BARCELONA

Today we will visit La Sagrada Familia, take in the local yarn shops, and indulge in some creative fun at a local maker’s space.  (Hint, it will involve embroidery and architecture!) Laia will show us her favorite haunts to eat, drink and shop and we will take some time to just sit at a tapas bar alongside one of the many squares in the neighborhoods of Barcelona to eat tapas, knit, and watch the world go by. An evening atop Gaudi’s La Pedrera with a second Rowan Tree Travel tour group will be the icing on the cake tonight! 

BARCELONA

It’s time for Barcelona Knits!   Our hotel is a 20-minute walk from Barcelona’s World Trade Center where the festival takes place, so you can come and go as you please.  Your pass for the weekend is included, and you can choose to either lose yourself completely in yarny goodness or accompany us on optional visits to other architectural highlights and shopping districts of the city. 

CADAQUÈS

Today we’re off to Costa Brava! Our first stop is a visit to another Lluis Domenich Montener masterpiece - a castle which blends Modernism and Romanesque architecture so sublimely that it is Fiber Ambassador Laia’s absolute dream house!   We’ll indulge in a wine tasting before heading to our Costa Brava home, Cadaquès, where you’ll have a lovely lunch and time to explore the small harbor.

CADAQUÈS

Here’s where things turn surreal.  So far, the only surreal aspect of the trip will have been a few buildings that appear to have melted in the Barcelona summer heat.  For the next two days we will visit the galleries and haunts of one of Catalonia’s most famous residents - Salvador Dali.  Though he is most famous for his painting The Persistence of Memory, his work is not all melting watches.  We will eat fabulous Catalan food, drink the local wine, visit a Romanesque monastery and last, but not least, tour Dali’s home. 

On Wednesday we will head inland to the Dali Museum in Figueres before continuing on to the town of Vic, known for its saints and spires - there are ten Baroque churches in this small city!

VIC

Our boutique hotel in an old convent will provide the setting for our day with Elena of Xolla Yarn and we will also pop out for a visit to one of the farms where she sources her wool from.  

The day will be all about wool, from the growing and gathering of wool from the Ripollesa sheep to the dyeing of the yarn - which we will do ourselves!  Under Elena’s tutelage, we will dye our own yarn for a project you can cast on for your plane journey home.  

BARCELONA

Today is all about historic textiles!  Our first visit on our way back to Barcelona will be to the Textile Museum of Terrassa to have a tour of textile treasures through the ages. A lovely lunch at a friendly local establishment will be our final meal together.  

Then it’s back to Barcelona for a visit to The Design Hub to lose ourselves amongst their collection - an entire floor dedicated to fashion through the ages. We will see traditional costumes from the 1800s as well as fashions up to the present day. Their display on corsetry is particularly striking!  After checking into the hotel, you will have time to take a last wander through the neighborhood, grab some light tapas, or just gather at the rooftop bar to reminisce about your surreal adventures!

BARCELONA & ONWARD

We bid you a fond farewell as you make your onward journey today!  

Laia has been knitting and sewing for more than ten years at this point, learning the basics from her mom. She lives with two cats in her native Barcelona where she works as a translator and interpreter. In her spare time she enjoys true crime, vintage fashion, birding and medieval art. Laia spent 11 years living in San Francisco and exploring the American West with her camera in search of neon signs and other roadside weirdness. You can see her photos at @neonsandsigns on Instagram. Whether knitting or sewing, Laia prefers to work from vintage patterns and fabrics, going back as far as the 1890’s.

Colleen is knitting multiple projects right now, spinning hand-blended fibers on her Lendrum DT, and has found it difficult but not impossible to knit and watch a South Korean show on Netflix with subtitles at the same time. She is curious about makers' stories of the lineage and evolution of their craft and where to find truly awesome pie.  Her professional background in outdoor tour guiding and small business ownership makes a great match with RTT. Colleen loves to drive a convertible, swim in natural waters and hula hoops. Does she talk to her plants? That’s what her friends want to know.

Knitwear designer, philanthropist, and motivational speaker Louis Boria (aka Brooklyn Boy Knits) has been in the fiber arts industry for over 17 years.  Since gaining his social media fame, Louis has been at the forefront of breaking down gender norms putting out the message that art has no gender. His commitment to the community continues by bringing fiber artists together with projects such as “Hat Not Hate”, “School of Yarn” and working with cancer patients in teaching them how to knit as a form of therapy. Louis’s mission of bringing the fiber arts and purpose together is at the forefront of his work.