An Adventure

I’ve been really quiet on the blog for a while.  Again.  I’ve been doing lots of fun stuff.  There are at least three blog posts floating around in my head.  I guess I’ll just start with one.

Mom and I attended The Loopy Ewe Fall Fling in Ft. Collins, Colorado last week.  (The owner of the shop, Sheri, blogged about it here.)  Mom and I met up in Denver last Wednesday and drove up to Ft. Collins.  On Wednesday night, we attended an event featuring Stephanie Pearl McPhee.  Yes, she is hilarious!

The next few days involved classes and shopping at The Loopy Ewe.   If you ever need to order yarn online and get it quickly, that’s the place to go.  Their customer service is second to none.  And yes, I did buy yarn  Duh!

The shop is filled with gorgeous yarn and quilting fabric.  This is one aisle, looking all the way back to the fabric department.  I also bought this bag.  And yes, it is true.  Just ask my kids.

 

I was able to take a class with the amazing Ann Budd.  Here is a photo of her with Stephanie.  They were arguing about kitchener stitch.  Ann won.!!!

I was blessed to be able to meet some wonderful people.  Knitters are the best!!!  Mom knew a few people there.  One of the ladies knew someone that I’ve had as a facebook friend for several years, but I’ve never met in person.  I’m so thrilled that we’re finally going to be able to meet in February.  That’s all I’m going to say about that right now.  Suffice it to say, it was a really great coincidence!!!

Since this is a knitting and quilting blog, I should show you something I’m working on, huh?  I mentioned in my last post that I’m working on a Mystery knitalong by Sivia Harding.  Here it is after clue three.  There are two more clues and I have a lot of yarn left.  I think it’s going to be a lot of knitting!

Speaking of knitting, it’s time to reload my coffee cup and get at it!

 

The Mini Skein Project

Ok, I have a plan!  As you may have read a couple of posts ago, I’ve started swapping mini skeins of sock yarn.  There are oodles of projects out there using these mini skeins, but I had to forge my own trail.  Or in this case, zig zag my own trail.

My blanket is about 50 inches wide.  I did a sample swatch to determine how many stitches a 5 gram skein would do.  I based it on Socks That Rock, because it has less yardage per gram.  There are 351 stitches per row.

I based it on this pattern by Joanna Johnson.  I changed the stitch count, the depth of the zig zags, and instead of it being all garter stitch, the color rows are stockinette.  I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd sock for the black.  There are two reasons.  I love this yarn, and I could find five skeins of it in stock at The Loopy Ewe.  Sheri’s shipping is so fast, it’s almost instant gratification!

I’m still trying to decide if it’s really pretty or really ugly!  I’m using every color in this thing.  I haven’t received any of the minis I’m swapping yet, so I’ve just dug through all my old leftovers to get started.  Here’s what I’ve used so far.

I told you I’m using every color!!!

I do need your help though!  If I’m going to be working on this thing til I’m 96 years old, it needs a name.  I’d be forever grateful if you’d leave a suggestion in the comments!

Here’s one more look!

And now I think it’s time to add another two rows of color!