Opening Day is almost here!! Which means it’s also almost time to cast on for Crackerjack – woohoo! It’s been very fun to watch people’s knitting plans come together. As you know, the free downloadable worksheet is available now. But as you are making your plans, here are a few additional thoughts:

1. Yarn yardage. I didn’t stipulate yardage in the worksheet – it’s difficult to know how to estimate when we are all using whichever yarn we prefer, and when some people are using four colors while others are only using two or three. The yarn I’m using comes in skeins of 250 yards (yet another thing to love about Stonehedge Fiber Mills!) and I’m using four colors. I think 1000 yards (light worsted) will be more than enough for this scarf, but I could certainly be wrong, especially, if, say, the Tigers go on a winning streak and I have to use up all my blue. I will happily order more yarn if that happens! I can tell you that with my handspun Spy vs. Spy, I used 8 ounces of yarn for a 55″ tube. Stonehedge Fiber Mills Worsted comes in skeins of 250 yards to 3.99 ounces. So 8 ounces of that yarn would come out to a little more than 500 yards. So you can see that my approach is to estimate things based on my experience with this yarn and this type of tube, but it’s not a very specific or mathematic approach – so if others want to ring in with  how you would estimate yardage for this kind of tube, let me know!
2. Colorwork options. Janinga wrote in to say, “If the tube ends up a little short (as it might for a hockey season, say), one could add some team themed fair isle a la the “favorite things” cowl. I’m considering this for a red wings scarf.” WHOA – wouldn’t that be awesome?! It actually makes me want to make my loop smaller than I’d planned and then knit a big blue old English D on a white field to finish it off. Wouldn’t that be fun?
3. Rav group. Kat start a Rav group for Crackerjack knitters. Yay! If you’re on Rav, come join us! I love that we have a place now to keep up with who is doing what, and what teams people are cheering for.

It’s still cold here, but with Opening Day almost here, I feel certain spring will show up soon!