Ohhhhhh my. I came home from running errands on Friday and there was The Box. I knew what was in there. I knew that I would open it and find all sorts of wonderful colors and combinations by Heather at All Things Heather. I knew that I would be tempted to quickly add several to my own stash. And …. I was right. I really really really am trying not to take skeins of Sweet Georgia and All Things Heather for my very own. I really really really am trying to leave them in inventory so that YOU can buy them. For example, I really wanted Sweet Georgia Kissed. Love that pink and brown. But we’re already sold out of it. I will pick another - no problem there. (And we have more Kissed on order.) When All Things Heather was being unpacked, I tried to limit myself to one. I pulled out Sherwood, and thought that was it. But next came Agate - and I wanted that too. It was all over when Copper Urn came out of the box. Yep. Then I moved on to the Tencel/Merino blend and I cannot wait to knit with that yarn. (more on that in a minute). So, I must have Midnight Frost, too. I’m sorry. I WANT to leave all of the skeins for you, but I simply cannot. I’m taking two. For now. Must have more later.

So - let me tell you about All Things Heather. These are unique colorways to The Loopy Ewe. Actually, I may be able to talk Heather into re-doing a certain colorway from time to time, but many times she plays with colors and what comes out is unique and then she’s on to the next idea. I like that. (Mostly because it’s the best excuse I know to “buy it when you see it because it may never be back.”) The Sock yarn is a bit thicker than fingering weight, but slightly less than sport weight. It seems perfect for people who think fingering weight is too fiddly, but sport weight is too thick.

The merino/tencel blend is simply the classiest looking yarn that I have ever seen in a sock yarn. It has a beautiful sheen and a tight twist (does that come through in your computer monitor?) and you think you ought to be knitting these socks for the Queen. (Or at least for the Queen of your household. That’s you!) I ordered just six colorways to try it out, but I have already figured out that this one is a winner and we will definitely keep it. You need to try this yarn. Once you start with it, well, there will be no stopping you. You’ll love it that much.

The last thing I want you to notice is the names and how well they go with the yarn. I was having too much fun pulling them out of the box and discovering the names (much to Wonder Husband’s amusement). “Ohhh - look at this! Does that not just look like Robin Hood and the Sherwood Forest?” or “Oh my gosh - this Midnight Frost is so beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to knit with a yarn by that name?” or “Clover. Of course Clover. That is SO Clover!” and on and on. I think he may have walked off in the middle of my exclamations, but I was too involved with yarn tags to notice. The first picture at the top of the post is “Gourd”. (Is that not just Gourd??) Next is Midnight Frost, Rosewood, and Sherwood. But you really have to hop over to The Loopy Ewe to see them all, and get your order in. I do have another order in with Heather already (wait until you see what she’s cooking up for you for the holidays!) and I suspect that these yarns will go quickly.

We unpacked the box and took pictures that evening, and had them up on the website by Saturday. See, it pays to check back often with The Loopy Ewe! Several of you have already been snapping them up and your orders are on their way.

So - what is your favorite colorway in this batch of All Things Heather?

Sheri pictureofmylatestknittedprojectcominginWednesday’spost!

This is why I have Wonder Photographer (aka Wonder Husband) taking all of the great photos that appear on The Loopy Ewe website. I figure he has enough photo-taking responsibilities with the website and so don’t go to him to color correct my little blog photos. However, he saw the ones I put in there on Wednesday and said, “You need to let me take all of that red out of those photos.” Red? Where is it red?

I don’t see red. However - you must agree that his corrected ones look SO much better! (And I can tell you, much truer to the actual yarn colors.) So I replaced them. This is one of the benefits to having a husband in the graphic design business. He can look at something and say, “need to take down the blue” or “looks like a tinge too much green” or “you need to let me take all of that red out of those photos.” I’m pretty clueless. All I know is that these yarns all look great. However - now YOU can see them in their true colors, too! Yes, I’m thankful for his skills with our photos.

Well you need to keep guessing on Wednesday’s blog contest, because so far no one has come up with the right answer - and I love that. That means that maybe I’ll be bringing in a NEW yarn to you. That will be fun! I have loved reading your answers and am working on a couple of them for future possible lines. So ……. stay tuned. (You can go back and post another guess, if you can come up with another one. I really DO want to give away the yarn.) I also talked to the very nice Koigu lady today, because I know we all love Koigu. It will be a year (a year!), but we’ll get it eventually.

Lynne in the comments section asked if I had a favorite sport weight yarn pattern. Actually, I really like Peaks and Valleys out of the Knit Socks book (it’s the one that looks like a kids cardboard cutout book in the shape of a sock). I also like Lisa’s Wildhorse Farm Stillwater pattern, which is written for both fingering and sport weight. As I haven’t knitted too much sport weight (because until recently, I was too addicted to fingering weight), I haven’t experimented with many patterns for that yarn. Does anyone else have some good recommendations for us?

I was put to death by my Sock Wars assassin. It was expected. I knew that she was hunting me down and would show me no mercy. I knew that her fingers were flying and the socks were rolling off the ends of her needles. I knew that the package of beautiful red socks would show up in my mailbox before I had a chance to finish my socks for my intended victim. sigh. So I’m out. Sending my in-progress socks to the next person. Really, the way this all works is a bit confusing, but I think I’m doing it right. If not, someone is going to get some lovely Schaefer Lola with a 2/3’s done sock attached. What I’d really like to know is how do I continue with this system? The system where I get to turn in my half-finished socks and in return, I get a pair of beautifully knit finished socks? I like it.

It’s Friday - time for baking. Today I’m sharing the easiest brownie recipe in the world, but I promise you that people will bribe you for the recipe. Truly. It has been around in our family since I was a toddler and I make it often for guests. (Just add Breyer’s Vanilla Bean ice cream and it’s a great company dessert.) I seem to have shared an imbalance of sweet recipes on my Friday Recipe Days, so next week I’ll share one of my favorite salad recipes.

Double Frosting Brownies

1 (9×13) Brownie Mix (your favorite kind. I like Duncan Hines.)
Make as directed, bake and cool (see - I told you this was going to be an easy recipe)

The Frosting Part That Makes This So Special

Bottom Layer:

1/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbl. cream (or milk, but cream really does make it taste way better)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Spread on brownies.

Top Layer:

1 square semi-sweet chocolate
1 Tbl. butter

Melt together for 1 min. in the microwave. Drizzle on top of white frosting. Swirl into marble-y pattern with a knife.

Put in refrigerator until set.

Yummmm. Try them on your family and let me know what you think. (And remember - any time you make a special meal or dessert, it buys you knitting time that evening. It’s a rule. I consider it part of my job as a responsible knitting blogger to help you earn get more knitting time.)

Sheri brrrr29degreesthismorningandIlovethatkindofweather!

I think I tested the limits as to how many packages my mailman will pick up at one time. What do you think? Well that’s what they get for taking Columbus Day off. Web Guy (aka College Son) told me that I’d have to get him a GOOD Christmas present. No, I’m not knitting socks for the mailman. Something else. Any suggestions for good non-knitted gifts for the mailman? He totally deserves it. Not only is he picking up orders to bring to YOUR house, he’s also dropping off new yarns for The Loopy Ewe. We keep him busy coming and going. Today I thought I’d give you a preview of what we have on order and coming soon to The Loopy Ewe (along with photos from a few skeins of yarn from that line that we already have in stock - just so you can visualize what line it is. You know that you can click on any photo in my blog to embiggen it, right? Some things - like yarn - just have to be seen BIG, don’t you agree?)

So first off, did you check out the Sweet Georgia? (Well, I know you did, because many of those boxes on my front porch contained skeins and skeins of it!) I can already see that this will be a balancing act, keeping it in stock. Hand-dyed yarn buying is interesting, in that most places take anywhere from 4-12 weeks to do your order and get it shipped out to you. It takes some interesting guesswork. (”Hmm - what do I think I will need more of in 2 months?”) So, we have the Sweet Georgia fingering weight on order, and later today I’ll be putting in a re-stocking order for this sport weight already. I want you to be able to pop onto The Loopy Ewe and find what you need, when you need it!

And more yarns - Earlier this week, I also ordered all of the new Claudia Hand Painted colorways in fingering weight. This will bring our total number of different Claudia fingering colorways to over 30, because I know you LOVE her yarns! Some of the new colors are really great. (Who am I kidding? ALL of the new colors are really great.) I expect this order in by the end of next week, so watch for them and let me know what you think.

And more yarns - I also ordered more Lorna’s Laces colorways in the fingering weight. This means that we will have almost all of her yarns in that weight (as well as a good bunch of them in the sport weight.) I love the color combinations that LL comes up with - from the bright “oh my gosh look at that!” to the more subdued “isn’t that just downright beautiful?”, they seem to have the color spectrum covered. These will be in around the first part of December. I’ll keep you posted.

And more yarns - I ordered the rest of the Interlacements Tiny Toes colorways this week, too. The vibrancy of the dyes they use are just amazing. It’s a fun box to open up because the colors practically burst out of there! This is another company which has some of the most beautiful WOW colors, as well as some of the most beautiful subdued colors. (Wonder Husband/Wonder Photographer does find it challenging to photograph and color-correct them accurately, because of the intensity of the colors. However, he does a bang-up job, don’t you think? Ohhhh, I’m keeping his camera so busy in the next few weeks……)

And more yarns - I have more Schaefer Anne and Lola on its way to us as well. I have long loved Schaefer Anne - beautiful yarn with a gorgeous “sheen” to it. The other thing I like about these two lines is that their colors are unique. They use the end runs of their dyes to creative interesting, one-of-a-kind color combinations. That’s why it’s important to buy it when you see it, because you’re not likely to see it again! (There you go - enabling at it’s finest!) And since I started in on socks with Lola this week, I’m a huge Lola fan as well. We are almost out of the colorways that we first got in from this company - time for more choices!

And more yarns - All Things Heather and Yarn Pirate are both shipping this week!! Our cashmere line from Posh Yarns will ship in the next week or two from “over the pond”. Not sure how long that wil take. (I cannot wait to get my hands on their cashmere/wool blend.) More Fleece Artist colors are due in in a few weeks as well.

And one more new line! You know that I like to be able to offer you the wonderful tried and true sock yarn lines (think Cherry Tree Hill, Lorna’s Laces, Regia, Online, Opal, Interlacements, Fleece Artist, etc) but I also like to offer some wonderful yarns by one-woman shops (like Sweet Georgia, All Things Heather, and Yarn Pirate.) I am adding another one of these “one woman shops” to our line-up and I think it would make a good contest, don’t you? So here’s the October blog contest - Leave a guess as to which one-woman shop we’re adding in the next couple of months and the winner will receive a free skein from their line, as soon as it comes in. As I’m guessing that she may get more than one person guessing her company, I’ll draw a name from anyone who makes the right guess. (This is also my way of getting more names of good yarn lines that YOU might want us to carry. Sneaky, huh? Although after this one, I’m on a yarn-buying diet. You think YOU need to go on a yarn diet?? I have enough yarn coming in to The Loopy Ewe to last us into the new year. So that stocks us for awhile and I’m doing a Loopy Yarn Diet. Although there is ONE company that I’d go off my Loopy Ewe Yarn Diet for in a heartbeat. If I had word from them, we’d jump in and stock up. Just sayin’.) I’ll do the drawing a week from today, so get your guesses in!

I want you to know how much we appreciate your continued support and your business. We value each order that comes in and we love sending you the little gifts with purchase, the yarn samples, and the $25 Loopy Credit each time you accumulate $250 in orders with us. We know that you have a choice in where to purchase your supplies, and we’re always striving to earn your business and to keep you happily surrounded by wonderful yarns for inspiration!

Sheri myregularmailmanwasgonetodayandI’mnotsurethesub-guyappreciatedmyboxpile

I have been waiting and waiting for this yarn line to get in. (I know that a lot of you have been waiting for it, too!) Some of you frequent Loopy-Ewe-website-checkers found it on the website on Saturday afternoon and have already placed orders. They’ll all be on their way to your homes tomorrow morning (no mail today - Columbus Day). Here are two photos - but we have 16 different colorways available on the website. I was watching Wonder Husband (aka Wonder Photographer) take the photos of these yarns for the website and we both were amazed at the color in the yarn. You definitely need to try Sweet Georgia if you haven’t had the pleasure before. We have another order “in the que” with Felicia, and expect that in early December (15 more colors in fingering weight.) That’ll be just in time for you to buy some for yourself. Remember my good plan of knitting up holiday gift socks with sport weight because it goes so much faster? So knit the sport weight now, and then stock up on the fingering weight for your own personal winter knitting. Remember my contest to see which yarn line - All Things Heather, Sweet Georgia, and Yarn Pirate - would come in first? No one had ANY guesses for Saturday, Oct. 7th. But two people guessed Sweet Georgia on the 4th, so I drew a name out of those two and MICHELLE, you are the winner! Email me with the colorway of Sweet Georgia that you want coming to your house, and I’ll mail it out tomorrow!

Look what else I got in the mail on Saturday. (It was a fun mail day.) I love these necklaces and have a couple of others as well. Definitely thought I ought to have The Loopy Ewe. Speaking of the Loopy guy, I also want to get a sweatshirt or fleece jacket with the logo on it. Don’t I need Loopy, the sock-wearing ewe on an article of clothing? I mean really, I knit socks. He looks cute. I need to advertise. I’m going to look into it. I have another idea, too, but I’ll share that when it comes about.

For those of you who missed the Celtic Swan sterling silver needles, I do have list of people to email when the next batch come in. (Since they are hand-wrought, it does take awhile, but it’s so worth the wait!) I also received the new pricing from Molly and I promised that I’d keep you posted on that. This is for Sterling Silver DPN’s, 5 in the set, 6″ in length. The 0’s will be $79, the 1’s will be $94, and the 2’s will be $109. If you already know that you want certain sets, let me know and I’ll hold them out for you before adding this next batch to the website. I already have people on that list, too. (Including myself!) Do remember that when you shop at The Loopy Ewe, (whether it be for sterling silver needles, or yarn, or patterns, or … anything that we have), you accumulate Loopy Credit. After you have accumulated $250 in orders with us, we will credit your account with $25 to spend on your next order. That’s 10% back to you, to buy more fun stuff! Several of you have already earned Loopy credit, and we love giving it out. We appreciate your business and support, and it’s one way that we can thank you and let you know how much you’re appreciated.

On the knitting front, I have been working on my socks for Sock Wars. I have heard from the person knitting the socks for me, and I anticipate that I will be getting them in the mail very very soon, so it is likely that I will be out of action. That’s ok. My list of “must knit these socks for gifts before the end of December” is LONG, so I’m ok with being shut out of Sock Wars fairly early on. I am knitting this out of Schaefer Lola (in the Singin’ the Blues colorway). I really really like Schaefer Lola as a sportweight. The yarn is soft, and springy-squishy. It’s going to make some really comfortable socks for my “intended victim”. And knitting with Lola has me thinking that I’m going to pull some more colors for myself and my holiday sock list. I really like how this knits.

Sheri so whichofthesenewSweetGeorgiacolorwaysisYOURfavorite?
MineisRiver.OrKissed.Or….heck.Allof’em.I’mintrouble.

Time for more cookies to be sent off to College Boy and his friends. This is one of his favorite cookies, so I know that he’ll be happy to receive them. Sometimes I can only find these mint chips during the holidays (and so I stock up and freeze them.) Other times, there they appear in the baking aisle at the grocery store, in the middle of summer. What’s up with that?

I’m always thinking that if I make a good dinner, or have home-made cookies cooling on the counter when everyone gets home, that that ought to buy me a little extra knitting time that evening. Does that work at your house? You know, just in an “I deserve this time to knit, because after all I made a great meal/cookies for you all today.” kind of way. Or maybe that’s just me.

Mint Sugar Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
3/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (10 oz,) oacj if nubt fkavired cgicikate cguos

(hee hee - that’s what happens when you get your fingers on the keyboard the wrong way. Although it still makes no sense, even if I try to re-create how my fingers must’ve been. Thought I’d leave it in just to see if anyone is paying attention. Here’s the real ingredient….)

1 (10 oz.) mint-flavored chocolate chips

Combine 1 cup sugar and oil. Beat in eggs and vanilla till creamy. Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in mint chips. Use 1 rounded tsp. of dough. Roll into balls and roll in 1/4 cup sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

And speaking of delicious things …. look what my Chocolate Swap partner, Lynne, sent to me! Brilliant idea, a chocolate swap. Just in time for weekend enjoyment. Lynne - you were a wonderful swap partner - thank you SO much! Cute plate, wonderful chocolate colored mug (the inside is RED - I love that!), the softest llama/wool/tencel yarn blends, etc. I am all set for the weekend.

Remember these amazingly beautiful Sterling Silver DPN’s that I gave you a peak at on Monday? They’re all gone. I didn’t even save a set out for myself. However - the good news is that I’ve placed another order with wonderful Molly and we’ll get them back in. The other good news - she will make them in 1’s for us! Since this is the size that I use the most, I am buying myself a set of those the minute the postman brings them to my door. If you would like a notice by email when I put the next batch up on the website, please email me and ask to be put on that list. If you already know you want me to set aside a set for you, let me know what size (0,1,2) and I’ll pull your order before listing them on the website. Molly told me that the cost of silver has gone up since I ordered these in August, so I’m not sure what the final price will work up to be. I’ll keep you posted.

No Sweet Georgia, Yarn Pirate, or All Things Heather yet. Maybe next week. Watch the blog for updates!
Sheri workingonmysocksforSockWarsthisweekendareyouparticipatinginthat?

Well apparently I have been overlooking a few items in the freezer. Whatever. I was packing up some orders in The Loopy Room and wandered into the kitchen to find THIS. “What in the world…?” I said to Wonder Husband. He said, “I’m doing an intervention. The freezer is out of control. Which of these things should stay, and which should go?” Oh for pete’s sake. Was I in the mood to be cleaning out the freezer? I think not. (Which might explain how it got that way in the first place.) So, a few of the things we found:

3 unopened bags of sliced almonds, and 3 half-used bags of sliced almonds
2 bags of chocolate chips and 1 bag of mint chocolate chips.
1 baggie of 25 single chocolate chips.
2 half-used bags of hash browns.
3 packs of waffles
1 Hefenkranz (oooh - that was a fun find! A sweet German bread that my grandmother used to make.)
About 25 bags of veggies (in a variety of unopeneds, half-useds, and 2/3’s used)
Hamburgers (a box, a bag, and a pound)
Chicken breasts and grilled chicken strips
4 bags of shredded cheese (2 unopened and 2 half-used)
And maybe a few other things tons more, too numerous to mention.

Wonder Husband pointed out that this was probably a few hundred dollars worth of food, wasted. My immediate (and unspoken - I’m no idiot) thought was, “Think of all the yarn I could’ve bought with that.”

The freezer is now clean and ready to be filled again for another four years. Cool. (no pun intended)

Sheri pleasetellmethatI’mnottheonlyonewithfreezerissues