The Mindful Knitter Retreat at Brunswick Shambhala Center, Brunswick, Maine - June 1-4, 2012  Taught with Elaine Yuen

In the speed of our daily lives, how do we find respite and renewal? Place the needle, wrap the yarn, pull the stitch through. Repeat. Knitting offers us a natural opportunity to cultivate mindfulness, settling the mind as we return our attention over and over again to the timeless rhythm of making a stitch. This retreat explores knitting—both its design and process—as a contemplative practice. Whether you are a novice, familiar with knit, purl, cast-on and cast-off techniques, or an expert with years of experience, The Mindful Knitter offers an opportunity to deepen your knitting practice with meditative awareness.
The instructors, a master knitter/designer and meditation instructor, will guide participants through a series of awareness-heightening exercises designed to synchronize mind and body. This awareness will be brought into both the knitting and the knit-design process. From stitch to fabric to finished form, participants will experiment with the unique properties of knit fiber, and discover how the choice of fiber, stitch, and needle size, impacts finished work-whether one is selecting yarn for an existing pattern or designing something from scratch. Participants will also experiment with color, texture, fiber, and stitch, to build a knit-swatch journal. This journal, along with written reflections that arise out of meditative knitting, nature walks, and awareness exercises, will serve as a foundation for the design of a knitted garment, throw, or artwork. Participants will learn how to work with the natural properties of fiber and stitch to create harmonious knits. Place the needle, wrap the yarn, pull the stitch through. Repeat. 

Rebekah Younger, M.F.A., Goddard College; B.A., Beloit College, has been designing fine art knitwear for more than 20 years. Her award-winning Younger Knits line of clothing, which features luxurious natural fibers and subtle-to-bold surface design techniques, is sold in fine craft galleries and art-to-wear boutiques nationwide, as well as at craft fairs such as the American Craft Council Shows in Baltimore, St. Paul, and San Francisco. In addition, her garments have been featured in two museum retrospectives about the Art-to-Wear movement, and in cover articles for Ornament and The Crafts Report. With an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts—Buddhist studies, contemplative arts, photography and installation—Younger regularly includes meditative awareness practices in her art instruction. As an authorized meditation instructor within the Shambhala Buddhist community, she has more than 10 years of meditation practice. She currently lives with her husband in the countryside of mid-coast Maine. To see the current line of Younger's garments, visit the Younger knits Web site. To see her art work, visit Younger's Web site or Facebook page.