, No-cash Yarn Bank” so attendees can bring something lovely from home to swap.

Follow Lorilee through her website: LorileeBeltman.com, in Facebook find her Knitting Enabler page.  Lorilee’s first visit to the Yarn Thing podcast happened in 2015. CLICK HERE to hear that first visit. If you missed getting to hear or watch THIS visit, you can find Marly’s LIVE Facebook video at her page, or listen to the archived podcast episode at this link: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/yarnthing/2017/05/04/knitting-on-a-lark-with-lorilee-beltman