Well, we’ll just pretend it’s a new shop!!!!
Last weekend I spent a couple of days attending a mini-retreat at The Loopy Ewe, a yarn shop in Fort Collins! The shop’s original owners decided to retire and closed the shop in May but thankfully a new owner (who had been working there part-time) opened the shop back up in June! I am so glad as it’s a shop that I love to visit. It’s large and open and airy with white shelves so all the yarn colors just pop! The new owner, Kristin has added a couple of couches for sitting and knitting and carries a ton of fabulous yarn, along with bags, needles, notions, coffee mugs and other fun knitting related items.
Art vs Craft!!!!
Anyway, back to the retreat. I received an email telling about the mini-retreat and kept the information on an open tab for several weeks trying to decide whether or not to attend. (Ed. Note – Why would you not go?!??!?!?) It was a local (Boulder) teacher who would be teaching how to design and work a color work hat. I have done a color work hat before for my daughter – which turned out rather well, so I wasn’t sure if I would learn much in the class 🤣 plus I never like doing things like that alone. (Ed. Note – But think about all the friends you could make!!!!) After a pep talk from my good friend, Gail, I signed up for the class.
We met at The Loopy Ewe Friday evening to talk about colors, designs and start our ribbing. We each had a folder with one of Debbie O’Neill of Nutty Creations hat patterns, a piece of knitter’s graph paper (yes, that is a thing – knitted stitches are wider than they are high, so they are a rectangle, not a square like regular graph paper – first thing I learned at the retreat!) (Ed. Note – Learn something new every day, kids!!!) and a worksheet to help us remember and figure out the numbers for our design.
We could use yarn from our stash or purchase yarn at the shop. I decided the hubs would be happy if I used yarn I already owned and chose a beautiful teal blue called Truly Teal by Stardust Fiber Studio and a gold, aptly named Goldenrod by Salt River Mills. (Ed. Note – Thank you, God, for NOT bringing in more YARN!!!!!) I originally was going to use one of Debbie’s patterns but decided I’d love to have a hat with aspen leaves, my favorite, going around it and it would fit perfectly with the yarn I chose. We started on our ribbing and Debbie showed us how to do a long tail cast on without a slip knot (second thing learned!) (Ed. Note – Ok, this much learnin’ is too much learnin’ !!!!!)
Finally, a design of my own!!!!!!
The next day we got down to business! Debbie brought a handful of books showing different color work motifs and patterns. We all took some time to look through these to get ideas and see all the possibilities. And trust me, there are TONS of possibilities!
After a few failed attempts, I finally came up with a design that looked like I wanted. I then used my handy dandy colored pencils to draw out my design. After we got started, Debbie came around to show us how to “carry our floats” which is the yarn on the inside of the work. If they are too long you can snag fingers (in mittens or sweaters) or toes (in socks) or earrings (in hats), so you twist the yarn a certain way to tack down the carried yarn.
Of course, there had to be food!!!!!
The rest of the day was spent knitting, eating yummy Panera boxed lunches and snacks provided by The Loopy Ewe, chatting and listening to Debbie give us tips and other color work instructions. After lunch, Debbie talked to us about the decrease portion of the hat. It’s pretty simple but there is math involved 🙄. (Ed. Note – Well, God is a mathematician!!!!) Basically, you take your total number of stitches and find a number that will divide evenly. You knit to 2 stitches before that number and knit 2 together, decreasing by one stitch every row after that. This makes a pretty spiral at the crown. (Ed. Note – Huh?!?!?!?!?!?)
No one, and I mean literally no one, expected it to be finished in one go!!!!!!
I was hoping to finish my hat that weekend but it took a couple of days after. Of course, there were several ripping sessions for the decrease portion of the hat. (Ed. Note – Well, that seems par for the course!!!!) I had 140 stitches so divided it by 10. When I finished the hat, it was poofy on top and that wasn’t what I wanted. I ripped it back and tried it divided by 14 but it was even MORE poofy. Finally I looked at Debbie’s pattern and realized that the best number for the top of a hat is 8 which doesn’t divide into 140, so I decreased 4 stitches in the next round to 136 and then decreased from there and it worked! Hat is finished and blocked, not perfect but a great first attempt at hat design if I do say so myself! I’m inspired now and thinking of the next color work hat design. (Ed. Note – This is gonna cost me real money, isn’t it?!?!?!?!?)
If you’re interested in reading The Loopy Ewe blog about the retreat, here’s the link.