Of course, we have all read about knitting retreats and the teachers/attendees always say the same things: amazing teachers; amazing people at the retreat; amazing locale.
The Signature Retreat was everything ever said about a retreat but on steroids. The locale was beautiful (even in the rain) and the food was astonishing.
The teachers were fabulous both in the classroom and as people—so different but each special in their own way. I have attached links so if you have a chance, go to a class with them.
http://kateatherley.blogspot.com/
http://susanbanderson.blogspot.com/
The knitters were the most astonishing to me. I know that we have such interesting customers but meeting some of them in person was even better. All the Signature folks tried to move around at meals to meet and I met just a few: 4 physicians, a librarian, farmers, an airline captain, a toy maker, 2 engineers, stay at home parents, business owners, HR professionals, and even someone who worked at Los Alamos! We had people come from everywhere: Massachusetts, California, New Mexico, New York and Florida. We had one person fly from London and 2 women who drove 13 hours from South Dakota!
I hope each of you work in places with great co-workers because I do. We decided to make ourselves visible by wearing a Signature blue apron. All the Blue Apron Brigade worked the whole time to make the event the best it could be.
Peggy did so much of the work before hand, working with the Abbey, picking food, flowers, goody bags, vendors, and reservations. The Saturday night event was so beautiful that we had to keep turning people away-they mistook us for the wedding next door.
Donna saw to it that we had all the Signature products packed and unpacked. She worked anywhere something needed to be done.
Vicki took care of managing the accounting of all the purchases and worked the SNA booth as well as working anywhere something needed to be done.
Laura made the Saturday night presentation with me and also managed the transportation of the monogramming machine and monogrammed needles for every knitter. She also did anything that needed to be done. You may have realized this was the real joy for me to see that all the staff people were willing to help anyone, any time. How lucky is that?
Katie was a special hit. She ran, and ran, and ran for knitters and for staff who needed something. She helped with the monogramming and was cheerful even at the end of long days. I think the knitters liked seeing “the next generation” of an accomplished teen aged knitter. I would only wish such a granddaughter for each of you.
A special thank you goes to Cindy Hallam who was our Retreat Consultant. She has vast experience and took care of so many things. I heard from knitters over and over how much she had helped them even before the event. We literally would not have been able to do what she did. She is a jewel and if you are ever planning a retreat hire her.
We had asked for some knitted items for the wonderful non-profit Sharing Center which helps those in need in the more rural part of our county. Here is what we were able to send them:
http://www.thesharingcenter.net/about-us/
We all came home exhausted and it has taken some of us longer than others to recuperate. Then, once again, our very unusually wonderful attendees brought real joy. We got some thank you notes which really touched us.
And then this came in the mail: 
It turns out one of the retreat attendees works at the Beer Nut company https://beernuts.com/
in Bloomington, IL and she sent this to thank us for the wonderful weekend.
I can only say that my gratitude is on steroids.