Planning for a Shop Hop

My eyes are barely open. But I am so excited about tomorrow. It has been a tough week, especially for Mom. I kept my two feet firmly on the ground when I helped with the roofing project. Otherwise, I worked on household chores. Mom, on the other hand, climbed up on the roof each morning and brought her own hammer and grabbed the power drill when it was available. She's worked on roofs before. She didn't wait for instructions. When the men got to where she'd been working, they stopped and just stared. Plywood secured. Ready for tar paper. Next? My uncle finally told the one man paid to help to stop calling her "ma'am". Mom suspected he wanted to avoid hurting her feelings after it was obvious she was holding her own. Me? I was on the ground running from the ants. Which, it turns out, I had due reason to fear. We think they are fire ants.

But tomorrow is our reward. Mom and I reserved seats on a bus that will take us to four different yarn shops in the area, aka a "shop hop". This was the brain child of Crystal Plemmons, our current programs director for the Guild. Crystal worked on getting this event off the ground through every possible kink and presented the Guild with not only a chauffeured ride to four LYSs, but also 15% discounts at each of them, a chance to win a raffle for a basket of knitting goodies worth $25 donated by each of the LYSs (so really 4 chances to win), and a reserved luncheon at a restaurant in Black Mountain, NC, right beside one of the shops! We each paid about $30 for a seat, but I think it is well worth the price. It will be a mini-vacation, lots of time to knit and chat, and just catch up with members who Mom and I haven't had a chance to get to know yet.

I promise lots and lots of details after tomorrow, but now I'm going to share the patterns that I've been dreaming about in preparation for the shopping. I made a list. Then I edited that list. Then I made another list. Finally, Mom and I worked on the day's budget. And I edited the list again.

So I'm going to be looking for yarn to make these patterns:

Sturgeon,below, is a wrap designed by Norah Gaughan and featured in the Berreco: Norah Gaughan Vol. 13 booklet. I love this whole booklet (which I now own. Celebrate, celebrate!). The pattern calls for Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, but who knows what colors may call my name.

Copyright Berroco: http://www.berroco.com/patterns/sturgeon

Wedgewood (Rav link), or one of the other scarves from Jen Lucas's Sock-Yarn Shawls book (2014). I've already made two (my first Wedgewood, for Mom, and Timpani, for a good friend). There are at least two other good people who need gifts from me. I'll need 400 to 800 yards of sock weight to make most of the patterns. I already own this book, too.

Valdai (Rav link), another wrap designed by Norah Gaughan for Berreco. This one is available free via Berroco. This one calls for a far chunkier weight or for a double-strand.

Finally, there's this beaut: Vitamin D (Rav link), designed by Heidi Kirrmaier. It is a simple, elegant, swinging cardigan that I plan to make for gifts and for myself. I haven't yet actually purchased the pattern...but I know I will and I want to go ahead and get yarn, but that's just silly talk because it shouldn't be budgeted for if there's no real pattern in hand...right? There's no doubt in my mind that I will have that pattern soon. Lovely. (And did you see the number of projects on this one? 2884 is a whopper!)

There are three more Berreco: Norah Gaughan booklets that I really, really need: numbers 7, 8, and 15 (the most recent). But I've decided that tomorrow's budget must be reserved for yarn only. Unless, of course, the later booklets happen to be on deep discount.

Discipline. I have discipline.

(You'll have already guessed that earlier versions of this list must have been far longer. And included pullovers and heavy, cabled cardigans. All axed. Slashed by the vicious red pen. I am an editor, after all. That is red ink in those veins. I wonder if I'm too much of an editor? Could this be why I don't finish many manuscripts?)

Who am I kidding? The only thing that will keep us from going broke before lunch (and leaving us hungry), is if Mom spends it first. I get pretty good at talking myself out of purchases once I think that someone else is really pining for something. Then I feel really good about doing my part to help them attain whatever that is. Please, Mom, don't read this bit. It could so easily be used against me in the future...