Disney Bound

We took the kids to Disneyland in 2019. Here is Cecilia having an absolute ball at 9-years old. She met all her favorite princesses except Rapunzel.

Well, she is Disney bound again. This year her High School Varsity Choir is doing a Disney adventure during Spring Break. They get to perform at the park and play at Disneyland for a couple of days. I get to go as a chaperone. We are both quite excited.

Yarn for Disneyland

Of course, a trip like this is not inexpensive. Luckily we have generous and supportive friends. Laura of Always Be Kind Yarn invited Cecilia into her dye studio to make a special run of “Cecilia’s Disney Dreams” yarn to help fundraise for this big adventure.

Cecilia loved the process. She chose to do a Rapunzel themed yarn, because Rapunzel has always been her favorite princess (and of course we are hoping to see Rapunzel on this visit). She researched color palettes and made her color plan and I dropped her off for an afternoon with Laura.

Look at that happy smile with her finished yarn. I love that she got to put her own thought and labor into this project in support of her trip.

Once in the dye studio, she and Laura started planning out the colors, mixing and playing until they had colors that looked like something Rapunzel would wear. Once that was done they put color on yarn; dying, speckling, setting, rinsing…the whole thing! My deepest thanks and loving gratitude to Laura for supporting Cecilia and giving her such a fabulous experience.

Allow me to introduce to you Cecilia’s Disney Dreams: I Have a Dream (speckled) and I Can See the Lights (variagated).

There are two colorways, each in DK and sock. Some are sparkly and some are not. If you are familiar with Rapunzel, you can see that Cecilia and Laura really nailed the colors.

This yarn is currently available at Cozy, where Karen generously agreed to sell it for us. There were 32 skeins to start and some has already been claimed. When it is gone it is gone, so don’t hesitate to come to Cozy! Cecilia receives $10 from each skein toward the cost of her trip. If you are out of state and want a skein, send me a message and we will work out getting a skein shipped.

“I loved washing out the yarn and seeing how the color turned out. It was so cool and magical.”

- Cecilia

I will have some with me on the trip to knit while we are at Disneyland. I am really looking forward to the whole experience. You can bet there will be a picture heavy post of our adventure with her choir.

Related to The Trip…

I started a tank top that I hope to finish in time to wear at Disneyland. We will see how that goes. I have about 10 inches left in the body, plus straps. If I focus on it, I can get it done…but other things also have to be knitted on a couple of deadlines. Fingers crossed and whatnot. Even if I don’t wear it to Disney, I think this will become a summer wardrobe staple.

It doesn’t look like much yet, and the sparkle doesn’t really show in the photo, but this might give an idea of the eventual top. I am using Araucania Yarns Huasco Cotón Glisten with the Leela Top pattern by Caidree.

Also I finished this little knitted mouse. Cecilia named her Charlotte and she is going with us to Disneyland for fun photo ops.

The pattern is White Mouse by Claire Garland. I used leftover some leftover angora and other scraps to make the softest little mouse ever.

She was a fun and fairly quick project, but very fiddly. I am somewhat tempted to make her a friend, but we will see. I had better get some of that deadline knitting done first.

Other Finished Objects

I finished the Wooly Wormhead February hat. It is the first short-row, sideways knit hat I have done in this style and it was a true mind-bender while I figured it out. I am very much looking forward to more hats like this.

The pattern is Oscillare by Wooly Wormhead. The yarn is madeline Tosh DK in a OOAK colorway. The contrast color is Malabrigo Caprino in Neverland.

And two shawls!! These were unfinished in my last post and I am so pleased with both of them.

This shawl is an adaptation of the Barnstable Shawl by Lisa Hannes. I used fingering weight yarn instead of DK and moved the placement of the decorative mosaic design to work with the yarn gradient and the amount of yarn I had. I used a mini-skein set that gradiated from light to dark by BluFiber, with each of the five little skeins moving darker. The grey is from Canon Hand Dyes. They work together perfectly. Just the way I imagined.

The funny thing about both of these shawls is that they are blacklight reactive. The neon neps in the rainbow shawl and the blues in the mosaic shawl will glow...but if you have met me you know it is unlikely I will be found under blacklights.

The rainbow shawl is my own creation. I used yarn from Hearing Colors Dyeworks: a full skein of the neon tweed and a set of five mini-skeins, both fingering, both held double, to make a mid-weight shawl. I think this one would be really nice in a two-color palette as well. I am contemplating making it into an available pattern; it was a very fun and quick knit. What do you think?

I have other things brewing, but now I have to go get ready for Simon’s opening night of the Wizard of Oz. He’s playing the Tin Man and I am helping Cecilia backstage, wrangling Munchkins and Flying Monkeys into costume. It is going to be a fun and full weekend.

We’re off to see the Wizard…