The Experience
A Week of Color by the Atlantic
Above the dunes of Carrapateira, on Portugal’s wild southwest coast, a small quinta becomes the setting for a week of focused knitting, color, and coastal light. Designed for experienced knitters, this retreat offers the chance to deepen your skills in stranded colorwork in a relaxed and inspiring setting.
Maaike van Geijn will guide you as you knit a pair of socks in shades inspired by the surrounding landscape: sand, sea, cliffs, and the changing light of the Atlantic coast. Along the way, you will build confidence working with multiple colors, maintaining even tension, reading colorwork charts, and applying these techniques to future projects.
Limited to just seven knitters, the retreat offers plenty of room for individual support as well as the pleasure of a shared creative week. Yarn, tools, and a design created especially for the retreat are all provided. You will return home with a finished pair of socks, a deeper understanding of stranded colorwork, and fresh inspiration for your own knitting.
Some weeks you remember by what you made.
The Timetable
Dates & Duration
- Week One — 23–29 May 2027
- Week Two — 30 May – 5 June 2027
- Duration — 7 Days / 6 Nights
- Group Size — 7 guests
- Status — Booking open
The Creation
What You’ll Carry Home
Maaike has designed an all-over colorwork sock especially for this retreat, worked in three or four colors. The palette comes from Carrapateira, sand, the Atlantic, the low green scrub, the blue and white of the village.
- Daily stranded colorwork sessions with Maaike
- Retrosaria Mondim sock yarn — nylon-free, spun in Portugal
- A sock design made especially for this place
- A finished pair to wear home, and the pattern to make more
Material note. You test combinations on paper first, with a chart and colored pencils, then pick your colors and cast on.
The Sanctuary
Where You’ll Stay
Hortas do Rio is a relaxed, thoughtfully restored country house where the pace of the day follows the light, the sea, and the surrounding landscape. With just seven rooms, each opening onto its own private terrace, it feels intimate and quietly secluded, with a garden and pool to return to after a day of knitting or walking. Set above the dunes and only a ten-minute walk from Praia da Bordeira, it is perfectly placed for morning beach walks, sunset views, and time on the Fishermen’s Trail. Carrapateira’s small blue-and-white village is an easy stroll away, while the house itself offers a peaceful place to slow down, share meals, and settle into the rhythm of the coast.
- Region — Carrapateira, Southwest Algarve
- Rooms — seven rooms, each with a private terrace
- Dining — breakfast, lunch and dinner by a Portuguese chef
- Getting there — we’ll provide a group transfer from Lisbon
Guided by People Who Care
Maaike van Geijn — Knitwear Designer
Maaike is a Dutch knitwear designer and teacher based in Schoorl, a village on the Dutch coast. Her work is defined by an intuitive, thoughtful use of color, from stranded colorwork and marls to richly textured stitch patterns. Drawing on traditional knitting techniques, she creates designs that feel fresh, modern, and deeply connected to the handmade tradition.
Maaike has taught in yarn stores and at knitting festivals in seven countries, and her designs have appeared in Laine Magazine and with La Bien Aimée. Throughout the week, she will be on hand to guide you through every stage of the project, from choosing and balancing your color palette to finishing the final rounds of your socks.
Hosted by TerraGo. Our retreats are fully curated with dedicated concierge hosts on site, taking care of all scheduling details, food setups, and translation support.
Inclusions
What the knitting retreat in Portugal includes
Included
- Six nights at Hortas do Rio
- All teaching with Maaike throughout the week
- All meals
- Group transfer from Lisbon
- Retrosaria Mondim Yarn, enough for a pair, in colors to choose from
- Scissors, colored pencils, notebook and pen
- Dedicated TerraGo concierge support
Not included
- Airfare to and from Portugal
- Comprehensive personal travel insurance
- Your sock needles — 2.75 mm, in whatever method you like (DPNs, magic loop, or short circulars)
- Any optional activities outside the specified itinerary
The Journey
The Rhythm of The Week
The full schedule will be shared with you closer to the retreat. For now, expect a thoughtfully balanced week of hands-on making, shared meals, time to explore the local area, rest, and cozy moments together.
The week has a shape you can count on. Mornings are for knitting with Maaike, working through colour, tension and charts at a pace that leaves room for questions. Afternoons open up: the beach below the quinta, the Fisherman’s Trail, the village, the pool, or a chair in the shade with your needles.
You arrive on the Sunday to settle in and meet the group over dinner. By the middle of the week you cast on your socks, and by the last evening most people have a finished pair to show over a farewell meal. One afternoon we walk down to Praia da Bordeira and along the cliffs, where the colours you are knitting all come from.
- Mornings — Knitting with Maaike, three to four hours, with breaks and coffee outside.
- Afternoons — Yours. The coast, the village, the pool, or more knitting if that is the rest you want.
- Evenings — Dinner cooked by our Portuguese chef, then whatever the group feels like.
The detailed schedule reaches you a few days before the retreat starts.
Pricing
Pricing & Payment
- Price From €3,250 per person for a shared room, available only to friends booking together, or €3,850 for a private room. Both options include accommodation, meals, and tuition.
- Two retreat weeks The same retreat will run twice. Choose the week that best suits you.
- Deposit A deposit secures your place. The remaining balance is due 90 days before the retreat begins, or you may choose to pay in installments.
- Small group Each week is limited to seven knitters, so places are expected to fill quickly.
Further Reading
Before You Come
- What Actually Happens at a Knitting Retreat. The shape of the week, from the first morning to the last evening.
- A Maker’s Guide to Carrapateira and the Western Algarve. The village you will be staying above, and what is worth an afternoon.
- Portuguese Wool and the Yarn We Knit With. Where the yarn in your hands comes from.
- Portugal for Makers, a Complete Travel Guide. How to get here and what to plan around your week.
Other Retreats
- Knit the Landscape. A week of color in the dunes outside Bergen, September 2027.
Before You Book
What to Know First
This week suits knitters who already have a few projects behind them. If any of this sounds off for you, write to us before booking and we will tell you honestly whether the week fits.
- Experience — Intermediate to advanced knitters. Some experience with colourwork and with knitting in the round is recommended, and some finished garment projects behind you.
- What you make — A pair of colorwork socks in Retrosaria Mondim yarn, finished by the last evening.
- Getting there — Fly into Lisbon. We run a group transfer from there and back, included in the price, and confirm the meeting point closer to the date.
- What to bring — Your 2.75 mm sock needles, in whatever method you like. The yarn and the rest of the materials are ours.
- Rooms — Seven rooms, each with a private terrace and a private bathroom. A shared room is only available for friends booking together.
Not sure the level is right? Send us a photo of something you have knitted and we will tell you.
