if ya haven’t read & heard it enough times from me already:

registration goes live august 7, 2024 at 1pm edt

although i’ve been an instructor at many retreats, this is my first time hostessing! i’ve chatted with many dear friends who have either hosted their own knitting retreats or been guests at others, not only to be sure that the event i’m creating is going to be phenomenal, but also to do all that I can to make registration as simple as possible for you. this page is simply a guide to what you can expect on wednesday along with steps you can take ahead of time so that you’re set up for success when it is time to register. these instructions will also help to make sure that you receive communications from me after you have secured your slot. each and every retreat-related page will have very obvious link-to-registration button so that no matter what page you are on, it will be easy to navigate to registration when the time comes. additionally, the banner that displays at the top of every page on my entire website is a clickable link that will take you straight to the listings page. the steps below should be taken prior to registration in order to make your check-out process go quickly when the slots go live. there are only 16 slots available in stitch & beach 2025. I wish that I could replicate myself to get to know even more of you, but my priority is to make sure that every single one of my guests is well taken care of and so I needed to keep the numbers at a level where I knew that my crewmember and I were going to be able to handle all of our guests needs.

Note: subscribers that already receive my e-mails regularly can jump to step 3

1. scroll down to the bottom of this page and subscribe to my newsletter. no no, this isn’t because I’m trying to weasel my way into your inbox…but subscribing will trigger an automated e-mail. if you don’t receive my e-mail within a few minutes, you’ll know that your server has decided i’m trash 😂 it’s ok, I don’t take it personally! seriously though, step 1 is to make sure that my e-mails will get through to you, because otherwise you won’t get your registration confirmation or the communications I send to my guests leading up to the retreat. 🫠

2. add help@kateoatesdesign.com to your address book. if your address book has a “favoriting” option, do that too just to be on the safe side. the more steps you take to let your mail server know you’d like my e-mail to land in your inbox instead of spam, the better. as of late, i’ve been hearing from customers that g-mail is being particularly overprotective.

3. this is a big one! once you’ve done all you can with regards to your inbox, create an account on my website by clicking the button at the top right corner of your screen. you’ll then be prompted to log in or to create an account. after entering your e-mail address & creating a password for your new account, you’ll receive an e-mail verification (hence my reasoning for dealing with your inbox in steps 1 & 2). click on the e-mail verification and then you will be able to add & save your payment method along with your address and therefore when you are registering, you will have cut a few minutes out of the process as there will be much less for you to type at check-out. for the record, having an account on my website also gives you permanent access to your order history so that you can download past pattern purchases any time. this also means that if you think you’ve registered but you haven’t received a confirmation e-mail, you can simply log in to the website to confirm your registration in lieu of digging through your spam folder.

4. thoroughly review the retreat information and know exactly which bed you’re going for prior to registration. You may even want to create an ordered list in case someone manages to sneak in and snag your first choice. on the accommodations page, you can actually click on the image of any room(s) that you’re interested in, bookmark the page(s) and then be able to go directly there when registration is live for the absolute fastest check-out.

5. now that you’re getting my e-mails, have an account & know what you want, it’s time to set your reminder. you’ll want to be logged in and at your keyboard a few minutes prior to registration, set that reminder accordingly. you can go ahead to your bookmarked page ahead of time, just make sure that you refresh it precisely at 1pm edt so that the listings pop up where before there was a blank shopping section. listings are scheduled and will automatically go live at the appointed time, so as long as you’re on the page for either the bedroom you know you want or the full set of listings, all you’ll need to do is refresh your browser for access!

6. the registration page is the same page that has been live since I announced the retreat. it still includes the retreat overview, but now it has the listings section at the top so that once they appear, you can’t miss ‘em. on the left side of your screen, you’ll also see that i’ve categorized the slots in two different ways. you can view all the slots of a particular room style by clicking “single”, “double,” etc or you can click on the bedroom number associated with your bed choice to see the bed options available for that particular room.

7. when the clock hits 1, it’s go time: to secure your slot, you’ll simply click the listing for your bed and hit check out! the listings themselves are short & sweet, including only the photos and basic bed description since I’ve created entire pages with stitch & beach details about our beachin’ itinerary, accommodations, food & featured artisans so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.

8. once a slot has been reserved, it will either display with “sold out” in bold red text underneath the image or it won’t be visible at all. you will not be able to add a sold out listing to your cart, but it is possible for the slot to appear in multiple carts as it won’t turn over to sold out until the check-out process has been completed. i’ll be doing my best to remove sold out listings as quickly as I can so that they don’t muddle up your screen, so if you don’t see your bed listed at all, it means that it has already been filled.

9. retreat pricing differences are solely based on beds & number of roomies! if you’re traveling with a group and you’d like to stay together, i’d suggest nominating your fastest keyboard warrior to book the beds simultaneously for the best opportunity to book the appropriate number of beds in the room(s) you want. if you do book separately, make sure that you’ve all talked it out and know which bed is for each of you to eliminate any confusion. friends or groups that book under one order confirmation will absolutely be able to provide additional contact information for each guest after the reservation is made.

10. one more note about staying together: if it turns out that you and your buddy, trio or quad or otherwise are not able to book the room(s) together that you were hoping for, all is not lost. as soon as each member of your group has a confirmed booking of any bed, you can contact me and explain your situation. registered guests will absolutely have claim over the bed they booked, however, let’s say that pair of knitters get into the triple bedroom, but the third member of their group ends up in a different room. I will reach out privately & confidentially to the third guest in the room to see if they have any interest in swapping rooms. i’m more than happy to make inquiries like this but if i am able to arrange a swap for you, it will be up to the two knitters who are switching to work out the financial side of things.

11. when all retreat slots are filled, the listings section will magically turn over to a waiting list form. ok fine, it isn’t magical, i’ll have to do it manually ☺️ but i will do my best to pay attention and get it posted asap. if you do arrive at the registration page (after august 7 at 1pm edt) and see no listings & no form, e-mail me immediately. this will secure your place in line and i’ll manually add you to the list according to the time stamp of your e-mail. this applies only for knitters who land on the registration page before I have time to make the swap. once the form is up, I will no longer make manual additions.

12. if a registered guest is unexpectedly unable to attend the retreat, I will reach out to those on the waiting list one by one and in proper order. if you are offered a slot, you have 24 hours to reply, otherwise the opportunity will move on to the next person on the list.