Good morning and happy Saturday! It has been two weeks since the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat and it is now two weeks until the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus spring concert. The title of this post is a play on a line from the song “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” which is one of the songs we will be performing. I thought the altered words appropriate. I am amazed by the knowledge and talent so willingly shared by the men in both groups and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of both. Next week’s post will be more about the chorus, and this week there will be mostly pictures from the knitting retreat.
All of the words I have used to describe previous retreats: welcoming, inspiring, nurturing, educational, downright fucking amazing and everything else applies just as equally to this one. Every year I get the great fortune to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
There were ten guys who were first timer’s this year, and several whose first retreat was in the fall were back again for a second experience. And what an experience it is. A variety of workshops on various topics are led voluntarily by retreat attendees and offered in morning and afternoon sessions on Friday and Saturday.
We have a group field trip to a local farm each year, and often to Battenkill Fibers. I enjoy the tour each time as much as I did the first. This year we visited a nearby alpaca farm, Alpacas of Haven Hill.
This is the yarn and fiber that came home from the retreat with me, including a new project I started over the weekend.
There is an energy at this retreat that words cannot properly describe. Every year I am truly humbled to be able to spend the weekend with such a talented, diverse, and truly awesome group of men that I am proud to call my friends and brothers. And my actual brother has come to the retreat before as well, and is coming again in the fall this year. He is also in the bass section of the chorus with me so the original line from the song “I was singing with my brothers, I was singing with my friends” is just as true there.
But that’s for next week. Have a great weekend!
Aaron knits...and spins, and weaves. 
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