Zombie Knitpocalypse 2016

Last week I attended the Zombie Knitpocalypse which is a knitting retreat held in Rochester, Minnesota. The retreat was hosted by the Stockinette Zombies podcasters, Amy and Megan. It was held at the Doubletree Hotel on Broadway Ave from Jun 1 – 5. Click here to see the pictures I took.

6/1/16:

We left St. Louis around 7:45 am and headed to Austin, MN where we stopped at the Spam Museum. We had lunch at Kenny’s Oak Grill in Austin where Don had a spam sandwich and he said it was salty but good. We arrived at our hotel in Rochester around 5:30pm. After checking out our room, we went to the mall where we shared a coffee crunch gelato at Chocolaterie Stam. Then I returned to the ballroom and knit with friends until bedtime. It was great seeing online friends in person!

6/2/16:

We got up early and went to Denny’s for breakfast. Then I worked the retreat registration from 9-10. At 11, Don and I had lunch at the Mayo Clinic cafeteria. I had meat lasagna and a pepsi and Don had rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans with a glass of water. Our total bill came to $10.33. We walked around the Thursdays on First festival where there were tons of vendor tents of crafts and food. We tried fried cheese curds and hand made ice cream sandwiches. Then I went back and knit until 4pm. For dinner we went to Potbelly deli and shared a sub and dill pickle. I went back for the opening ceremonies for an hour. At 7:30 I returned for the pajama party.

6/3/16:

We had a nice day on Friday beginning with our 5K which I finished in 52:24.  After that I knit until lunch time and needed a little alone time so I went and got a slice a pizza and relaxed. I ended up sitting with Megan’s daughter Ellie and Megan’s mom who were nice enough to stay while I ate my pizza. After lunch I had a zoom loom class which I really enjoyed. Then I had time to knit for an hour before going to my yoga class. That was so relaxing that I almost feel asleep during the closing meditation! Then we had the prize giveaways but I didn’t win anything. Hubby and I went out to dinner at Denny’s and then I went back to hear our keynote speaker, Amy Detjen (Knitcircus) who was so funny and entertaining!

6/4/16:

For breakfast we went to Pannekoeken (there were two $5 coupons in our goodie bags). We should have gotten the pancakes because the eggs were okay but the stuffed pancakes looked great! At 10am the vendor market opened and I got everything that I wanted. Then Don and I went to the mall so I could buy a pair of “wearever” pants for the upcoming cruise and we stopped at Panera for lunch. We also stopped at Walmart so we could buy laundry soap so that Don could do laundry while I was in classes. When we got back I went to a “Stylin’ Stuffies” class and got great ideas on how to do hair, faces, and attach limbs on stuffed animals. After that I went to a “Dyeing with Koolaid” class that was pretty cool. During the closing ceremonies, prizes were given out and I won a wonderful skein of yarn! After posing for the group picture I went back to the room to rest until our evening party where everyone got a free drink and said goodbye to everyone.

It was a wonderful retreat and I would definitely come back to it again!

Things I Learned:

1.     There are 20 different flavors of Spam.

2.     Spam is eaten in lots of different foreign countries.

3.     The Spam Museum was free.

4.     I like using the zoom loom

5.     I want to do more yoga in my daily routine.

6.     I want to know more about Knitcircus.

7.     I want to get to know Amy Detjen.

8.     I learned how to do hair on stuffed animals.

9.     I learned how to make different faces on stuffed animals.

10.  I learned how to attach limbs by using the mattress stitch.

11.  I learned how to dye yarn with Kool-Aid.