Thinking Ahead

Well, here we are in December. No snow on the ground here yet, and that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. Skating rinks are being prepared,

 Newly flooded rink in Kingston's market square.

 my window boxes are dressed up for the season,

 and the pot by our front door is filled with red dogwood branches. No wreath on the door yet.

I'm working on some Christmas knitting. Here's this year's version of  "Tumnus", a favourite scarf recipe, photographed in appallingly poor light on a wet, grey day. The original was in red. At the time, we had a garden gate, which opened onto a small, private park. We used to joke that on a winter day, we expected to see Mr. Tumnus and Lucy come through the gate into our garden.

This is a unisex scarf with reversible cables (looks the same from both sides). I hesitate to call it a pattern, since it's so ubiquitous. My own twist (pardon the pun) has been to add a trick that keeps the ends from flaring out. I'll post it as a free Ravelry download later today.
Thinking ahead in a bigger way, I'm ruminating about the possibility of organizing a winter knitting retreat here in Kingston for the winter of 2012. Here we are, with several wonderful inns within easy walking distance of skating, restaurants, a university, shops, fabulous 19th century architecture, and Lake Ontario. We're accessible by Via Rail (in case driving doesn't appeal in February), and close to Interstate 81.
So, I'm wondering, what makes a knitting getaway work? What would make you want to attend such an event? Is it the place, the teachers, the "students", some combination of the above?