Reuniting The Blogger Tribe

I’m deep in the Come Down from the weekend. Properly miserable.

I have just experienced the most inspirational and energy-filled weekend with the most wonderful group of bloggers; my Blogger Tribe. And now it’s over, I’m devastated.

I exaggerate, obviously.  But, there is a very definite come down effect.  I went to dinner with friends last night, and while they were all chatting and laughing, I wasn’t really feeling myself.  I just wanted to be transported back to the weekend and to hang out with my blogger girls.

Each year Scheepjes hosts a Blogger Weekend and I’m lucky enough for this to be my third year.  We started with a small handful of ladies; and now look at us!

This year we descended upon the beautiful city of Groningen in the north east of the Netherlands.  If you haven’t been, you must. It hosts one of the best Saturday markets in the country, along with some of the most lovely architecture and it has the coolest vibe.  Plus the shopping is amazing!

We spent the first day being let loose in the warehouse to feel all the buttons, squish the yarn, and gasp over the gorgeous fabrics.  The girls were all laughing at me because I needed two people to help me carry everything!  So be warned, there are a LOT of projects coming from me in the coming months!

We had a great session in the afternoon with tech editor Cara Medus, learning some of the fundamentals of garment design.  I’m pleased that although I’m not a fan of maths, I can understand formulas, so what I learned is going to be VERY useful and I can’t wait to put it into practice!

We were also extremely lucky to learn some of the inside gossip, and see some of what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months from Scheepjes, and let me tell you, it’s revolutionary!  For a small family business, they’re visionaries and are only going to grow and become industry leaders – mark my words!  I’m so excited to be along for the ride.

I wonder what this could be all about…..?

I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…

Suddenly we were all at dinner, and then all the young’uns retired while the Usual Suspects headed for the bar until stupid o’clock with a few bottles of wine and a lot of laughter and a few tears.

Feeling a little rough after a short nap overnight, it was time for round two! One of the biggest highlights was finally being able to see the finished Last Dance on the Beach CAL blankets that we all designed together in memory of our Beloved Wink.  Seriously, these blankets are beautiful.  Spectacular.  Absolute heirloom pieces. I had no idea, and I mean, absolutely none, that the blankets would be as beautiful as they are.  It’s difficult to tell the difference between the Merino Soft and Colour Crafter.  The biggest tell is the weight – the Merino Soft is quite a bit heavier than the Colour Crafter, and a bit silkier to touch.  Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be impressed by an acrylic yarn blanket!

Here’s the Stars (lovely picture by Dedri)

I also spent a bit of time with Esther filming a quick left handed segment for her instructional video for my square.  You’ll be able to see my shaking hands in person when it’s my week!

I even took the plunge and have started learning to knit socks!  Tammy has been at me for ages to do it, but I just thought it would be too hard.  Then I saw her busy with two at a time using the Magic Loop method and they look so easy!  So, Sarah gave me a quick course on how to do Judy’s Magic Cast-on and how to increase using her finger and thumb method and I was away!  Well, kind of.  My knitting skills are not very advanced, so there was a random yarnover creating a hole, then somehow I managed to mess up my stitch count, so I had to rip it all out and start over. by second attempt is much, much better and I just wanna knit all the socks!

I didn’t take any decent photos as usual, but you can see some great shots taken by the other girls on their blogs and Instagram.

Here we are all together with the amazing Dance Under the Stars blanket

From left to right we have Kirsten from Haak maar Raak, Jellina from Jellina Creations, Esther from It’s all in a Nutshell, Dedri (at the back) from Look at What I Made, Carmen (front) from Crafty Queens, Esther (back) from Happy in Red, Christa (front) from the Curio Crafts Room, Mr Scheepjes (Job), Atty (in front of Mr Scheepjes) from Atty’s, Tatiana from Lilla Bjorn Crochet, Bernadette (back) from Berniolie, Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch, Me, Tammy from Canadutch, and Maria from 50 Shades of 4ply.  Missing was Annelies from Vicarno, and Susan from Felted Button (we missed you girls!!!!!).

All too soon it was over.  It was time to get in the car, leave these lovely women, and make the sad journey home.  Now I have a with a head absolutely chock full of inspiration and a heart wishing I could go back in time and hit pause so I could stay there forever.  There’s still more I have to tell you about the goodies we received, but that’s for another day!

Thank you so much to Job and our Tribe Builder and the rest of the team at Scheepjes.  It’s such an honour to be part of this cool group of women, these girls have changed my world.

Now excuse me, I have socks to knit.