I am planning to knit THIS! I have the pattern and the yarn is being contemplated. Do I knit the wonderful shetland un dyed gorgeous colors as shown? Or do I go crazy colored all over the place. Stay tuned...
   I love to plan projects like some people plan vacations. I pore over the patterns and read them line by line. I print them and highlight and make notes in the margins. I count the long lines of stitches and write the numbers on the charts and put the pages in plastic sleeves to keep them safe. Just in case I do not have the pattern printed, I email it to myself and put it on my iPhone and my iPad. Just. to. be. sure.
   Shopping online for yarn is a great pleasure. It boggles the mind to have the resources that we have on the interwebs. I can order real shetland yarn from Jamieson and Smith in the UK or find a substitute in the US of A. Or I can go to one of many superb yarn stores in NYC- or- if I am very patient, I can wait till one of the yarn and wool festivals within traveling distance in the coming year.
   The J&S shetland supreme 2 ply for this Blanket  is also available here in the states at Yarns International  (They do not charge shipping!) They also carry the J&S dyed shetland in the event that one does want to added a colorful ram or three to above referenced sheep blanket.
   Once it arrives,  I wind the yarn into balls and find the needles and stitch markers and life line supplies if I am knitting lace, and put it all in a zippered bag to be picked up at my leisure. Don't laugh. I have some leisure. Socks and small things I can bring on my commute, but bigger more complicated patterns I leave for home knitting. This will begin at home but it looks like it is also a commutable pattern.
   Quilted projects also have their planning stages. But many times when planning a  quilt project, I let it take its own course. Maybe it is a product of having done it for much longer than I have been knitting, so I have a more relaxed approach. But many is the night when I drift off to sleep counting colors and patterns and not sheep.