SKEIN MACHINE 2027 Knitting Retreat !
(Adelaide Australia March 10-14th )
Featuring Knitting Innovator & Designer Xandy Peters !
An intimate five-class knitting retreat hosted by Skein Machine Yarn Store, featuring internationally renowned designer and teacher Xandy Peters. Xandy is possibly one of the worlds most innovative knit designers, having created the "Stacked Stitches" technique and introduced the knitting world to "Algorithmic Knitting". Xandy offers knitters a refreshing and exciting landscape of "new styles and techniques to explore" ! Knit Boldly with Xandy !
You will be staying at the Mantra Hindmarsh, on Hindmarsh Square in Adelaide CBD, only a few minutes walk from each of the 3 Adelaide Fringe Festival HUBs, surrounded by amazing places to explore and great places to eat during your stay !
Xandy Peters: Homepage | Instagram | Ravelry
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Come to Adelaide for four days of inventive knitting, generous hospitality and creative company, all while the city comes alive for the Adelaide Fringe Festival (19th Feb - 21st March 2027) and finish the retreat at South Australia’s amazing Fibre Feast yarn show.
EXPLORE THE CLASSES | SEE WHAT’S INCLUDED | DISCOVER ADELAIDE
Five exceptional classes. One unforgettable creative escape.
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5 specialist classes Stacked stitches, algorithmic design, brioche repair, Colour-Blocked Brioche and Flower Bobbles |
Small class sizes Personal tuition with Xandy throughout the retreat |
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CBD accommodation Stay at Mantra Hindmarsh Square Adelaide |
Fringe Festival atmosphere Walk to Adelaide’s major festival hubs |
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Daily transport Minibus pick-up and drop-off included |
Food and friendship Breakfasts, catered lunches and Knit Social events |
Meet Xandy Peters
Xandy Peters is a knitting designer, author and highly experienced teacher known for approaching knitting as a space for experimentation. His work turns increases, decreases, colour and structure into striking fabrics that invite knitters to understand not just what to do, but why it works.
Xandy is especially recognised for developing and popularising stacked stitches, the technique behind the spectacular waves of the Fox Paws pattern. His teaching repertoire also spans algorithmic and rule-based stitch design, brioche, colourwork, texture, centre-out construction and inventive three-dimensional techniques such as his new Flower Bobbles.
Through an extensive teaching career, Xandy has shared his playful, technically grounded approach with knitters at workshops and fibre events internationally. His classes combine expert demonstrations, careful troubleshooting and the freedom to experiment, making complex techniques feel possible.
Follow Xandy Peters on Instagram | Visit Xandy’s website
Xandy and Beth on tour
Xandy will be accompanied by his partner, Beth, who will provide essential practical support throughout his Adelaide tour. Guests will meet both Xandy and Beth at the welcome dinner, and Beth’s behind-the-scenes help will support a smooth, welcoming retreat experience.
RETREAT SCHEDULE
DAY 0, WEDNESDAY (ARRIVAL/CHECK-IN)
Welcome Dinner, Knit Social and Meet & Greet
6 pm (venue TBA)
Meet your fellow guests, Xandy, Beth and the Skein Machine team over dinner. Bring your knitting, settle in and start the retreat in relaxed Adelaide style.
DAY 1, THURSDAY
Fox Paws Workshop All Day
9am-12pm (lunch) 1pm-4pm
One Class Two Sessions · Limited to 12 students
Begin a Fox Paws Wrap while learning Xandy’s signature stacked-stitch technique. Discover how carefully placed increases and decreases create dramatic waves of colour without floats, strands or bobbins. Xandy will cover reading stacked-stitch instructions, checking your work, fixing common mistakes and planning a successful five-colour palette.
Recommended experience: intermediate knitters or adventurous beginners who can read a pattern and work basic increases and decreases.
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DAY 2, FRIDAY
Introduction to Algorithmic Stitch Patterns
12 pm lunch · 1 pm class start · Limited to 12 students
Gather for lunch at midday before the class begins at 1 pm. Put down the restrictive pattern and create your own rules. Use information such as dice rolls, temperatures or other data to generate unique texture, colourwork and lace. You will develop a personal rule set, knit a swatch and see how small changes create unrepeatable results.
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Knit Social Event (evening)
TIME TBA
A Knit Social with Xandy, Beth and your hosts, Mat and Jamo. Bring your current project and enjoy a relaxed evening of knitting and conversation, venue TBA.
DAY 3, SATURDAY
Fixing Mistakes in Brioche Knitting
9 am start · Limited to 12 students
Learn to read brioche fabric and recover confidently when something goes wrong. Explore mismatched, dropped and twisted tuck stitches, laddering stitches back into place, using lifelines and knowing when and how to rip back.
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12 pm Lunch
Colour-Blocked Brioche
1 pm start · Limited to 12 students
Discover why brioche and intarsia are such good friends. Review two-colour brioche, work a flat swatch, explore colour blocking and learn how the technique can be modified, worked in the round and combined with intarsia elements.
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DAY 4, SUNDAY
Fibre Feast and New Flower Bobble Technique
9:15 am hotel pick-up · 10 am Fibre Feast opening · 1 pm class start · Limited to 20 students
The minibus will collect guests from the hotel at 9:15 am, ready to arrive for the 10 am opening of Fibre Feast at Blackfriars Priory School. Explore the festival before Xandy’s New Flower Bobble Technique class begins at 1 pm.
Learn Xandy’s new three-dimensional Flower Bobble technique, beginning with a five-petal flower before changing the number and shape of petals. Explore assigned pooling and ways to combine Flower Bobbles with colourwork, brioche and marling.
Recommended experience: intermediate knitters or adventurous beginners comfortable with casting on, reading patterns and working basic increases and decreases.
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Stay, travel and dine with ease
Mantra Hindmarsh Square Adelaide
Your base is the 4.5-star Mantra Hindmarsh Square Adelaide, right in the CBD. Its central location puts retreat guests within walking distance of Adelaide’s major Fringe hubs, restaurants, cultural attractions and East End nightlife.
- Continental breakfast at the hotel
- Daily minibus pick-up and drop-off
- Gourmet catered lunch from Thursday to Saturday
- Knit Social Dinner and meet and greet on Day 0
- Private Knit Social at Skein Machine on Day 2
- Fibre Feast Morning of Day 4 (Sunday), with packed lunch provided
Retreat Pricing
| Full Package | $3,200 / person |
| Includes Meet and Greet Dinner, 5 nights accommodation, 5 classes with feature designer Xandy Peters, daily minibus transport to/from events, breakfast and lunch for 4 days. Ending with A Day at Fibre Feast, (Adelaide's Premier Fibre Arts Festival). | |
Come for the knitting. Stay for Adelaide Fringe.
The Adelaide Fringe Festival will be on at the same time as the retreat, and that deserves a very big fuss.
For one glorious month, Adelaide becomes a city-sized celebration of comedy, cabaret, circus, theatre, music, visual art and gloriously unexpected performance. Retreat guests can browse a huge variety of shows and walk from the hotel to the city’s major festival hubs.
EXPLORE THE ADELAIDE FRINGE PROGRAM ( Available December 4, 2026 )
Interstate and international guests are strongly encouraged to arrive before the retreat or stay on afterwards. Extra nights mean more Fringe shows, long dinners, gardens, galleries and time to explore the Adelaide Hills and South Australia’s celebrated wine regions.
Adelaide Fibre Feast Festival 2027
Fibre Feast SA is South Australia’s premier fibre and yarn craft event, bringing together fibre and craft communities. The 2027 festival is on Sunday 14 March 2027, from 10 am to 4 pm, at Blackfriars Priory School, 17 Prospect Road, Prospect SA 5082.
Visit the Fibre Feast SA website | Follow Fibre Feast SA on Instagram
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EXPLORE ADELAIDE & SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Turn your knitting retreat into a proper South Australian holiday. Adelaide’s best restaurants, character-filled pubs, cultural institutions, wildlife experiences and famous wine regions are all within reach. The ideas below are a starting point for planning extra time before or after the retreat.
Five restaurants worth booking
- Africola — bold cooking and a lively East Terrace dining room.
- Restaurant Botanic — an immersive special-occasion experience in Adelaide Botanic Garden.
- Golden Boy — energetic Thai-inspired dining on North Terrace.
- Shōbōsho — Japanese-inspired cooking from the fire on Leigh Street.
- Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room — glamorous Italian-American dining on Leigh Street.
- Antica Pizzeria, 226 Morphett St, Adelaide
Fringe season fills tables quickly. Book well ahead and confirm current menus and trading hours directly with each venue.
Three city pubs with character
- Seven Stars Hotel — the Day 0 meeting place and the natural first stop for retreat guests.
- The Exeter Hotel — a much-loved East End pub with classic Adelaide atmosphere.
- The Austral — a lively Rundle Street institution, ideal for an after-show drink.
Gardens, galleries, museums and wildlife
- Adelaide Botanic Garden — a beautiful green escape beside the city’s East End.
- Mount Lofty Botanic Garden — cool-climate landscapes in the Adelaide Hills.
- Art Gallery of South Australia — collections and exhibitions on North Terrace.
- South Australian Museum — natural and cultural history next door to the gallery.
- Fabrik Arts + Heritage at Lobethal — textile, craft and local history in a former woollen mill.
- Adelaide Zoo — an easy city wildlife experience close to the River Torrens and Botanic Garden.
- Monarto Safari Park — an expansive open-range wildlife experience and an excellent full-day trip from Adelaide.
Make a day of it
- Hahndorf for Adelaide Hills heritage, food, galleries and makers
- McLaren Vale for coastal wine country, cellar doors and restaurants
- Barossa for iconic wineries, regional produce and generous South Australian hospitality
Book accommodation, restaurants, shows and regional experiences early, and confirm current opening details before travelling.
About your hosts
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Mat and Jamo, Skein Machine Yarn Store
Mat and Jamo opened Skein Machine Yarn Store in August 2024, creating an Adelaide destination for beautiful yarn, inventive design and a genuinely welcoming knitting community.
In March 2026, their work was recognised at the Australian Yarn Show in Canberra, where Skein Machine was named a finalist in both the Yarn Store of the Year and New Business of the Year categories.
At the same awards event, Jamo was named Australian Knitting Designer of the Year for 2026. An internationally renowned knit designer, Jamo has attracted attention for his fun and spellbinding Illusion Knitting, also known as shadow knitting. His patterns use carefully arranged texture and colour to reveal surprising images as the knitted fabric is viewed from different angles.
Throughout the retreat, Mat and Jamo will be your local hosts, bringing together Xandy’s teaching, Adelaide hospitality and the community spirit at the heart of Skein Machine.
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
Class numbers are deliberately small, so guests receive meaningful time with Xandy. Read full terms and conditions on the Skein Machine Retreats portal.
Come for bold knitting, warm company and expert teaching. Stay for the Fringe, the food and a little extra South Australian magic.
CONTACT
If you need any more information you can contact us via email at admin@jamo.store
