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Every Fall and Winter, we offer several weekend knitting retreats.  Below is information about our upcoming Ghost Ranch, New Mexico retreat. If you would like to learn more about our Minnesota retreats, please visit our  Minnesota retreat page .

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* Lost In The Woods Knitting Retreat at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico *

Monday - Sunday, March 6 - 12, 2006

Limit: 24 Resident Participants (plus commuters)

This Ghost Ranch Retreat begins with dinner on a Monday evening, followed by an evening of introductions and knitting, and ends after breakfast on Sunday.  If you are not able to attend the full week, you might consider joining us for only a few days, although this year we are requiring a minimum stay of four days (three nights) unless you will be commuting. If you live within a reasonable commuting distance, you may drive to Ghost Ranch for our daytime and evening knitting - meals are available there with prior arrangement. Please note that registrants for full retreat attendance will be given preference over part time registrants, regardless of order of registration.

During the day, we knit in the new adobe Art Building; in the evening some of us gather again in another space for more knitting and visiting. Sometimes we read aloud from stories set in New Mexico.

All arrangements (except travel) for this retreat need to made through us at Sisu Designs. The total cost for the retreat (which includes your retreat fee, accommodations and food for 6 days) will depend upon your choice of accommodations.

Ghost Ranch Accommodations: All of the rooms at Ghost Ranch have two single beds, although there is usually the option of reserving a room for yourself (at a higher rate) rather than sharing space with a room mate.   A top level room has a bathroom of it's own.  For the mid-level accommodations, two rooms share a common bathroom between them so, at most, the bathroom is shared by four people.  The dormitory accommodations, which are more rustic, also have two single beds in each room, but the shared bathroom facilities are in a separate, nearby building.  The fees listed below cover room and board plus the basic retreat fee, based on attending for the full - six nights - duration of the retreat as well as fees for partial attendance.

Top level rooms:
$668 = Double occupancy room with private bath (two sharing a room and bath)
(Partial: $577 /5 nights - $485 /4 nights - $393 /3 nights)
$908 = Single occupancy room with private bath (no room mate; private bath)

Mid-level rooms:
$608 = Double occupancy room with shared bath (two sharing a room and sharing a connecting bath with one or two other people in next room)
(Partial: $527 /5 nights - $445 /4 nights - $363 /3 nights)
$848 = Single occupancy room with shared bath (no room mate; connecting bath shared with one or two other people in next room)

Dormitory rooms:
We have not been alloted any dorm rooms this time but there may be some available - if you are interested, please ask and we will see if any dorm rooms are available. These are actually double occupancy rooms (as above) but bathroom facilities are in a near by, separate building.

Camping:
Ghost Ranch does have a campground but it will be closed for the season during our retreats.

Commuters:
$327 if you will be driving to Ghost Ranch for each of the 5 fulldays (Tue-Sat)
(Partial: $285 /4 days; $243 /3 days, $201 /2 days)

Please make your own travel plans.  Northwest Airlines flies into the Albuquerque airport, and United Airlines flies into Santa Fe, and rental cars are available. It helps keep the costs down if several people can plan to travel together and share car rental expenses. We will do our best to make connections between participants to help facilitate travel planning. As another option, Ghost Ranch will pick people up at the Albuquerque airport (minimum of 3 people) for $85 for the round trip (2 1/2 hr. each way) from the airport to Ghost Ranch and back, but this service is only available on the first and last days of the retreat - it is not a daily service.

We will be eating lunch and possibly dinner in town on our field trip days. Otherwise, we're assuming that everyone will be eating lunch at Ghost Ranch on the days we are there, or taking a brown bag lunch (which the staff will prepare with advance notice) for hikes or picnics. Commuters can always purchase meals separately at Ghost Ranch as desired - the staff just needs a day's notice. Ghost Ranch will prepare vegetarian dishes if they have advance notice.

The general routine at the retreat: after breakfast, we walk up the road to the Art Building to knit. After lunch, we knit some more or rest in our rooms, hike, visit the museums or the bookstore, or walk the Ghost Ranch labyrinth. You can visit Santa Fe, Ojo Caliente Hot Springs, Espanola, Tierra Wools or the Monastery. After supper, we meet in Cottonwood, the GR library for knitting, talking and reading out loud.

We always offer one or more retreat projects. Here are the possibilities for our 2006 retreat:

The Ghost Ranch Pattern Collection (Coottonwood Tree Bag, Twining Vine Bag, and more)
Playful Little Horses with playful Anna Shallman
The Five Circle Table Runner in Shadow Knitting
Crochetting with Kari Wenger

Read more about these projects and about our retreat on this page.

We are still working on arrangements for this year's fiber artist visit and another field trip.

If you'd like to join us but you don't have someone in mind to share a room with us, please let us know and we'll be happy to try to help you make arrangements with someone.

For more about our Ghost Ranch retreats, you are welcome to read an account of our first experience there in 2001, including links to some photos. There is also a report on our 2002 Ghost Ranch retreats.

If your partner comes along, but doesn't knit, there is a golf course nearby, and Ghost Ranch has lots of hiking trails. There are also other interesting sights to see and things to do in the area.

Ghost Ranch is about 12 miles northwest of Abiquiu, New Mexico, or about 70 miles northwest of Santa Fe.  This is the high desert, red hill country where Georgia O'Keefe lived and painted for much of her life.

Registration: You'll find all the details on the page with our Ghost Ranch Retreat registration form. Or you can download a PDF version of the registration form.

Here's a link to the Ghost Ranch web site so you can pay them a virtual visit.    Their web page should open in a new browser window so, when you are done viewing their site, you may close that window to return to this page. Our retreats are not part of the regular Ghost Ranch schedule.

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