Three things that I didn’t do enough of this week:

1. Knitting (but I tried). Here is my Meida Sock from Favorite Socks. I used the Louet Gems Sport Sage on a #1 needle, and added two lace repeats on the cuff to make it a bit taller. This was a very easy pattern to knit and memorize and I do love how it turned out. I started another that I will work on this weekend (another, meaning another yarn – of course not the twin to Meida) and I already have my next TWO socks yarns picked out. One is another brand new indie-dyer that I’m really excited about, and the other is Scarlet Fleece in Red Velvet Waters. But – I didn’t do enough knitting this week.
2. Movie watching (but I tried). We did watch some fun ones, and regardless of the number of Loopy orders waiting to be packed up, we quit packing in time to watch at least one movie a night. Sometimes late. But – we didn’t do enough movie watching this week.
3. Shopping (but I tried). Knitting Daughter and I only went shopping one day, but we had a good time. We added lunch into the mix and that was fun. She has put in a lot of hours packing Loopy orders after the shop update on Wednesday night. I was so glad for the help! But – we didn’t do enough shopping this week.

Three things that made me smile this week:

1. This package of chocolate arrived from Loopy Friend Josiane in Switzerland. Can you believe it? Totally out of the blue, someone sends me chocolate in the mail. It arrived yesterday which was perfect timing. We had several (ahem) chocolate breaks in our day yesterday. The hazelnut was my favorite.
2. Watching the mailman pick up your orders today from the front porch. (Pssst – we beat the record again. Cool!)
3. College Boy is coming home tonight and staying for 10 whole days. We can’t wait!! He hasn’t been home since the end of January – two long months. That means next week is “Spring Break” again – WOOT!

Three things that I need to do:

1. Update the Loopy Groupie list and welcome all of the new people in a blog entry. There have been SO many of you since I last blogged a Loopy Welcome last month. I haven’t forgotten about you, you know!
2. Finish answering all of my emails. There are …. a lot …. waiting to be answered. If you’re one of them, I’m working on it today and tomorrow – I promise!
3. Go grocery shopping. How can you have a hungry college student come home without plenty of food in the house? Impossible. I need to go this afternoon.

This recipe comes from my dad’s mom and is a family favorite. Why would you make your own sauce when you can buy it by the jar? Because it smells heavenly while it cooks, it makes a bunch and freezes well, and it’s better for you. I hope you try it and like it!

Grandma’s Spaghetti and Meatballs

1 large can of tomato juice
1 large can of tomatoes
1 large can tomato paste
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick of margarine
2 Tbl. chili powder
4 Tbl. flour
1 Tbl. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
4 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Combine in large pan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn to low heat and simmer for 3 hours. Keep a constant watch so sauce doesn’t stick to bottom. (Or – put it in a crockpot for the day.) Add meatballs (uncooked) to the mix for the last 2 hours.

Meatballs:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
salt and pepper

Mix well and form into small meatballs.

Three yarns that will be in the next shop update (maybe next week, if we can get them photo-ed … or the week after)

1. Fleece Artist (big huge boxes and boxes of it)
2. Cider Moon Glacier (I snuck up a few repeat colors this week, but there are about 15 more new colors to go up)
3. Regia Silk and Bamboo (in new colors)

(plus J-Knits, more Yarn Pirate … and possibly more. The yarn arrives almost as fast as it leaves!)

So – what three things do you want to tell me today?

Sheri don’tforgetyourFranksandMarthasaredueupinthegallerythisweekend!

Spring Break Week – and it looks like spring outside. Aren’t these blooming Bradford Pear Trees pretty? Thanks to all of you who have given such great movie recommendations. You ought to see my long list! I started it on a post-it. I should’ve known better. We will be watching movies for a LONG time, thanks to your great suggestions! It has been fun and productive. I’m almost done with one Louet Gems Sport sock – called Meida’s Socks from Favorite Socks. I like it a lot. It’s an interesting “sport” weight. (Is it just me, or do those terms get thrown around willy-nilly with very little meaning any more? I have Sport Weight that seems like Fingering Weight, and DK Weight that seems like Sport Weight, and I’m giving up on all of the labels.) I just have to decrease down the toe and then I’ll put up a picture of it on Friday. Very easy pattern. Next, I’m starting a sock in yarn from one of our new indie-dyers and the colorway has such pretty spring colors in it. I can’t wait for her line to come in so that I can share it with you!

Speaking of knitting – remember how much I love the Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace? Dr. Jackie (frequent blog commenter, frequent in-person Loopy Room visitor) sent me these great links for patterns with Crystal Palace. Since I’m knitting more of this great yarn up, I printed these out. I like them. Thanks, Jackie!

http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/panda-cott-earlyspring-sock.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/panda-cotton-hedera-sock.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/Sock_Index.html

I’ve been wanting to knit the Strawberry Lime for the socks, and the solid Lime for the toes, heel and cuff. Wouldn’t that be a fun sock? That’s on my list. Also on my list – Scarlet Fleece socks. Loopy friend Bev came to shop in person yesterday and brought her Scarlet Fleece in progress. Now I know why all of you keep telling me you LOVE this yarn. It knits up beautifully. So – that’s on my list, too. I need more knitting time.

Knitting Daughter and Susan and I have all of the orders out for today, so now we’re taking off for lunch and a little credit card exercising. Zoe is holding down the fort for us at The Loopy Ewe. She does a very thorough job of it. Tonight ….. well. Tonight you might want to check the website. There might be Yarn Pirate, Scarlet Fleece, new Interlacement colors, and new Schaefer Anne and Lola colors going up. There just might be. This is just about 1/3 of our Yarn Pirate order, so more will arrive in the next two weeks as well. Actually – there is always yarn arriving from all of our great indie-dyers. You can just count on constant orders being in with all of them. We love them here.

Don’t forget to post your Frank/Martha sock pictures! Our Loopy Q1 Challenge ends this week and I’ll announce the Loopy Q2 Challenge next week.

Sheri stoppingbythevideostorewhilewe’reouttogetsomeofyourgreatmoviesuggestions

It was very fun reading all of your “reasons we love sock knitting” for last week’s contest! (And over 200 entries – that was great!) I kept thinking that all of the non-sock knitters out there ought to read through the list. They’d be convinced in no time, wouldn’t they? So, using the random number generator, the winner of this month’s Loopy Loot contest is: Kelli. Kelli, email me your address and I’ll pop the Loopy Loot in the mail to you!

Since it is Spring Break for Knitting Daughter, I thought I’d share the things that we have on our list to do this week. Do YOU have any fun plans for Spring Break? Anything that I left off my list that I need to add to it? Because College Boy comes home on Friday for his Spring Break next week, so I’ll need a whole new list for that!

1. Shopping. We all know that I need to get out and exercise my poor credit card a bit more, and there are all kinds of fun spring things that need to be bought up, aren’t there? Like these cute flowers for my garden window in the kitchen. I kinda decided on a teal blue and red theme in there for the next couple of months. Fortunately, Knitting Daughter reaches her shopping patience rather quickly, so I can’t exercise the card TOO much.
2. Stocking inventory. Boxes, boxes, boxes are coming in and we’re unloading them as fast as we can. Today, more Scarlet Fleece, more Schaefer Anne and Lola, and a few things that we’re not quite ready to debut yet. (WOOT! Don’t you want to know? Soon.) On the way to The Loopy Ewe later this week, more Yarn Pirate, more Cider Moon, more J-Knits, and more other wonderful things. I need to buy some more shelves for The Loopy Room. That needs to go on my shopping list this week.

3. Walking. Knitting Daughter and I are going to get back to our walking routine, which I just love. (Do you know how much kids talk when they walk? It’s wonderful.)

4. Knitting. Did I mention that I had to upgrade from the 3-tier basket to this 5-tier basket? I just figured that I’d use the 3-tier in The Loopy Room for something. And, just for the record, I did do that. For a brief time. But now …. well, the 3-tier basket is full of yarn, too. I have my sock yarn stash in this 5-tier, and my lace and other yarn stash in the 3-tier. Anyone want to place bets on how soon I’ll “need” another 5-tier? OH, I hope I get lots of knitting time in this week.

5. Cooking and baking. My motivation is needing good treats for College Boy when he arrives this weekend. He’s fun to cook for. Do you feel like it shows love to your family when you make special dishes for them? I think I get that from my grandma. She was always trying to get us to eat more when we had meals over there. And now, my mom is making dinners for us on Monday nights because Mondays are always WAY busy here at The Loopy Room. She must get that from her mother (my grandma). We sure LOVE it. Isn’t she wonderful?

6. Movies. Knitting Daughter and I love to watch movies and knit. It’s kind of our thing. We have a stack of movies to watch, but also are in need of more good suggestions. Anyone have any ideas? Because truthfully, we’ve already seen most of these. We might need to get hooked on another good tv/dvd series as those seem to last a long time. So far, Gilmore Girls and 24 have been our favorite tv series on dvd.

7. Planting. ugh. I don’t like gardening. Not a bit. I love the look of flowers popping up in my yard, and I love having flowers cut in a vase, but I don’t like the work to get them going. However, I do need to at least get some good flowers going in the pots on the front porch. Last spring we were so busy building The Loopy Ewe, that we never did plant things in those planters.

8. Felting. Have you been over to Woolpets to find these wonderful felting kits from the very talented Laurie? Now, I have never needle-felted before, but I have been assured that it’s easy peasy. So I have four kits that KD and I will attempt to make this week. You’re probably thinking that a smart person would buy one and see if they liked needle felting and could actually make something recognizable before splurging on … ahem …. several. You’re probably right. I’ll keep you posted on our success.

9. Hanging out with the mum-in-law. We love having Wonder Husband’s mom come to visit and can’t wait for her to arrive later this week. She’s an incredibly easy “guest” to have around and we always want her to stay much longer than she does. Boy, did I luck out in the mother-in-law department.

10. Starbucks. That pretty much goes without saying. With KD home, she can bop down there and get coffee for us with her wonderful discount and that’s hard to turn down. I’m trying to avoid the Caramel Frappuchinos. Do you know how many calories are in there?? (And the “lite” version is just not good. The best part is the whipped cream with the caramel drizzle on top.) So, I try to limit those to once a month. But we will enjoy Peppermint Mochas and Vanilla Lattes and Cinnamon Dolces all week.

So – did you already have Spring Break? And for those of you without kids, don’t you think you still need to celebrate a Spring Break week? I think you deserve it. What things will you do?

Sheri stillworkingongettingmostofthesenewyarnsupforyoulaterintheweek

I think we have officially turned the corner into Spring around here. The flowers are coming up, the weather is warm, and the humidity is rising. That’s the one thing I don’t like about St. Louis – the humidity. (How do you Floridians survive that?) I managed to escape the Loopy Room for a few hours this afternoon, to do some errands and shopping. And you know, when I say “escape”, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, being in the Loopy Room. In fact, it’s a pretty fun place with all kinds of colors and inspiration going on in there. Makes me want to knit all the time! But it’s also good to leave the house once in awhile. Last month, I went shopping one afternoon and when I went to make a credit card purchase, the clerk had to call in for approval on my credit card. The same thing happened at the next store I went to. So when I got home, I called my credit card company. They said, “Well, we see that you mostly use this card for online purchases and it’s atypical for you to use it in person – so it flagged your account and we just wanted to verify that it was you using the card.” That told me that I don’t get out enough. Jeez. So I must remedy that!

Remember that blue and brown log cabin quilt I started knitting last fall? I have decided that I really don’t like knitting long rows of garter stitch. I’m going to have to get through it somehow because I do still like the look, but I am not working on it because it’s boring. Maybe I just need to make myself do a strip a week or something. I still do love the blue/brown color combination. Isn’t this a pretty mug? It’s going to be my new coffee mug for spring. How many coffee mugs do you own? Because there is no earthly reason to bring another coffee mug into THIS house. The cupboard is absolutely overflowing with too many mugs. That’s why I felt that I needed to buy another one today.

Here’s a good recipe to make for your family some weekend. We had this delicious French Toast at my Girls Weekend a few weeks ago, and we all decided that our families needed to try it out. YUM!

French Toast Bake

1 stick butter
5 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1 ½ c. milk
2 T. dark corn syrup
2 t. vanilla
1 loaf of French bread, cut into slices
pinch of nutmeg

Cook butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup until sugar is dissolved; pour into a 13”x 9” pan. In a bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla and nutmeg; pour over bread slices. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Optional: top individual servings with berries (blackberries are really good).

This weekend I’m working on my Louet Sportweight Sage Meida Socks from Favorite Socks. I also have some fun new yarns coming into the shop that I need to be working up. (”Need” to be working up. That makes it all sound official, doesn’t it? Like it’s really “work” instead of “fun”? Because there might be laundry that needs to be done this weekend, and giving the dog a bath, and other such nonsense. I cannot be bothered by those things if I’m “working”, right? Just checking.) Knitting Daughter is on Spring Break next week, so I foresee more fun knitting time in my future. Hmmm – I may just have to hold off on a shop update until the end of the week, in order to make full use of knitting time with KD!

Have a great weekend. Anyone doing anything fun?

Sheri thelilactreesarebeginningtoshowbuds-thosearemyfavorites!

Isn’t this a beautiful skein of handspun? My friend Georgia (Yarn Pirate) sent this to me for my birthday last month and I just love it! Beautiful shades of purple and violet and pink, wonderful to the touch, and I can’t wait to knit it up. But what should I make with it? Any fun “one skein” ideas that come to mind? I have no idea what the yardage is. (Georgia – what is the yardage?) I just know it’s beautiful. So – I’m taking suggestions. A scarf would be pretty, but that seems too obvious, doesn’t it? I’d like to be a bit more creative than that. Who has one of those one skein books and can find something fun for me to make? (Hmm – maybe fingerless mitts? I love fingerless mitts……) It really is wonderful to have a hand-dyer/spinner for a friend!
I also received this in the mail this week. Remember Em – the bunny that I bought from Julie a month or two ago? Now I have Lola the bear with the heart on her sweater. These little knitted cuties are just so fun. I’m afraid that I am a bit addicted to them, so it’s a good thing Julie doesn’t put them up all that often. (She’s too busy knitting more.) I do know that some of you scored some of her other ones in this same update, because I saw your names in the comments, claiming them. Good job! Now I have one more that I want to add to the bunch, and I’m hoping to get that one the next time. I’m not sure how she parts with them after she finishes them.

Do you handwash your handknit socks, or do you throw them in the machine? (If you throw them in the machine – have you seen our Sock Sacks?) I handwash all of mine. It has never been that big of a deal to quickly wash them out and then plop them on the mesh drying rack in the bathroom. However, I do get tired of having that rack up all the time. So, I found this and ordered it. I am going to be so happy to retire the other contraption! I’m thinking I may line it with mesh, so that I can lay the socks flat rather than draping them. But I roll them up in a towel and get most of the water out of them anyway, so it’s probably not a big deal to flip them over the rung. At any rate, I think this was someone’s really good idea for a drying rack.

I updated the shop today – and sooo many of you were right there on top of it immediately. I’m impressed! I put Zen String up, as well as re-stocked Cherry Tree Hill, added Interlacements Tiny Toes back in (although we did receive 6 new colors that have to be photo-ed and will go up next week), re-stocked all of our StitchKeepers, re-stocked the Loopy Knit Notes which were sold out, added all of the rest of the Louet Gems fingering weight solids that had been on backorder, and re-stocked the Romney Ridge sheep notecards that I love. Next week – Yarn Pirate and new Schaefer Anne and Lola colors! This colorway is Zen String’s “Bart & Louise in the Garden”, which is one of our exclusive colorways from them. (Who are Bart & Louise? Black Bart is Loopy’s trouble-making brother, and Louise is Loopy’s sweet sister.) This sold out in about 2 seconds this time, but we will be getting more. I didn’t even get a skein for myself. (Angelina? We need LOTS more.) Just thought you’d like to see it. I love the colors. I had someone suggest that we leave up some of the colors that sell out fast, just so others can see them. I like that idea. We’ll work it into a future site update. I know things come and go quickly around here, but remember there is always more more more on order!

Tonight is Lost and I haven’t watched last week’s episode yet. It sounds like it’s getting good. (What do you mean Claire and Jack have the same father??) If I watch it tonight, it would mean mid-week knitting time. I think I ought to.

Sheri itis81degreesheretodaywhatisupwiththat?

I’m smitten. I absolutely love this new (to us) Louet Gems line. Here is my Grape sock, finished up yesterday. It’s the Waving Lace Socks pattern from Favorite Socks. It was very easy to knit and I love how it turned out. It has a long cuff and I have long feet (size 11) and you can see in the photo the amount of yarn I had left over from 1 skein. (I followed the pattern exactly, and knit with #1’s.) Good to know that I can get by with 2 skeins for these socks. They are so comfortable to wear, too. You’d think that since I like them so much, and the color is one that I have not knit before, and they were easy to do, that I’d jump right in and make the twin, right? (Those of you who know me, know what’s coming…..) Of course I started another design last night. Well, I wanted to try the Louet Sportweight (which really is a delightful sportweight – not very heavy. I’m still using a size 1 needle to knit it.) Now I’m trying out the Meida’s Socks with Sage. This pattern is really fun to knit, too. And then after this one, I think I will have to try…

A Cookie A design! Because her designs are absolutely over-the-top amazing, and we just added all of them to our pattern section at The Loopy Ewe. This is a new venture for Cookie (selling her patterns – not designing them) and we are her first wholesaler. My only problem will be deciding which one to start with. They’re all incredible. They all call for Louet Gems, too – so it’s a good thing we have the entire color line. (Ahem. It’s a good thing we have the entire color line ordered. Still waiting on the other half of the colors, but they have shipped so we expect them any day and will get them up immediately. This is one of our “big lines”, so barring any unforeseen problems, expect us to have it in most all of the time.)

I also like yarns that are semi-solid – meaning that the color intensity/shade varies throughout. You’ll see this in many of the wonderful J-Knits yarns, as well as All Things Heather, Apple Laine, and Claudia Handpainted. We’re also getting a great new line of semi-solids from sKNITches next month. I have a sample skein and it’s beautiful. You’re going to love it. So for those of you who are finding fun lace patterns to knit up and you want the stitches to pop, try some of these different solids.

Of course that got me thinking. Why do I love knitting socks? Well – there are lots of reasons. They’re portable, they don’t take a whole lot of yarn, they can be as challenging or as simple as I want them to be, they’re relatively quick to finish, etc. But one of the biggest reasons for me is that it allows me to try all different kinds of techniques and patterns without having to commit to a whole sweater of it. It is a great way to experiment and learn. That brings me to this month’s contest. Leave a comment and answer this question: What do YOU like about knitting socks? I will do a drawing next Monday to see who wins this month’s fun “Loopy Loot” package – so get your comments in!

I did a little re-stocking today – more Wildhorse Farm patterns, more Zephyr stitchmarkers, and more Loopy Totes. Of course there is always more, more, more in the works!

Sheri loveseeingallofyourFrankandMarthasocksphotoscomingin!