Sunday was the last day of the retreat and I had signed up for a 3-hour morning class.  Janine Bajus said that the other teachers had questioned the wisdom of offering a class on cutting up one's knitting early on a Sunday.  Despite my exhaustion after a full weekend and a late night before, I found "Steeks: What, Where, When, Why, How" a very educational class.  I was extremely nervous about cutting into my knitting and took the class basically for hand holding.

Janine showed us how to set up a standard steek, useful for a cardigan or V-neck opening, and a kangaroo steek, useful for sleeve openings.  For a kangaroo steek, one puts stitches on a holder and casts on stitches for the steek thus making an open bottom pocket.

She then showed us how to stablize a steek with crocheting before cutting.

I practiced this a couple of times before I liked the look after cutting.  First attempt:

Second attempt:

She had us just cut the kangaroo steek without stabilizing first so we could see how it looks.  Since we were using sticky yarns (wool yarn that grabs itself) for our samples, the cut steek didn't unravel.

After all that, Janine showed us how to pick up stitches along a cut steek for adding bands or sleeves.

I had arranged for George to pick me up after my last class since the Sounder commuter train doesn't run on weekends.  We had originally planned to go to lunch in Tacoma and then to the Point Defiance Zoo or the Museum of Glass depending on the weather.  However, I was so exhausted after 4 days of classes and learning (in class and out) that we just went to lunch and then headed home to Seattle where I fell into bed for a nap.

Overall, I had a great time at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat 2009 and look forward to next year.