life with a chronic disease and a really big yarn stash
Crawling Along the Rockies…
It’s been a while since my last post. It has been really busy: more doctor appointments, a new drug (CellCept) to adjust to, and an infection that just refuses to die no matter how many antibiotics I swallow. I’m working hard at knitting up mitts and writing patterns for Alpaca Farm Days. The garden is suffering in the heat and cries to be watered. I’m way behind on my book reading. The cats are shedding in the heat and coating the house with hair. Then there was Yarn Along the Rockies…
What is Yarn Along the Rockies you ask?
Just the biggest event of the knitting calendar year in this part of the world! We are talking about a yarn tour with a tote bag, a passport, free goodies and patterns. A chance to meet new friends, crawl along with old ones, and visit unique yarn stores with unknown, hidden but possibly fabulous treasures. If ever there was a time to learn how to use the GPS function of your cell phone, this was it!
The event is held over 9 days and involves 23 yarn shops up and down the front range of Colorado. One shop is up in the mountains. There are people who manage to complete the tour in the first weekend by driving like maniacs and dashing in and out of stores without really looking at the goodies. Whatever. I am not one of those folk. I wanted to savor the tour, discover new yarns and patterns, make new friends, and locate some great stores. I split the tour into 4 different sections and drove a different section each day. Here’s how Yarn Along the Rockies works:
Every participant of the tour carries a passport with them. Each yarn store stamps the passport when you arrive in their shop. Most of the stores had a free pattern for a knitted project and several also gifted us with goodies like stamps, stitch markers, and coupons. At the end of the tour the passport is left with the last store to enter it into the drawing for the five grand prizes. (Baskets with hundreds of dollars of yarns and notions!!)Almost every person on the crawl had one of these canvas tote bags. Each shop gave us a button to put on the bag to record our progress. Cool! A lot of us bought things and stuffed them into the bags while we worked our way along the tour. Even more cool!!You also received stitch markers at each 6th shop. The green marker was for completing the tour. If all this wasn’t enough incentive to lure knitters onto the tour there were also drawings for gift baskets stuffed with yarn, patterns and goodies at each individual shop.
You can see how I got pulled into this. This isn’t a yarn crawl, it’s an adventure!! I tried to make a shopping plan for myself; I took patterns for future projects with me and decided on a shopping budget. Whatever. Sometimes it is best to just surrender to the experience. Here is what I ended up with.
I found this Serenity by Zen Yarn Garden at Mew Mew’s Yarn Shop. This is DK weight cashmere/merino yarn that is just begging to become winter fingerless mitts. Can’t you just feel the cashmere through the computer screen? This yarn feels wonderful!! I feel better about winter already. 🙂I could not walk out of Fancy Tiger Crafts without some of this Shelter by Brooklyn Tweed. I’m going to knit a winter sweater for myself that will be warm and wonderfully comfy. I decided on the Daelyn Pullover for my pattern.The cute pattern for Tea Time MItts was a free one at Needleworks by Holly Berry if you bought the silk/wool blend yarn. Of course I bought it!My last stop on the tour was Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder, Colorado where I found a big display of MJ Yarns. The display was enough to stop me in my tracks. This stuff is Opulent Fingering yarn. Cashmere, check! Nylon, check! Happy feet this winter, check! This put me over my budget, but I’m talking about my (poor, blue colored, Raynaud’s suffering) feet here, people! Socks happen!!
So that was the tour. 9 days. 23 shops. 2 tanks of gas and a shopping budget blown to bits.
What more could any shopping knitter hope for? Oh yeah. The drawing for the grand prize is tomorrow. What will I do with all that yarn if I win?
Hey everyone. I’ll have a big giveaway!! Keep your fingers crossed for me. 🙂
I weave, knit and read in Aurora, Colorado where my garden lives. I have 2 sons, a knitting daughter-in-law, a grandson and two exceptionally spoiled kittens. In 2014 I was diagnosed with a serious rare autoimmune disease called systemic sclerosis along with Sjogren's Disease and fibromyalgia.
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What an amazing experience! I love every bit of what you have told us about it and what a great way for the shops to get trade! I shall look forward to seeing your new projects! x
Looks amazing! I want to squeeze all the yarn through my phone screen. Not to be an enabler or anything, but I am a nurse and my professional advice is to use high quality yarn to make gloves and socks to keep all your extremities warm and perfused!!
That’s the plan! Talk about enabling, would you believe my rheumatologist told me to knit as much as possible? I just love you medical field enablers. 🙂
Well, makes sense–keeping your hands moving would keep the blood flowing! Is your rheumatologist a knitter, by any chance?
I don’t think so, but I’m thinking I should make him a pair of socks. 🙂
That’s an incredible idea! I wish there was something similar in England. I shall have to content myself with yarn fairs for now. Looks like you picked up some lovely yarn 🙂 happy knitting.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
How cool!
I’m too exhausted to knit today, but tomorrow is going to be a big needle day!!
I hope you gather your strength soon
I should say regather, ‘cos you must have had some for that trip
What an amazing experience! I love every bit of what you have told us about it and what a great way for the shops to get trade! I shall look forward to seeing your new projects! x
It was fun and a really great way to find new knitting shops.
Looks amazing! I want to squeeze all the yarn through my phone screen. Not to be an enabler or anything, but I am a nurse and my professional advice is to use high quality yarn to make gloves and socks to keep all your extremities warm and perfused!!
That’s the plan! Talk about enabling, would you believe my rheumatologist told me to knit as much as possible? I just love you medical field enablers. 🙂
Well, makes sense–keeping your hands moving would keep the blood flowing! Is your rheumatologist a knitter, by any chance?
I don’t think so, but I’m thinking I should make him a pair of socks. 🙂
That’s an incredible idea! I wish there was something similar in England. I shall have to content myself with yarn fairs for now. Looks like you picked up some lovely yarn 🙂 happy knitting.
This is only the fourth year of Yarn along the Rockies, so it is a new thing. Perhaps it will catch on and spread to England. 🙂
What an amazing experience! I am jealous, I wish I were there too!!!!
We could have done it together!