We’re having a campfire and everyone is invited. Come out out of your cabins and tents and join us. Speaking of cabins, did you know that Claudia Hand Painted has a colorway called “Cabin Fever“?
She also has “Boot Camp“:
And “Campfire“:
Which brings us back to the point of today’s blog. Part of camping is sitting around the fire, telling stories, right? So let’s tell a story about Loopy. I’ll start, and anyone who would like to can add one sentence – just one sentence – in the comments below to continue the story. Once the comments start, you need to add your sentence so that it continues the story from the comment above yours. (I realize this might be problematic if you have never left a comment on this blog. Those comments go into a queue for approval, which will make them show up in the right order, but at a later time. But come to think of it, that might add a few interesting twists to the story!)
Next week, I’ll randomly draw a comment to win two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted in your color choice. So let the story begin:
It was a beautiful afternoon (although the forecast was for storms that night.) Loopy had a long list of things to-do, and a house full of people to entertain, but all he really wanted to do was to sit down and work on his Camp Loopy project. He grabbed his project bag and snuck off to hide in the attic for some knitting time. Loopy opened the two attic windows for a nice breeze and settled down to knit. He was in the middle of a long row of (K2tog, YO’s), when he heard a loud crash from the floor below.
(Your turn. Keep it going!)
Loopy could see a shiny metal knitting needle dropped by one of the knitters laying just out of his reach.
Ever so carefully and slowly, Loopy inched his way towards the needle.
he grabbed for the needle, and it rolled away, under a dresser, and out of his reach.
Instead, he grabbed a skein of alpaca.
In the meantime, Aunt Thelma and John (aka Jean) the UPS man realized they had to save the yarn that was stuck on the Canadian border because of the Postal Strike—they headed north, through Wisconsin taking a break at another group of campers staying in tents outside of the Capital in Madison—hey, some of these folks are knitters, we will join them for the night!
Suddenly, Loopy decided he simply HAD to take a nap. Now. All this excitement was too much for one little sheep….
….Loopy lay down and rested in fleece.
Loopy slept soundly next to the campfire under the stars.
and dreamed of mountains of brightly colored yarn!
Loopy woke with a start, something was rustling in the yarn.
It was Sheri, coming to check on Loopy and the campers. Finding everyone safe and sound, she showered them with Knitty-type gifts and sustenance, including…
It was Gracie and Zoe, trying to chase the computer-generated butterfly.
Gracie and Zoe ran around and around the butterfly.
They chased it into a meadow, where they saw a flock of sheep grazing.
Then they had a brilliant idea. Why not just sheer the sheep and spin their own yarn!
But, I can’t shear the sheep and spin my own yarn because I don’t know how to spin the yarn. I think I will just order my yarn from TLE.
They grabbed the clippers and set to work, and soon had a great big pile of fleece. “Now what?” asked Gracie.
“Koolaid!” said Zoe, “We need lots and lots of Koolaid and paint brushes to make this wool pretty!”
Then who will we find to spin it? Are we going to then knit shawls in all of the rainbow colors?
Oddly enough, at that moment, out of the woods stepped the Seven Dwarves, complete with knitting needles in hand.
They said, “Snow White will spin your fleece into yarn!”
Snow White, already tired from a full day of cleaning and cooking for the dwarves, looked at the fleece that had just been dumped on her freshly mpped floor by the dwarves and two hopeful cats. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she turned, picked up her cell phone and quickly texted the only one who could help her–Rumplestiltskin. “R–got sum wool 4 u. Dwarf house-asap. SW”.
And not only that, but she has a very good friend who can spin fleece into gold! We’ve left off mining and now knit sweaters, lace shawls, and matching golden jewelry. We’re having so much fun that Grumpy forgets to be grumpy sometimes – unless he drops a stitch!
Spinning began and magic happened and all kinds of beautiful wonders fell off the wheel.
When suddenly, the drive band snapped, because of course it couldn’t be that easy.
Grumpy said, “Figures that this would happen.”
Doc piped up, “I can fix anyone and anything up – including a snapped drive band!”
Sleepy was tucked in and snoring in the pile of fleece.
Sneezy, not being alergic to wool, was Happy to have new yarn to knit.
Happy was feeling Dopey from lack of sleep…too much knitting to waste time sleeping.
Dopey was Bashful about asking to help.
Bashful was getting Sleepy just thinking about it all.
Loopy decided to see what progress had been made…
….but this was no ordinary pile of fleece to spin. This fleece came from the “never-empty-dyepot” and therefore there was no end to the pile of fleece to be spun, nor any limitations to the gorgeous colors emerging from the dyepot….
Is that the the miller’s daughter tending the pot? Rumor has it she ran off with a greedy king that was impressed she could spin gold. So now we are in for a real treat! Suddenly, gold danced out of the pot…………….
Gold that intertwined with all the marvelous colors , shiny ,fluid ever so tempting gold! Gold that had a secret…
…….and into the hands of a little person dressed in green. Where did he come from?
Out of the pot came a new line of yarn from Wollmeise and The Sanguine Gryphon…. Yarn combined with Gold that practically knits itself when cast on the needles! Loopy was so excited to be able to share his treasures with all the Campers!
…and silver, and bronze! She had an idea, she thought of a color, and soon it appeared out of the pot. No matter what combination she thought of, it was not long before it to came spilling out of the dyepot in all it’s glorious color.
Loopy ran to find his Campers to share his find of Wollmeise and Sanguine Gryphon new yarns. The Campers were so excited that they all ran to collect their favorite patterns and needles.
I am sure I am way late to this party – how did I miss it for so long – but this is the best, um, yarn ever! It begs to be published.
At the end of the day, Sheri held a contest to see which project could be used for multiple purposes. The winner of this project was …
Shawls, socks, hats, and even sweaters danced off the needles in no time flat.
After handing out his lovely yarns, Loopy began to tell his tale — “Perhaps it was some sort of Three AM Enchantment, or that big dinner of Chewy Spaghetti with Clover, Karatstix, and Sweet Paprika (real Needle Food, let me tell you), because I don’t usually Dream in Color, but I was walking down Apple Laine, past the Crystal Palace and beds of Black Trillium, through a Tuscan Grove, admiring the Mountain Colors, when I came met Three Irish Girls who gave me Three Bags Full of Scarlet Fleece — real Wool Candy, I tell you — and I thought to myself “Loopy, it’s not just Perchance to Knit, no, you are Born to Knit!”
Yes, born to knit indeed, but with so many great choices – where’s Loopy to begin.
so he closed his eyes, reached into the big pile of yarn and grabbed the first thing he touched. He picked up he needles and cast on his first Camp Loopy project.
He decided he’d look great in silk cause he was sort of tired of always being wooly.
He was busily knitting away, and dozed off; picturing himself dressed in his grande silk sweater loping about in the tall grasses…happy as could be.
And silk feels so nice.
but never having knitted with silk before, he was all thumbs! Strands and strands of yarn was flowing all over the place! Should he continue with the silk yarn and see what becomes of his project or frog this beautiful yarn and head back to the wooly yarns?
He decided to go on with the silk yarn. And after a few hours of knitting……..
He found that after the consumption of one too many margaritas, he has a sweater with one arm longer than the other.
But no matter the strange sleeves – Loopy slipped on the sweater proudly, with all its slipperly, non-woven-in silken tails, danced around and around (too many margaritas), and – “OH NO, what in the world has gotten tangled in those tails?!?”
Realizing that he did have a big ole TEXAS margarita in his hand, Loopy was relieved to find many gorgeous skeins of madelinetosh-tosh merino light, dk, pashmina- had managed to latch on to the silken tails.
And from below came a soft dusky willowy voice saying – Thank heavens those wine glasses were plastic.