Check these out. These arrived in the mail for me from a really sweet person that I have never even met. Is that cool, or what? Abigail sent these as a thank you to me for a couple of favors that I had done for her in the past (which were really nothing. Certainly not worth a whole pair of socks! But I’m not giving them back.) I love these and they fit me like a glove. I’m still trying to figure out how she knew my shoe size. These are knit with Scottish Highlands from Socks That Rock. I only have 2 pairs of socks knit for me by someone else, so I will absolutely treasure these. Abigail, you are awesome!

Did you see the new colors of Lorna’s Laces that I put up on the website? They’re gorgeous! I have also added several colors of Fleece Artist (but waiting on about 15 more colors to arrive in the second and third boxes of the shipment. I think they’re on their way to Montana. Hopefully they’ll find their way back to Missouri soon.) Next week, I’ll be adding more Yarn Pirate, including another exclusive Loopy Ewe colorway that is bound to be my favorite. Here is a hint: remember when I talked about how much I love the Vera Bradley Java Blue fabric? Stay tuned.

It’s Friday – time for a recipe. These Cornbread Rolls have been a family favorite for several years. I love them because I can pop them in the bread machine – but they’re also easy to make without the machine.

Cornbread Rolls

1 beaten egg plus water to = 1 cup
1/3 cup honey
3 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 Tbs. dry milk
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. butter
1 pck. yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

Put ingredients into breadmaker in order given. Let it cycle through the first rise cycle. Remove dough and form into 16 rolls. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. (Can also be made as bread in the breadmaker.)

Coming up on Monday – the December Blog contest. Check back!

I’m working on some Christmas gifts this weekend. Must finish the cashmere socks and the mittens in Lorna’s Laces. Or maybe I’ll have to start some new socks. There is yarn calling to me from the stash. In the meantime, I’m off for one of these. It’s probably not a good thing when the regular workers at Starbucks have your coffee going (in the size you like, and the flavor you like, with your name on the cup) by the time you walk from the front door to the counter. Probably not a good thing at all.

Sheri somethingreallymustbedone
aboutthisGrandePeppermintMochahabitofmine

You’ll be glad to know that some of your family members have already been shopping for you at The Loopy Ewe! Some of you will be very, very happy knitters. Others of you may have family members who have not gotten the hint, yet. I thought maybe a top ten list would get them thinking in the right direction. We knitters have to look out for one another. So here are some suggestions that you can make to your loved ones:

1. A housecleaner. Seriously. Think of the time you can save by getting a housecleaner to take care of your house. Personally, I want an Alice at my house. I’m wondering what Mrs. Brady did with her time? Alice took care of the cleaning, the laundry, the cooking, the grocery shopping, the meat ordering from Sam the Butcher, and much much more. I think Mrs. Brady spent her time knitting for all of those kids. A housecleaner would save you hours per week to dedicate to your knitting.

2. A Zelda bag. I’m completely hooked on my Zelda – and so are those of you who have ordered them. (In fact, some of you have been back to order more already!) I keep calling Offhand Designs to order more and the lovely gals over there are happy to send them. The latest batch included this Posey, which got me to thinking that I NEED seasonal Zeldas. This Posey would be great for summer around here. It’s on my list.

3. A full-time cook. Ok, if we can’t have Alice, how about that guy who ambushes people in the grocery store and then comes home and makes dinner for them? (What is his name?) I’d like one of those. I’ll be in my knitting spot, enjoying the wonderful smells coming from my kitchen.

4. Special knitting needles. Isn’t it fun to have really special knitting needles in the sizes you use most? These Colonial Rosewoods are beautiful and so wonderful to knit with. We have them in sizes 0 – 3 in the 5.5 ” length. We also have Ebony and Rosewood Lantern Moon needles arriving any day, for those of you who like the 7″ length. I seem to lose needles all the time – but I never lose the expensive ones. (Which leads one to deduce that I’m careless with the lesser-expensive ones, but I’m sure that’s not it.)

5. Starbucks gift cards. Is it just me, or is it especially great to be sitting and knitting with a Peppermint Mocha right next to you? My friend Cindy gave me these last night and it is my favorite gift of the season, so far. In fact, I went and ordered a VENTI Peppermint Mocha this morning instead of a Grande. Living big, here.

6. Sock Yarn Buffet. (You know how I dislike the term “stash” and much prefer Personal Sock Yarn Buffet.) You need lots of choices when it is time to pick yarn for the next sock project. Why not make a list of all the wonderful yarns we have at The Loopy Ewe that you have not yet tried? I decided the other night (as I was winding up yet more sock yarn for my own stash) that I’m just going to add to that stash buffet whenever I find something I like. a) I may never find it again, and b) it’s my hobby. And my hobby is a lot less expensive than the golfing, fishing, hunting, woodworking, boating hobbies that my husband spends money on. (Ok – that’s not true. Wonder Husband doesn’t do ALL of those things. But I bet some of your own wonder husbands do!) So ordering up a Sock Yarn Buffet for your holiday gift seems like a sensible thing to do.

7. Knitting books. Ohhh, so many great choices there. See my “Great Knitting Books” section on the right side of this blog.

8. The Zelda Traveler’s Clutch. Of course I think you need the bag AND the clutch. But if you’re looking for a nice gift for around $50 ($52, exactly) then this one is just great. I couldn’t even fill up all the pockets. There are pockets for short and long DPN’s, for your circulars, and for all of your accessories. Plus, it looks so classy, doesn’t it? We all ought to be carrying around and using classy knitting bags and accessories like these.

9. A knitting retreat. Doesn’t it sound fun to take a whole weekend away just to knit? If you can’t find an official knitting retreat, make your own. Call your best knitting friend and hightail it to a nice B&B for a weekend of movies, eating out, and knitting. (Well, yes. That does sound like it might get pricey. But really fun, right?)

10. A Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate. This fits all tastes and budgets and makes everyone happy, happy, happy. We have more fun stuff arriving in January – just in time to cash in your gift certificate.

Favorite snowman of the day. I found this at Gordmans last year and now I wish I had bought more. I leave it out all year long, because it’s always time for snowmen who knit.

Sheri wishingthatallofthepeople Iwasbuyingforthisseasonwereknitters asit’dbesomucheasier

First the knitting. With all of the snow and cold, hat/scarf/mitten knitting seemed like the right thing to do. I have been wanting to try out this pattern since it came in. The mittens are being modeled by Knitting Daughter. Done with a double strand of Claudia Hand Painted Sport in Chocolate Cherry (1 1/2 skeins, knit as directed), these are by far the most comfortable mittens I have ever worn. They are wonderfully fitted – no baggy, boxy shape. I love these so much that I’m in the middle of another pair that I’m giving as a Christmas gift. The double strand makes these especially warm and impervious to the bad weather (but since it’s a sport weight, not so thick that you can’t move your hands.) I quickly decided that this will forever be my favorite basic mitten pattern.

I also knit up this child’s hat pattern (by the same pattern designer, so I know that the mittens included in that pattern will be as fitted and comfortable as the lady’s size in the ones above. And I know that the lady’s hat in the pattern above will be just as wonderful as the kid’s hat in this pattern.) Since I don’t have a little one around to model the kid’s hat, I made Casey do the honors. (Oh, can you see how excited she was to be wearing a hat and scarf for me? Just thrilled.) I knit this with two strands of Claudia Hand Painted Fingering Weight in Carousel. I love the way the colors play together! I used two skeins, and had enough left over for this short scarf. This hat knits up so quickly, so if you have little ones in your life, it’d be a fun, quick gift. But put a toy in there, too. At that age, they don’t want hats and mittens to be “THE” gift from you, no matter how cute they look in your hand-knitted items.

On Saturday, Knitting Daughter and I taught Friend Susan and her Knitting Daughter how to knit! They are starting with scarves. Susan picked a skein of Opal (she liked the self-striping pattern for her scarf) and Carly picked Schaefer Lola in Raspberry Chill. They did great and I predict that we just added two more knitters to Knitting Universe. Both of them want to learn to knit socks next – which is a very good thing.

Also on the knitting front, our latest Sweet Georgia order has arrived! I just can’t seem to get enough of this stuff. I love the colors and I love the yarn base that she uses. We have 6 new colors of Speed Demon (in the sport weight) and 14 new colors of the Superwash Sock (in the fingering weight). Some of you quickly discovered it on the website Saturday night and have packages winging their way to you today!

For your knitting corner/nook/room – don’t we all need one of these? Don’t forget to be sending in your photos of “Sock in Trees and Socks on Rocks”, as well as your favorite knitting corner or knitting room or knitting storage system ideas for the photo galleries we are working on this month. I love what you have sent in so far.

On the decorating front – yes, I managed to get decorations up and threw the pumpkins away off the front porch. That’s snow covering the top of them. That ought to tell you right there that I was about a month late in throwing them away. This is what my kitchen window now looks like. I pick up a few more of these little people every year. I’m hoping that Zoe will not discover how fun they are to knock down. (Not that she’s supposed to ever be up on the kitchen counters to discover them anyway.) You can see just a peek of Melvin the Muffin Man on the right side. More on him – and my other favorite elves – later.

This Snowman Collection started on one shelf in the kitchen window. You can see that I outgrew that, and have almost outgrown this spot as well. (I refuse to outgrow this. There is simply nowhere else to go with them.) I leave the snowmen up until around Valentine’s Day, so even though it takes a long time to put up, at least it stays there for a bit. I’ll have to take some closeups of some of my favorites to share in future blogs this month. Meanwhile, I leave you with this important sign. It illustrates just one of the many hazards of having so many snowmen around the house.

Sheri sotellmeaboutyourholidaycollections!

I’m having a hard time thinking that Christmas is just around the corner. Anyone else? It’s SO time to decorate. Zoe thinks that the fall decorations are much more fun to play with. (But wait – she hasn’t see the cute Elves Themselves, yet! She’ll love those.) So I’m dragging out the boxes this weekend and I’m stating it in the blog because then I’ll feel obligated to post a picture on Monday to prove that I did it. There’s nothing quite like making your goals known…

Looking forward to seeing your Socks in Trees photos! I also had someone email and say “I don’t have trees. Can I do Socks on Rocks?” The answer is yes – we’ll do a Socks in Trees/Socks on Rocks Photo Gallery – I like it! (Remember – this is photos of any socks that you have knit up from sock yarn you purchased here at The Loopy Ewe. In the email with your photos, please tell me what yarns you have used for each pair of socks you have featured. Also let us know if you want your first and/or last name featured with your photo.) Another photo gallery that I am going to do (because Isobel sent me photos of her knitting room and I loved it) – let’s do a Knitting Nooks Photo Gallery! So, you send me photos of your knitting corner (or knitting room, if you’re lucky enough to have a whole room) and we’ll make a gallery of that, too. I always love seeing other peoples’ knitting spaces. We’ll work on the Galleries (Ok – Web Guy will work on them) over the holidays and we’ll start putting them up in January. I had another fun idea, too. Anyone who contributes will receive one fun “We Love You at The Loopy Ewe” Red Sock Award for each category they contribute to. So you can earn one for contributing one or more photos to Socks in Trees, or you can earn a pair for contributing photos to Socks in Trees plus photos to Knitting Nooks. I know you’ll want a pair, as they’d be fun to put up in your knitting corner, or on a bulletin board, or … anywhere for a knitterly type of decoration. (People need to know you knit socks. They just do.) Should I show a picture of it, or is it more fun to be surprised? They’re cute! I’ll keep track of when you send your first contributions in to either category and earn your award. You can start sending photos now. We’re working on getting the awards all made up, so they will start going out with January orders (or mailed). Isobel – you’ve already earned your pair – but do feel free to send more photos any time. Sharon – you’re earned your Socks one!

Field Trip Day was fun! First, Dawn and her daughter Emily stopped in to shop. They had driven in from Springfield, MO (which is about 2 1/2 hours away). I know the first priority was to visit The Loopy Room, and the second was an appt. that they had in St. Louis. Emily had fun playing with Zoe (and entertaining me with her dramatic recitations) while Dawn had fun picking out yarn. Then an hour later, this fun knitting group (Judy, Barb, Bev and Jerri) showed up from Illinois! They were a hoot – made me wish I lived close enough to be in their knitting group (although they assured me that I could drive the 1+ hours to get there.) As you can see, they had fun adding to their knitting stash. Shopping is so much more fun when you have friends egging you on who can ooh and aah over your choices. I see beautiful socks in their future (and another Field Trip to The Loopy Room, too).

Today’s recipe is something that I once had at an airport restaurant and then came home and threw together for us. I love it because you can make all of the parts up ahead of time, and then just toss and serve when you’re ready. Our family loves it and it’s just as good the next day.

Pasta Poppyseed Salad

Pasta (I use bow tie and cork screw – about 1/2 box of each)
Fresh Broccoli (2 bunches)
Chicken Breasts (5 or 6, cooked and cubed)
Dried Cherries (can also use cranberries, but the sweetness of the cherries is better)
Whole almonds
Poppyseed Dressing (I use Marzetti’s Poppyseed Dressing)

Mix well and that’s it! (Note – I’m not big on amounts. I just keep tossing things in until it looks like I want it to look.)

You all keep snapping up these wonderful Zelda bags and I don’t blame you one bit. It’s hands-down my favorite bag for socks. Just wanted to let you know that I have added more Rainbow Stripe and some Marrakesh, with a few more coming in soon. The Traveler’s Clutch is also fun fun fun for all of your needles/scissors/knitting accessories, so get one to match! I also received a big order from Cherry Tree Hill yesterday, so we’re re-stocked on several colors we were out of.

Guess what today is? SNOW DAY!!! It “iced” all day yesterday and into the evening, and then snowed last night. So we have a lovely layer of ice under all this (and the trees are creaking. It’s weird.) Knitting Daughter and I are having a knitting day. Might need to head to Starbucks for a Peppermint Mocha, first. It’s much too treacherous to get kids to school (thus all the schools around here are closed) but of course it’s never too treacherous to get to Starbucks. Know what I mean?

Sheri lovelovelovethesnowandcold!