A Knitting Retreat with Michaela Buerger at Fafleralp
11–16 October 2026 · Lötschental, Switzerland
Five days devoted to Alpine knitting, making, and reconnecting, set at 1,800 meters in the wild landscape of the Swiss Alps.
Some places invite us to experience time differently.
This autumn, Fafleralp and MICHAELA BUERGER welcome eight guests to the Lötschental for five days of knitting, learning, and mountain life. Join us for this intimate retreat in the Swiss Alps.
Surrounded by larch forests and high Alpine peaks, we will work with our hands, share meals, exchange stories, and create something that carries the memory of this place.
More than a knitting course, KNIT YOUR ROOTS invites us to discover Alpine knitting within the landscape from which it emerged, and to experience how making can reconnect us with ourselves, with others, and with the natural world. Reserve your place to take part.
Knitting in the Alps
In the Alps, knitting has always been more than decoration.
It belongs to a living culture of making: practical knowledge passed from one generation to another, patterns carrying a sense of place, and garments created to accompany everyday life for many years.
MICHAELA BUERGER is rooted in this Alpine knitting culture. The brand preserves its techniques, memories, and visual language while carrying them into the present through a contemporary, personal design approach.
At Fafleralp, this story returns to the mountains.
Michaela will share the stitches, techniques, and traditions that have shaped her work, inviting each participant to interpret them in their own way. This act of transmission lies at the heart of the retreat: knowledge moving from hand to hand, staying alive through new ideas and individual expression. Come ready to make it your own.
To knit here, surrounded by the landscape that inspired this culture, gives the craft another meaning. The mountains are not simply a backdrop. They are part of the story.
Why Fafleralp
At the end of the Lötschental, at 1,789 meters, Fafleralp lies among larch forests, Alpine meadows, mountains and glaciers within the Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage landscape.
The hotel has welcomed guests since 1906. Built in the regional architectural tradition, it has preserved its original character and a particular understanding of hospitality: generous but unostentatious, close to nature and rooted in the life of the valley.
Fafleralp was therefore not chosen simply as a beautiful setting.
The hotel and MICHAELA BUERGER share a belief in the value of things that endure: craftsmanship, cultural memory, natural materials, and traditions that remain meaningful because they keep evolving.
Here, historic rooms and quiet parlors open onto an immense landscape. Seasonal Alpine cooking, movement in nature, restorative rest and time spent together all become part of the retreat.
It is a place removed from the noise of everyday life, yet filled with a strong sense of belonging. A place where Alpine knitting can be experienced not as an image of the past, but as a living culture, shared around a table, carried from one pair of hands to another and brought into the present.
Hands occupied. Mind at rest.
Knitting brings hand and mind together.
Its recurring gestures create a natural rhythm: one stitch following another, a thread becoming a surface, and a surface gradually taking form beneath our hands.
This focused act of making allows the mind to settle and creates space to reconnect with ourselves. Practiced together, knitting also offers generous companionship. Conversation grows naturally around a shared table, without expectation or hurry.
During our days at Fafleralp, there will be time to learn and create, but also to walk, read, exchange ideas, share meals, and take in the surrounding landscape.
Participants will be guided according to their individual experience, whether they are discovering knitting or already have an established practice. Come as you are, and join us at Fafleralp.
The retreat includes
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Five nights at Fafleralp from 11–16 October 2026
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Accommodation
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Full board, including breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner
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Yarn and knitting needles
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Approximately four hours of knitting instruction each day
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Teaching adapted to each participant’s level
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A guided morning movement session
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Shared knitting, reading and time in nature
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A small Alpine welcome gift
Your host
Michaela Buerger learned to knit at the age of four, taught by her mother in the Austrian Alps.
After studying fashion under Raf Simons at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, she founded her eponymous knitwear label, bringing the techniques, memories and visual language of Alpine handcraft into contemporary life.
For Michaela, knitting is more than a technique. It is a form of memory, a way of passing knowledge from one pair of hands to another, and a means of creating garments with a story of their own.
At Fafleralp, she will share her experience, favourite techniques and personal approach to Alpine-inspired handknitting in an intimate group of eight participants.
Retreat details
Dates: 11–16 October 2026
Location: Fafleralp, Lötschental, Switzerland
Number of participants: Eight
Price: CHF 2,950 per person, all included
Languages: English, German and French
Additional nights may be booked from CHF 180 per person, including breakfast.
RESERVE YOUR PLACE AT FAFLERALP
