You know my Sunday knitting plans included finishing up my Yarn Love sock and casting on with Duets. That was the plan. But something arrived on Friday afternoon that changed my plan. A couple of big boxes from Claudia Hand Painted that contained our exclusive new Claudia colorway - Peppermint Mocha. Of course I felt the need to cast on immediately, to “see how it knits up”. I love it! I almost did the toe and then cast on the second sock toe - just to go back to my old way of knitting where I did two socks at the same time. But then I remembered all of the other new yarns that we have coming in that I need to knit up, and, well…… I just kept going on this one. What do you think about our new colorway?

I did manage to finish up my Yarn Love sock (in the Romance colorway) over the weekend as well. I like this yarn base and had fun watching the colors weave themselves in and out. There are some beautiful colorways in the batch that we’ll be putting up this week. I might need to take a couple more out for my own stash before putting them up. Knitting time was good this weekend. Poor WH asked Knitting Daughter and I to go to the Botanical Gardens yesterday because it was such a nice day. KD looked at him perplexed and said, “But it’s our knitting day!” Needless to say, we stayed home to knit.

Updated list for the Sneak Up this week: Yarn Love, Chewy Spaghetti, Lorna’s Laces Sport, Scarlet Fleece, and Apple Laine. (Yes, we’re excited to have more Apple Laine in-house!) Next week’s tentative list: Yarn Pirate, all of the lace yarns, and anything else that comes in, because we’re expecting lots. Speaking of lace, I’m so glad that all of you approve of that addition to The Loopy Ewe! Really, it has been hard not spilling the beans on it, so I’m glad the secret is out. Even though we have several lines going up next week, we have more on order and will continue to add to what we carry in lace.

There is a bit of site maintenance that will take place tomorrow morning, so the website will be down temporarily for a few hours. (Had to schedule it on a “light day of classes” for Web Guy who is also known as College Boy, so that he can be available to do it and then tweak as necessary.) Just wanted to let you know ahead of time that it is a planned event and it will be back up by Tuesday afternoon. Also, for all of you who are in our Sock Club, watch for your email notice this weekend, giving you details on payment for the first shipment. Those are scheduled to go out the first or second week of May and we can’t wait!

Sheri Ihaveaplanformytwinlesssocks-I’lltellyouaboutitonWednesdayDoyouhavetwinlesssocks?

We have been busy around here the past couple of months, secretly collecting the most beautiful lace yarns that we could find. Solids, variegateds, silk, cashmere, merino - you name it, we have found it. We were going to wait until it ALL came in to tell you about it, but we’re simply bursting at the seams with wonderful lace yarn and we wanted you to know about it now! We’re targeting the week after next to put it all up on the website. In the meantime, I thought you might want to start planning some of your next lace projects and these teaser pictures might help.

We will be stocking all of the colors of Rowan KidSilk Haze (half are in-house already, the other ones on backorder and hopefully coming soon), many many colors of Cashwool by Baruffa (simply the softest solid-colored extra-fine merino I have ever held), Helen’s Lace by Lorna’s Laces in 10 gorgeous colors, 2-ply cashmere by Hand Maiden (that I am SO making bed socks out of, too), Schaefer Andrea (100% silk, 100% amazing), and Sea Silk by Hand Maiden in limited edition 150g hanks. Plus - we will be adding in even more lace by some of your favorite indie-dyers in the weeks and months to come. It has been fun searching out wonderful lace yarns for you, and hard keeping it a secret! A huge thank you goes out to Wendy, who has acted as my lace consultant on this whole project. You KNOW that she knows lace! So take a look at these photos:

And just so you don’t think we’re moving even a SMIDGEON away from sock yarns (because we aren’t in the least), here is a picture of another indie-dyer that we are delighted to have coming to The Loopy Ewe in June. Angela has created the wonderfully popular Duets Sock Yarn line, where she pairs beautiful colorways with coordinating solids for the toes and heels. I’m hoping to cast on with this one over the weekend. We have lots and lots of Duets on order, just for you.

More yarns doing a Sneak Up next week - Chewy Spaghetti, Scarlet Fleece, Yarn Love, Lorna’s Laces Sport and possibly more. The boxes keep getting bigger as they are delivered here. This week, the UPS guy came and I opened the door just as he was getting back into his truck. There were several boxes on my porch, but one of them was the size of a washing machine. I tried to lift it and it would.not.budge. I yelled out to him, “I can’t lift this!” He said, “Yeah it’s really really heavy - over 120 pounds. Do you want me to put it inside for you?” “Ummm…. yes. I do. Definitely.”

Heading our way: Seacoast, Zen String, sKNITches, Yarn Pirate, Yarntini, Apple Laine, Perchance to Knit and of course new surprises. Keep a watch on our “Coming Soon” section of the homepage for clues on future Sneak Ups.

Sheri wholovesshoppingfornewyarnsforallofus

The wool is flying around here as we attempt to get all of your wonderful orders packed up and on their way to your house! If you’re waiting on an order from our shop update this week (and I think every single one of you must be) then I know you’d rather I spent time getting YOUR order packed up and shipped off instead of writing an interesting blog post today. Right? So that’s what we’ve been doing all day, and that’s what we’ll be doing all night tonight and all day tomorrow. And we’re very very happy to be doing it - we appreciate you and your business!

If you didn’t catch the Sneak Up, we have added Fleece Artist Basic, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Lorna’s Laces (all of the new colors are back in stock, along with lots of your regular favorites), J-Knits, Opal Neon (I am so making socks out of one of these!) and that luscious Cider Moon. We actually have good Sneak Ups scheduled almost every week in the next month or two. Isn’t that something fun to look forward to?

I did think it’d be nice to share some pretty pictures today, since the blog content is severely lacking. Wonder Husband takes great yarn photos for The Loopy Ewe, but he also takes great photos of just about everything else, too. These came from a day at The Missouri Botanical Gardens. That is, before the freeze last weekend that killed all of the flowers off. Makes one feel downright Spring-y, just looking at them. I’ll share more of his photos in future blog posts.

Friday I’m going to blog about some exciting things coming soon to The Loopy Ewe. Check back!

Sheri mightneedapeppermintmochaaroundmidnighttokeepmegoing:-)

Gone: the heads off of the chocolate sheep from yesterday. (Because of course here at The Loopy Ewe we have chocolate sheep, not chocolate bunnies. If there had been bunnies, the ears would be gone.)

Gone: College Boy, heading back up to college in Indiana. We had such a great time with him at home. So sad to have him go back. The good news is that in just a few weeks - ok, 38 days - he will be back for the summer. That makes us happy!

Gone: The pretty flowers that came out in the spring-like weather last week, but froze themselves into oblivion in the 20 degree weather that seemed to come out of nowhere over the weekend. At least I was able to get a few bunches of lilacs before they froze.

But making me feel a lot better (about everything except College Boy):

A sock gift! Sweet Hariamrit submitted her beautiful Miss Match socks to the photo gallery and I thought they were such a fun idea. So I emailed her back and said, “Cute! I need to make some of those.” She responded that she’d love to make them for me if I wanted to send her the yarn. (Seriously - I thought she must be kidding. It still amazes me when people make socks and give them to other people. I know how much work goes into each pair!) So these beauties arrived last week and have already been worn. They’re out of the Louet Sport and I think I need to make most of my winter socks out of sport weight from now on. They are SO warm and comfortable. Isn’t she wonderful for sending me socks?

A new indie dyer! I have a whole wonderful batch of Chewy Spaghetti here in-house. I quickly picked out this pretty spring color and knit up my first sock in the pair. I loved working with it and I love how it turned out. All of our Chewy Spaghetti colors will go up in next week’s shop update and you definitely will want to pick some out for yourself.

This week’s update! Not today - but sometime this week - I’m doing a “Sneak Up”. What is that? It’s when I don’t announce a specific time and date for the shop update (which tends to incite mass hysteria at times) and instead I just sneak up the new yarns. I did do a mini Sneak Up over the weekend. Have you seen the new Regia Silk Colors I added? Check out the current edition of Knitty for a beautiful pattern with the Regia Silk. I also added some fun Regia Stretch colors to our stock. But I digress. Back to this week’s Sneak Up. We have oodles of Fleece Artist in the regular sock base, as well as Fleece Artist in the new Sea Wool sock base. We also have gorgeous colors of Cider Moon going up. I already shared the repeat colors with you the week before last, but saved all of these new colors for this week. Here is a little peak of what will be up at The Loopy Ewe soon. I could only show you a couple of shelves of each….

We also have really cool stuff arriving every week that I have been keeping from you. Can you believe it? I’m waiting for a few more orders to arrive and then I’ll put it all up at once. I can’t wait to share it with you. Fun stuff to look forward to!

We have winners in the first Loopy Ewe Quarterly Challenge! The random “pick a name out of the hat” winner of a $25 Loopy Gift Certificate is: Alison L with her Sock Thief socks. And the winner of the Knitter’s Choice Award (and thanks to SO many of you for voting!) and also receiving a $25 Loopy Gift Certificate is: Alyson W with her “Martha, to me anyway” socks. It was fun seeing all of your submissions for the Loopy Q1 Challenge!

Did anyone knit up anything fun over the weekend? I have a couple more socks almost done that I’ll be sharing soon. Both from NEW lines that we’re adding.

Sheri weatheriswarmagaintodayboyaretheplantsandtreesconfused

Thanks so much for such generous responses to the Q2 Challenge. You all are so wonderful! I can’t wait to see what we come up with and can ship off. I hope it’s a lot for these two great causes. Several of you had some good questions, and although I always answer blog comment questions individually, I thought these were some that everyone might be wondering.

Danee said: “Can we do adult hats for Luba too?” Janice says that yes, adult hats for Luba would be great. There is a group of knitters at her church that make scarves for Luba, but it sounds like there is a need for hats as well as fingerless mitts and mittens.

Tara said: “How do you think Luba’s girls will wash these fingerless gloves? I’ve got some pretty colors in “non-superwash” yarn in my stash. Do you think I should use it or stick to easy care yarn?” I think sticking with easy care yarn is probably best. I’m not sure how frequently/easily they will be washed, so the easier the better.

Kim said: “I thought your quarterly challenge was a great idea, and I was wondering if sock yarn would be okay for the baby hats? I’ve got tons of it, and I would try to use fairly soft stuff (like Lorna’s Laces, Claudia’s, etc.) I have zero experience with babies, so I have no idea if that would work. I’m trying to used the baby hat pattern in the Not Just Socks book.” I think using sock yarn is a great idea because 1) most is easy care, 2) most come in beautiful colors, and 3) most of us have an overabundance a bit of it.

Tracy said: ” I have some ecological wool that I think would knit into very nice Fetching gloves (although…it’s cream…is color an issue?)” It’s probably better to steer a bit clear of whites and creams, only because - as stated above - I’m not sure what the laundry and washing arrangements are for these groups. I have no doubt the cream gloves would be beautiful, though! Meg says that the hats will be washed in hot water in China - so that’s a good thing to keep in mind.

Dynna said: “You mention it doesn’t matter what pattern or what yarn we use. Does that mean we can use yarn we didn’t buy from you? I’m sure we all have yarn from various places and I just want to follow your desire.” Definitely use whatever yarn you already have in your stash. This isn’t a sales drive for The Loopy Ewe by any means! In fact, don’t forget that if you don’t have any yarn in your stash that will work, just let me know the next time you order and I’m happy to donate a skein for you to use and will pop it in your order. I just appreciate that so many of you are willing to donate your time to a good cause.

Darinka sent me a note: “We’re a family formed by adoption (12 years and counting now!) and I have maintained strong ties with the orphanage in China. While the hats are a lovely thought, there is no guarantee that the facility will need them in the smallest sizes provided. Depending on the facility there may be few infants in resident—perhaps mostly toddlers, etc. Also sometimes our thoughtful gifts are made of materials that are difficult for the facility to handle and launder. Unless the specific needs of the orphanage are known I would caution against the hat idea.” I contacted Meg to double check on this and she said, “As far as sizes go, toddler sizes would be loved and used too. Each orphanage is different and has different needs. Although, we don’t know which orphanage our baby will be coming from-I asked our agency if there is a need for hats. They checked with a coordinator in China and reported back that the hats would be used and appreciated.” So yes, hats are needed, and yes you can also make them through toddler sizes.

Please know that if we get more hats/gloves than these particular organizations can use, I will make sure to distribute the rest to very worthy organizations that will be delighted to have them. I just liked the idea of starting with charities where we have a connection of some sort.

And now - another good salad recipe. (I love good salads. Does anyone have good salad recipes that they want to email to me?)

Spring Green Maple Salad

5 oz. (7-8 cups) mixed spring greens
2 apples, cubed (Gala or Granny Smith)
1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
1/2 cup pecan pieces, toasted

Balsamic Maple Vinaigrette
1/4 cup maple syrup (use real maple syrup)
5 Tbl. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

For dressing: Mix together maple syrup, vinegar, mustard and garlic. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toss with greens/apples/cherries and then garnish with pecans.

Finally, look at the beautiful socks that my Sockret Pal Rebecca sent me. She has been such a wonderful Sockret Pal and has truly spoiled me. I love the socks - they fit perfectly and aren’t they beautiful? Thankfully, the weather has turned cold here again and I’m wearing them as often as possible before it gets warm for good and all of my socks hibernate until the Fall. Rebecca - thank you again. It has been so fun “meeting” you!

Sheri
haveyoueverstartreadingblogsatnight&thenallofasuddenrealizedthatit’s1:30am?
Youhaven’t?Oh.Ihaven’teitherthen.ahem

We have some fun Frank and Martha socks up in The Loopy Ewe Quarterly Challenge Photo Gallery that need voting on! (There are two pages, so be sure to view them both.) Remember, I’m drawing one name from all participants for a Loopy Ewe $25 Gift Certificate, and YOU are voting on the Knitter’s Choice Award for the second $25 Gift Certificate. Email me your vote for your favorite socks from that gallery (sheriATtheloopyeweDOTcom) and I will announce the winners of the Loopy Q1 Challenge next week. If you did not get your sock picture posted on that gallery, you’re always welcome to still submit them. Remember that you can do this by going to your Loopy Ewe account and clicking on Photos.

We’re mixing things up a bit for the Loopy Q2 Quarterly Challenge. For the months of April/May/June, the challenge is to knit from your stash - something for charity. Actually, something in particular for two worthy causes that I have in mind. Two Loopy Friends are involved with things that I would love for us to contribute to. Meg and her husband will be adopting a baby from China and she would like to take a lot of baby hats with her to donate to the orphanage. She mentioned that she was trying to get a few of her friends to knit hats and I thought, “Well shoot - WE can do that!” The thought of each of those sweet babies getting a hat knit with love is enough to motivate me. Meg thinks that baby hats through age 1 would be good. I know we all probably have books with baby hat patterns, but just in case you need one, here are a few free baby hat patterns that you can just print out. There is no rule on what pattern or what yarn - but I would say make the yarn soft and scratch-free.

Free Baby Hat Patterns:
http://www.knitlist.com/97gift/babyhat.htm
http://www.knitty.com/issuefall06/PATTsnow.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/baby-child/bamboozle-babyset-hat.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/baby-child/2needle-baby-hat.html
http://www.minidata.co.nz/major/freepatt/patt07.htm
http://www.soxie.com/babycap.html (but without the buttons on it!)

The second charity knitting idea is for Loopy Friend Janice. Janice makes wonderful felted bags. She sells them and then takes all of her profits and donates them to Luba. Here is what Janice said about her in one of her blog posts: “Let me introduce Luba. Luba is a woman living in Russia who works with young women ages 14-25 who have found themselves alone and/or orphaned and in difficult living situations. She helps teach them basic living skills as well as helping them obtain good nutrition during the long cold winters. When the young women are starting out on their own, Luba helps purchase clothes and other essential items they will need.” You may wonder why they are all bundled up in their classroom. There is very little heat in there. Fingerless gloves would be perfect for them, as it will keep their hands warm but still allow them to do their school work. So the second charity knitting choice is to take some of the yarn you have in your stash and turn it into fingerless gloves for these girls. (I also included some mitten patterns, if any of you would rather knit mittens. They’ll use those outside, too.)

Free Mittens & Fingerless Mitts Patterns:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/PATTvoodoo.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/fjord-kidm-fingerless.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/merino-stripes-gauntlets.html
http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/iceland-nubbles-hat-mittens.html
http://www.p2designs.com/images/patterns/MittCuff.html
http://www.freevintageknitting.com/mittens/615-mittens-pattern.html
http://scarlettknits.livejournal.com/1315.html
http://www.knitty.com/issuesummer06/PATTknucks.html
http://wendyknits.net/knit/mitts.htm

If you do not have yarn in your stash to use, just add a note to your next order that you’d like a skein of yarn for the Q2 charity knitting and I’ll donate yarn for you to use. I know how very much all of your beautiful work will be appreciated. When you’re done, please email me and I’ll send you my address so that you can tuck them into a padded envelope and send them to me. I’ll wait until the end of the quarter and will then ship boxes off to Meg and Janice. Like this quarter’s challenge, I’ll be drawing a name for a $25 Loopy Credit, as well as having everyone vote on the Knitter’s Choice award for the second $25 credit. You can upload your photos through your account into the Q2 gallery, which will be up next week.

Thanks for participating in this challenge to knit for others! Next quarter - we’re back to knitting socks for yourself, with a challenge that is guaranteed to teach you something. Details in July!

Sheri totallyenjoyingWeekTwoofSpringBreak