Sewjourn
This past weekend was a special one. Many months ago, my friend Ailsa came up with the idea of a Knitters’ Retreat at Sewjourn, a crafters’ cottage in country Victoria. There were ten of us who ended up going, and it was fantastic. We all flew down on Friday and then drove out to Lancefield, about an hour outside Melbourne. Over the next two days, we knitted, we laughed, and we ate cheese and drink wine like it was a competitive sport. Some of us went for a run (and got lost and had to be rescued by the others). We ate at a fancy restaurant. We visited Hanging Rock, where SOME PEOPLE delighted in playing the panflute on their iPhones and threatening to jettison OTHER PEOPLE out of the car INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION. (Namely, me.) It was all a lot of fun. My photos are here, but you can see others over at knitabulous, missfee, a room of my own, jp knit ‘n’ natter, and Shades of Grey. Thanks to Ailsa for inviting me along, and to all the other ladies for making it such a memorable weekend!CONVOY! We took two rental cars from Melbourne Airport. At one point, Kylie and I were tweeting photos of each other’s vehicles.

We pulled into the driveway at Sewjourn to find… effing graffiti knitting. I figured this was a bad sign. I mean, really. Who knits a cactus cozy?

We quickly settled into the house and made plans to get groceries for dinner. The house was surprisingly spacious inside, with plenty of room to sleep all 10 of us.

Here’s the outside. Very cute! And only a couple minutes’ walk from the village.

There’s also a large craft studio. This was a great space, but we didn’t actually end up using it at all!

There was a tire swing behind the house. I couldn’t resist. (I was, however, afraid of spiders, so I was only on it for a minute.)

More knitted art. This was a metal stork wearing legwarmers and a scarf, with a knitted fish in its mouth. (I liked it because of the fish. Nice touch.)

After some lunch in the village, we got provisions. We toasted the sunset with beer, wine, cheese, and paté. How civilised.

Saturday morning, Miss Fee, Ailsa, and I set off for a planned 5km run. Unfortunately we missed a turn on a back country road, so when we hit 5km we realised we were far, far from home. The inadequacies of Google’s mapping of back-country Victorian roads meant that it took the rescue team some time to find us.

But they did. We were sweaty but fine. Thanks Sue and Jody!

Lunch on Saturday was at Annie Smithers’ in Kyneton. It was fantastic. On a whim, I had the vegetarian courses: breaded and fried artichokes, gnocchi with asparagus and broad beans, and braised rhubarb for dessert. There were also many bottles of wine. Terrific meal.

While SOMEBODY went to the bathroom, Jane, Alison, and Jody pretended to read all the (scandalous) texts on her phone.

And SOMEBODY went bright red when she discovered our prank!

I bought some new lippie at a shop in Kyneton, so here I am posing all hipster-like in front of an old church. I also wore my new fancy dress.

On the way back from Kyneton, we realised you could see Hanging Rock! I checked in there on Foursquare. We were going to go up to it, but the entrance fee was TEN DOLLARS! Too much to pay to swan about in a dress while the others cried “Miranda!” and searched for me.

We finished Saturday night with a birthday party for all the lovely Scorpio ladies: Kylie, Jane, Ailsa, and Alison.

Sunday was more of the same, really. The three runners went off on another excursion, but this time we stuck to an actual running path and were rewarded by NOT GETTING LOST. We had breakfast in the village and then spent the afternoon trying to finish off all the alcohol before we had to leave. And then it was back to Melbourne to catch our flights home to Sydney!