Ready, set…… ACTION! 

Return to the days of the silver screen in this unforgettable trip through Hollywood with vintage knitting & sewing aficionados Sydney Crabaugh and Special Guest Tasha Moss! On this seven-day, six-night trip, Sydney and Tasha will show you Hollywood during the golden age of film when Joan Crawford and Ingrid Bergman graced the film reels, and knitted in between takes, too! We will have a run around the town of Los Angeles, stopping to take a Turner Classic Movie Warner Bros. tour, look at some silver screen fashions up close, and visit the handprints and resting places of our favorite stars! Then it is time to take a journey down to the now-docked Queen Mary, the historic ocean liner that sailed the seas with countless celebrities in tow during the 1930s, 40s and 50s! The original first class cabins of this ship will be our home for the next few nights while we lounge, knit, and sip in style. Two days of workshops in both vintage sewing and knitting will be taught by Tasha and Sydney, along with film screenings, a gala night, a lecture, and so much more! 

Friends, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship. Come join us for this magical trip!

To Register 

A Registration Form and a non-refundable $1000 deposit are required to join the trip. Once you submit your online registration and deposit payment is received, your spot on the tour is secure. 

See our Terms & Conditions HERE.

Have questions? Please contact us at info@rowantreetravel.com

Tour Activity Level

We would describe this trip as a Retreat. If you'd like to review our trip activity levels, take a look here.

Mobility Comfort Level = 2+

Accommodations have elevators, however our visit to Hollywood Forever Cemetery has some rough terrain and our visit to Long Beach relies on walking.  Participants may call taxis on their own if they are not able to walk in Long Beach.

If you'd like to review our mobility comfort levels, take a look here.

This trip needs at least 16 participants in order to proceed (i.e. the trip is "guaranteed"). We strongly advise you to wait to purchase your flights until the trip is guaranteed by us to go forward.

Unless otherwise stated, our regular Terms and Conditions apply to this trip and for any cancellations (click here to see our Terms and Conditions).

Travel Insurance 

Rowan Tree Travel highly recommends purchasing travel insurance. You may purchase through our preferred partner Arch RoamRight by clicking here or through your own provider.

Arranging Your Flights 

In order to gather easily for the tour, we provide an arrival and departure "window" at a major transportation hub - typically an international airport at your destination country. Flights scheduled outside the provided windows may result in additional transportation costs and missed tour activities. For this reason, we greatly appreciate your cooperation in booking travel that accommodates our specifications. 

Please do not purchase airfare until the tour is guaranteed by RTTF to go forward.

Please Note the Following 

Rowan Tree Travel reserves the right to alter any part of this itinerary in order to address weather conditions, unforeseen circumstances or to improve the participant experience.

As our tour begins early on Saturday, March 29th, it is strongly recommended to arrive the night before if you are flying into Los Angeles. Join us at The Garland Hotel the eve of the tour! Single and Shared Accommodations are available for a fee and can be arranged by Rowan Tree Travel on your behalf. 

The hotel also offers a free shuttle service to and from Universal Studios if you want to make a day of it! 

LOS ANGELES

Welcome to the City of Angels! We are starting the trip off with two full days of seeing the sights of old Hollywood! We’ll return to the time of black-and-white films and silver screen starlets with a trip to the Hollywood Heritage Museum, filled with real items from the old movies and the stars who graced the screen. A trip to the Heritage Museum could only be followed with a trip to Hollywood itself! We can all find our favorite star’s handprints at the historic Chinese Theater, and there will be plenty of time to explore the parts of Hollywood you want to see most! Both nights will include dinner at a classic Hollywood restaurant, where celebrities from all eras have dined in the same seats! 

On Sunday you should be ready for your close up, because we are heading to Warner Bros. Studios for a Turner Classic Movie Studio Tour, where they have fabulous items on display, such as props from Mildred Pierce and Ingrid Bergman’s costume from Casablanca! After we leave the studios with daydreams of Hollywood’s golden age, we get to enjoy a special film screening of a Warner Bros. classic movie along with a lecture about Hollywood and knitting presented by Sydney! Don’t forget to bring your WIP to work on in between bites of popcorn! 

Our hotel for the first two nights is the incredible Garland Hotel, which has been around since the early 1970s and will feel as if you stepped back in time. Enjoy the pool, bar, and cozy chairs and couches in between our fun outings! 

Anchors away! 

Today will be our final day soaking up the bustling city before we board our new accommodation for the remainder of the trip! We will begin our day with a trip to the magical Mood Fabrics, where Sydney and Tasha can help you pick out the perfect fabric for a vintage ensemble! We’ll make a stop at the famous Grove Farmers Market for lunch before it is time to make our way down to Long Beach to set sail! Well… sort of! Get ready to be whisked away to the era of art deco elegance as we board the legendary Queen Mary ocean liner. Perhaps the most famous ocean liner after the Titanic, the Queen Mary made its first voyage in 1936 and remained one of the most glamorous modes of travel for Hollywood celebrities, performers, and even royalty! The ship has a vast history, which we will learn about after we’ve settled into our original first class cabins– most of which have barely changed since the 1930s. After a splendid dinner on board the ship, you can join in for an evening ghost tour, if you dare!  

The Queen Mary / Long Beach 

We have made sure to include plenty of time to enjoy all the special features on board the Queen Mary. Tasha and Sydney will also use the boat as backdrop for two half-day workshops focusing on the magic world of vintage sewing and knitting! Sydney will be taking you through how to properly tailor vintage knitwear and help you create the glamorous knitted ensemble of your dreams. Filled with some of her tried-and-true methods, Tasha’s class will focus on how to work from true vintage sewing patterns, and will teach you how to cut patterned fabrics to match at the seams! Tasha and Sydney will be around in between classes too, so we can all talk about what we learned and can dream up some incredible outfits worthy of the red carpet! 

In between classes, we will have a day trip across the water to downtown Long Beach. Here the day is our oyster! We can stock up on yarn at the local yarn shop, visit the countless vintage shops, and even visit the aquarium! Our last evening on board the ship will be the grand finale of this Hollywood visit: a gala night hosted on board the Queen Mary. Select your best gown for this elegant evening, for we will be hosted in a private art deco room on the ship! The music will transport us back in time as we dine on an original menu that was served on board the ship in the 1940s! This will be an event like no other that will wrap up our time together before we bid farewell on Friday. 

This trip will be full of fashion history, knitting, fabric, old films, inspiration, and plenty of laughter and fun– won’t you join us? 

Sydney is a voracious knitter, designer, and knitwear historian. She has been knitting and studying fashion history for over fifteen years and recently turned her passions into a career at Squid's School of Vintage Knitting, an online school devoted to the education and love of historical knitwear. Her work in the knitting world is also supplemented by her academic background in film history, and she tries to combine the two as often as possible. In collaboration with Rowan Tree Travel, Sydney works to develop tours that have a historical or vintage bent, often with elaborately themed and niche activities! With over ten years of working in the fiber industry, Sydney continues to love meeting other knitters and sharing fiber experiences with them more than anything else. You can find her at patreon.com/squidschool or over on instagram as @squidneyknits. 

 Heather loves designing and leading knitting and fiber tours. She’s fascinated with local traditions, unique yarns, and the modern twist added to both by current designers. Her ever-widening exposure to both has led to a long queue of patterns and a dramatic accumulation of stash!  She’s also been trying her hand at new wooly endeavors like felting and spinning. When not knitting, traveling or planning your next trip, Heather tends her small flock of chickens and ducks, volunteers in her local thrift shop, and spends time with her two dogs, her family, and friends in Dunbarton, NH.