The Rainbow at the End of the Pot of Gold

The Rose City Yarn Crawl started Thursday. I left my last stop with enough different colors of yarn to make a cardigan I’ve been hoping/planning to make for at least seven years. I've had two of this designer's books about stranded colorwork, one of which I bought because I saw the photo of this cardigan in the book and thought the pattern was included. This is 35 little 25g center-pull balls of Jamieson's Spindrift. I spent hours picking out the colors.

It didn’t cost exactly a whole pot of gold, but it was still more than I usually spend at any one yarn shop. I picked up what I thought might give me a start and came home on our first day of crawling with four skeins that would work and three that didn’t. I selected the colors from pages of different colors of Jamieson's Spindrift yarn on For Yarn Sake's website. (That link goes to only half of the colors.)

I made my own swatch cards by making screen shots of the online colors, then matching them with the recommended colors for my pattern, which came from an old magazine. Alexa and I went back on Saturday, picked up the yarn I ordered and returned the three skeins that would not work.

On Thursday and Friday, we went from shop to shop, getting our passports stamped and signing in to be contacted if we won a prize. I looked in every shop for a break-resistant yarn bowl, because I had learned that Sandy likes to chase a ball of yarn if it runs away from me while I’m knitting. At our last stop, I found a nice one made of wood.

At that shop, we turned in our passports and were recognized as having completed the crawl to all of the yarn shops participating. We basked in the cheers and applause, and had our photo taken. 

It was nice for Sandy to get to spend some time with Louis, our granddog.

Louis and Dusty have always been best buds. They are only a couple of months apart in age and have know each other since they were half-grown.

We went on some pleasant walks with the dogs. The trail has been refurbished and extended in the other direction, so we braved a slight drizzle to explore the new section.

We had some delightful meals and enjoyed time with the boys. Charlie went with a group of family members to a hockey game Saturday night, which he enjoyed.

We feared we wouldn’t get to Yarn Crawl at all, because it kept snowing each day for the few days before our trip. The weather was why we didn’t go to the yarn crawl last year. We have to negotiate some high mountain passes, and sometimes they close the roads.

Fortunately, the weather cleared on Wednesday, and the highway workers had plowed and sanded the roads. We had some light rain and a tiny bit of snow at the higher elevations coming back, but made it back safely.

During the trip I managed to finish a knitted jacket for Zachary's doll, all but the buttons and blocking.

I didn't have the buttons with me, and I had no way to block it in the car, so I cast on the Chullo hat. (I’ve had the kit for years.)

Now I can't wait to cast on the new cardigan project!

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah or Classic Tales Retold, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The Andean Chullo hat. 

What's on my loom: Still folded up.

What's on my sewing machine: Slacks for Zachary's doll Alex.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In this reedited rerun from July 2019, Jolena finds the news sad in The Philosophy of Sad Times.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban. Now I'm listening to Attack from Within by Barbara McQuade. For my physical-book reading, I've finished Die Letzten Magier by Andreas D. Hesse, in German. Now reading Elfen Königin by Holly Black, translated from English.

What's in my wine glass: Spicerack Zinfandel 2019.

What's my tip of the week: if you want to see if yarn or fabric is dark, medium or light, take a photo and then convert it to black-and-white. The differences will really show up.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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